Nord User Forum

[raomcz]

New Upright Piano at mothership!

http://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libraries/nord-piano-library/upright-pianos/amber-upright

[OrpheusNY]

It's a Grotrian-Steinweg Concertino model (132 cm). Sounds nice! Can't wait to try it out when I get to my Nord.

[jeffkeys]

Beautiful new sample!!:
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libr ... er-upright

[dkernohan]

Wow - I was expecting either:

- some of the "Layer Pianos" (ahead of the NS3 launch next week), or
- the "conventionally mic'd" Royal Piano.

Trust Nord to wrong-foot us, and offer another lovely upright. Will have a try of it now...

[voodoo]

- some of the "Layer Pianos" (ahead of the NS3 launch next week), or

I am waiting for that, too. But there is no real sign that this will happen?

[dkernohan]

Had a quick play - very "present" compared to the other samples, more upper-mid generally than the Black Upright (my usual go to). The treble end is less inviting to play, somehow, and seems to die away very quickly - though long release setting helps. Great for gospel licks, victorian hymn settings - anything with huge block chords in the left hand.

A keeper for now. Fans of the Queen and Grand Upright samples should take a very close look.

[dkernohan]

- some of the "Layer Pianos" (ahead of the NS3 launch next week), or

I am waiting for that, too. But there is no real sign that this will happen?

I would guess it would be whenever the Stage 3 goes on general sale - which I think is later this month (next week is wishful thinking!)

[Rusty Mike]

Had a quick play - very "present" compared to the other samples, more upper-mid generally than the Black Upright (my usual go to). The treble end is less inviting to play, somehow, and seems to die away very quickly - though long release setting helps. Great for gospel licks, victorian hymn settings - anything with huge block chords in the left hand.

A keeper for now. Fans of the Queen and Grand Upright samples should take a very close look.

Just loaded it an played about 20 minutes. Just wow!

I'm a big fan for the Queen Upright, and the Amber is along those lines. It's clearer and richer in the upper end than the Queen, and has a nice, solid midrange with less muddiness. There is a nice attack through the most of the range.

dkernohan, I'm not getting the same vibe as you regarding the treble. It seems to have a decent sustain to it, but I won' be able to tell for sure until I play it out with the band. Indeed a nice sound for gospel, but I can see it working well with jazz and blues as well.

Definitely a nice overall sample. Another great perk of being a Nord owner!

[Gambold]

I gotta ask - what's going on with the file size bloat?

It's always nice to have an XL option for those who are committed to that piano, but the dramatic increase of the lower files sizes for the newer pianos hurts users of older Nords, who just don't have the room.

Most of the classic Uprights have L files in the 60-70 MB range. Now the Amber has clocked in at 99.8 MB for it's L. That's a rather considerable jump over the Black or the Queen, and given that the features of the L sample haven't changed (type of string resonance, etc), does anyone have any idea why this is?

Uprights in particular tend to be pianos that are played alone, so one wants the biggest file they can hold. Sure you can load your Nord with S samples for a band environment, but when you practicing it's nice to have string resonance and pedal-down samples across the board, specialty features that are reasons you bought a Nord to begin with.

I'm really hoping that Clavia isn't pumping these file sizes up to boost sales, by forcing us to upgrade to a newer model with larger memory.

[Nadroj]

I gotta ask - what's going on with the file size bloat?

It's always nice to have an XL option for those who are committed to that piano, but the dramatic increase of the lower files sizes for the newer pianos hurts users of older Nords, who just don't have the room.

Most of the classic Uprights have L files in the 60-70 MB range. Now the Amber has clocked in at 99.8 MB for it's L. That's a rather considerable jump over the Black or the Queen, and given that the features of the L sample haven't changed (type of string resonance, etc), does anyone have any idea why this is?

Uprights in particular tend to be pianos that are played alone, so one wants the biggest file they can hold. Sure you can load your Nord with S samples for a band environment, but when you practicing it's nice to have string resonance and pedal-down samples across the board, specialty features that are reasons you bought a Nord to begin with.

I'm really hoping that Clavia isn't pumping these file sizes up to boost sales, by forcing us to upgrade to a newer model with larger memory.

My guess would be that as technology improves Clavia are able to sample things better. More precise recording, processing, whatever. Better quality, but larger size as a result. I don't know what I'm talking about, really. But that's a guess. Still impressive seeing as their compression is able to make a 100mb piano sound like a 12gig software piano.

I doubt they're intentionally increasing the size to force you to upgrade, but as with anything else in the world, its a natural process; if you want the greatest chances are you'll have to get the latest at some point.