Nord User Forum

[brodiddley]

Hello everyone. I'm in the market for one of these new wonders. What I'm mostly looking for is the best Farfisa and Vox emulation possible. A really good piano sound or two (especially a good upright), a good hammond, and mellotron are great bonuses. I want the answer to my quest to simply be the electro 3. However, I've recently read that the Stage 2 and C2 use the C2 organ tonewheel while the electro 3 uses the C1. Does this mean the Vox and Farfisa organ simulation in the C2 and Stage2 will be better than the electro 3? if so, by how much? I would hate to spend another 1000 dollars by getting the stage 2 or c2 if its not worth it for what I want. Does anyone have both and can say for sure? thanks in advance for any help in this matter.

- The Reverend Bro Diddley

[Johannes]

Welcome to the forums Bro Diddley!

A good question. AFAIK therer is no particular information of whether the Fox and Farfisa Organ Models have been improved as has the Hammond model.
An ignorant guess would be that they have not since the focus is really the Hammond emulation. The Leslie on the other hand certainly has, in case you want to use it.
A C2 on the other hand has no piano sounds so might not be an option which leaves the NS2. But based on your requirements (in particular no Synth and Multitimbrality) I would guess the Electro 3 fits the bill. Also you could consider the Hammond Suzuki SK-1 (but I never heard their Fox/Farfisa but it seems to be decent).

[brodiddley]

Thank you for your quick and thoughtful answer! I very much HOPE that it IS the case that the Farfisa and Vox are no better on the Stage 2 or C2, because I'd much rather deal with the electro's price tag. Demos online for the C2's continental and Farf sounded better to me than the electro 3's, but that may only because they spent more time thoroughly altering those sounds on the C2 demos whereas they very quickly show those two on the electro 3 demo. Oh if the C2 only had an upright piano and mellotron!


thanks,

Rev Bro

[DJKeys]

I had an Electro 3 for a while and just got a stage 2. I don't think there is any difference between the Vox/Farf sounds from one to the other. I think you will be happy with the NE3 for those sounds. Of course the pianos on the NE 3 are excellent as well, coming from Nord's Piono Library.

-dj

[brodiddley]

Great! Thanks so much for the reply! May i ask why you decided to get rid of the electro3?

[DJKeys]

I bought the NE3 last summer. I liked it so much, but needed synth/pitch bend for solos that I bought a Nord Wave. After a while, I realized that the new Nord Stage covered all bases, and I would prefer to just have a single keyboard for gigs. I knew the synth sectionwas not as flexible as the wave, but I thought if I could get a decent price for the electro, I really wanted to try the NS 2. I really researched it for at least 4 weeks, pulled the trigger, and it arrived Tuesday. It seems very user-friendly and powerful, and the synth sounds pretty darn good.

The main thing is that, more than many other products, the Nord keyboards hold their value very very well.

-dj

[bdodds]

I did the same thing, sold my NE3 (and NS Classic) for a NS2 Compact - it fit my needs much more.. the multi-timbrality, the synth section with sample playback, etc.. I don't hear any difference between the Vox/Farfisa sounds then and now, but then I didn't hear anything wrong with the first ones.. I don't think you'll find anything sufficiently better in those emulations to drive an upgrade, you'll have to base your decision on flexibility, routing options, patch storage/configuration, and if the upgrade is worth it based on those aspects.. the other sounds will be a bit better, imho - the ability to have so much more sample memory makes it much more usable to me as well, as it was with the NE3 I had to really shoehorn in what I wanted and make some hard decisions.. Anyhow, hope this helps you in some way..

[ybakos]

Add me to the "Had an E3 but switched to the Stage 2" club. It is an awe$ome instrument... a lean, mean one-board-gigging machine!

Not as heavy as I expected either.

[stiiiiiiive]

I think whatever the differences between Vox/Farfisa models would be between NS2/C2 and NE3 -if they exist- you will be happy with the Nord Electro 3. For most of us, I guess they are minor especially when playing in a band.

However my best advice: try it

[brodiddley]

Yeah thats what I was thinking. The difference would be between the practical one (electro 3) the other two, one of which has too many options (for me) and the other which has to few (C2). Anywhoo, these are high class problems to have so I'm not complaining. Is the vibrato circuit any different between the electro 3 and the C2? The vibrato i've heard on the electro 3 could use an improvement, especially the way it interacts with the Vox organ. I guess I'm being picky, but I'd just like the best Continental emulation I can get! Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I'm trying to get ahold of someone who works at Nord to see if there's a difference but I'm pretty much leaning toward grabbing up an electro 3.

-Rev Bro Diddley