Nord User Forum

[gonte]

Hi,

I received my new Nord Electro 3 HP some days ago and I'm very happy with it - besides piano sounds. I played around with it quite a bit, but I'm not able to create a decent sound. All other sounds like organ, e-piano, clavinet or samples are OK, but pianos somehow sound as they were originating in a station toilet. They all sound very nasal missing brilliance. It's like having cotton in my ears.
Of course I'm able to change the sounds using the EQ and Dynamics, but somehow I'm not able to get satisfying results that have the right balance between clear highs and lows with a nice punch.
The only sound that works for me is the Honky Tonk piano.
If the other sounds wouldn't be that brilliant I would think that my NE3HP is damaged.
I'm using a AKG 701 headphone and tested also with some Sennheisers.

Anyone that can give me hint on how to get nicer sounds or have some .nepg files?

Sorry if this questions was already answered somewhere else, but I could not find something using the search.

[Marlowes]

Strange ... I use npno files for the pianos and I just LOVE them! In my opinion the NORD piano sounds are AWESOME. You must have made a wrong turn somewhere?
For pianos (grand, upright) I just activate long release and string res, plus some reverb.

[gonte]

Thank you for your reply Marlowes!
May I ask you what equipment you use? Are you using headphones when playing or do you use some kind or monitor or PA?

[Marlowes]

I have a cheap (due to no income) but effective solution, I think: a small Behringer mixer to an oldie but goldie Creative Extigy external soundcard connected to a Creative MegaWorks 5.1 THX 550 active bass with 5 smaller speakers on my desk (an old home movie setup?). It actually delivers the punch and brilliance I need.
My Mac is also connected to the soundcard/mixer so I can record/playback with Logic Pro 9. I've been in a real analog pro studio in the 90:ies but this is really OK for making my demos.

[maurus]

I love my NE3HP piano sounds as well - better than any other digital pianos I know. Of course none is equal to a real acoustic... but pretty close to a recorded acoustic.
I prefer the Grand Lady D and the Imperial Grand with some EQ - especially tweaking the mids *somewhat*, not too much - probably just to compensate for syncrasies of the headphones.
Now if you compare with some other digital pianos, the Nord pianos may sound less brilliant at first - but that's in fact because they are closer to the natural sounds.

[gonte]

You have a point there. It's probably not about brilliance, but more about authenticity. I spend now some time experimenting and comparing some sound samples form the Clavia website to my NE3HP and I have to say they are pretty close.
I also found that if I listen to my NE3HP after playing on other digital pianos, it sounds dull. But if I give my ears some rest and listen again, it sounds way better.
Maybe my ears are already used too much to other synthetic digital piano sounds.

But anyway thank you for opening my eyes and ears. My initial shock faded away.