Nord User Forum

[cmcenearney]

I am thinking about buying a new Electro 3 HP, but wondering why it has so little memory (185 MB dedicated to pianos, 68 for samples). With memory being so cheap these days it seems a strange limitation on a $2600 board.

Does anyone know why?

The zipped up Mellotron brass is 74.5 MB, so you can't even get all of that on there unless I am misunderstanding something.

I want to rationalize this level of expenditure - being able to load a ton of awesome samples would help

Thanks,
Colin

[sabin333]

I'd be happy to know this as well. I'm going to try and remove the clavinet sounds and replace those with the high quality piano sounds. That shound make some room. But it would be nice to not have to remove stuff just to add stuff.

[anotherscott]

With memory being so cheap these days it seems a strange limitation on a $2600 board.

The kind of memory used by Nord is very expensive. But it allows you to load in custom sounds from your computer, and have them automatically, immediately available whenever you turn the unit on.

[cmcenearney]

Thanks for the reply!

Looking through the sample library it seems like many of the sounds are in the 2-5 MB range so in practice one can probably have something like 10-30 sounds loaded.

Electro 3 owners: does that sound about right?

It would be sweet if Sound Manager could be ported to iOS or Android, since an ipod/smartphone could easily hold the complete library

[Hanon_CTS]

in practice one can probably have something like 10-30 sounds loaded.
Electro 3 owners: does that sound about right?

Yes, that's my experience as well.

[anotherscott]

It would be sweet if Sound Manager could be ported to iOS or Android, since an ipod/smartphone could easily hold the complete library

That wouldn't accomplish very much... it would still take a lot of time to transfer the files between the phone and the Nord. It would be convenient for people who may not always be able to so easily have their computer and keyboard near each other... but I"m not sure that's enough of a benefit for Nord to put engineering resources there...

[cmcenearney]

Hmm, well in the context of an app it would be trivial to have predefined batches or "sets" or "playlists" - groups of sounds, each under 68 MB - and then just click/tap the one you want next. So, one tap and then the time it would take to transfer. 68 MB over usb - I don't know what the write time is like on a Nord - but that on my computer that would be about 15 seconds.

I mean, yes - 10-30 high quality sounds should be enough for most gigs. Just, as someone who's not *quite* sure about the price, being able to have more at the ready would put it over the top.

[anotherscott]

Hmm, well in the context of an app it would be trivial to have predefined batches or "sets" or "playlists" - groups of sounds, each under 68 MB - and then just click/tap the one you want next. So, one tap and then the time it would take to transfer. 68 MB over usb - I don't know what the write time is like on a Nord - but that on my computer that would be about 15 seconds.

The limitation isn't the speed of the USB transfer... it's the amount of time it takes for the Nord to write that 68 mb of data in its special permanent-but-rewritable memory. By the nature of the technology, it's quite slow, and it is not practical to do during a gig, regardless of whether you travel with the sounds on a laptop computer or a theoretical iOS/Android device. You're definitely not talking about 15 seconds, it might even be more than 15 minutes.

[cmcenearney]

I see - that is good to know, thanks.
Well, the want factor is only slightly diminished for me. If the action on the HP is as sweet as they say it's only a matter of time...

[omvibraphone]

I mentioned this as well, a while back. Its a big limitation on the E3. Having just seen Nord release a pointless (in my opinion) drum controller-type thing at NAMM, rrp about 400ukp, if they are looking to create products at a lower budget range, I just can't understand why they haven't put together a memory expansion box for the NE3/ Wave. Even at the same price as this new drum controller, it would be lapped up by E3 and Wave users, wouldn't it? Surely its a no-brainer for Nord?