Stage 3 questions

[Pidcin]

Hello!

Am buying a Nord stage 3 ( haven’t decided between compact + VPC1 controller or 88HA + my DSI prophet 6 for a controller )


But I have a few questions that I’m hoping people can help with

1. In the Nord lead A1 we have 4 slots and you can load 4 different oscillators , but in the stage 3 we have panel A and B and you can have 1 osc and you can mix a sample , Does that mean you can only have 2 oscillators at once when you activate panel a and B ? Or is it practically the same as the lead a1 ?

2. I’m not a professional player however I plan on having a setup that has enough options to grow with me on my musical adventures :p but do you guys recommend the 73 waterfall, since 2/3 sound engines revolve mostly around a waterfall action ( organ and synth ) and getting a controller for piano and Rhode sohnds ? From my understanding , clavinet , organ , synth , strings , and brass etc all pretty much are best suited for waterfall action .

3. I understand the external section is powerful, and even though reading the manual and more or less understanding it , I’d just like a yes or no answer ; is it possible to have a Nord stage 3 compact and a 88 controller ( VPC1) connected via midi and have my left hand playing a grand piano sound on the controller and my right hand playing synth sounds on the compact 73 all at the same time ? Essentially having 2 independent working keyboards playing two different sounds coming from the Nord engine ?

4. The Nord stage 3 synth section has super waves and a lot of people use super waves for many styles and I know it’s popular in EDM and electronic music because you can detune, modulate , and space the waves to create wider sounds but I heard that this is not possible . Could anyone shed some light ?

5. Also, heard a lot of people talk poo poo about the stage 3 organ sounds and piano sounds.. but to my ears they’re phenomenal . I haven’t found a store to contrast the stage 2 vs stage 3, other than a few YouTube and forum links but it seems to me , the stage 3 does in fact have a higher level of clarity , almost higher in fidelity and IMO better than stage 2 , now I know this is a personal question , but what are your thoughts ?


Kind regards to those reading and spending time to answer these questions,

Nick from Canada

[anotherscott]

2. I’m not a professional player however I plan on having a setup that has enough options to grow with me on my musical adventures :p but do you guys recommend the 73 waterfall, since 2/3 sound engines revolve mostly around a waterfall action ( organ and synth ) and getting a controller for piano and Rhode sohnds ? From my understanding , clavinet , organ , synth , strings , and brass etc all pretty much are best suited for waterfall action .

Even if 2/3 of the engines are better feeling on the SW, that may not be the relevant stat if you spend 90% of your time playing the one engine that doesn't. But if you're going to end up with two boards regardless, even how much you play each engine doesn't really matter... what will matter is finding weighted and semi-weighted actions you enjoy playing, within the parameters of what you're willing to deal with in terms of total travel weight, total cash outlay, the physical ergonomics of the boards, and what other capabilities your preferred second board may be bringing to the table itself. Personally, I'd go for the waterfall because the 88 is too heavy for me to carry around and I'm not a fan of the action they use in the 76, and because I like having the drawbars which are only on the 73. It all comes down to your personal preferences. Note though that there have been reports that the NS3 may not be behaving as expected when triggered from an external action, in terms of its velocity response, so if this is what you want to do, that's a conversation you may want to follow.

I’d just like a yes or no answer ; is it possible to have a Nord stage 3 compact and a 88 controller ( VPC1) connected via midi and have my left hand playing a grand piano sound on the controller and my right hand playing synth sounds on the compact 73 all at the same time ? Essentially having 2 independent working keyboards playing two different sounds coming from the Nord engine ?

Since you want just a Yes or No, the answer is Yes. Same caveat as above. And you may not be able to get absolutely any combination of sounds you can think of allocated any way you can imagine. So technically, since you asked two questions, the first answer is Yes, and the second answer is yes but it may depend on exactly which sounds you're talking about.

The Nord stage 3 synth section has super waves and a lot of people use super waves for many styles and I know it’s popular in EDM and electronic music

super waves are whatever nord wanted them to be, I don't think there is anything style-specific about them.

Also, heard a lot of people talk poo poo about the stage 3 organ sounds and piano sounds.. but to my ears they’re phenomenal . I haven’t found a store to contrast the stage 2 vs stage 3, other than a few YouTube and forum links but it seems to me , the stage 3 does in fact have a higher level of clarity , almost higher in fidelity and IMO better than stage 2 , now I know this is a personal question , but what are your thoughts ?

I have seen almost no reports that piano on NS3 is not as good as NS2. I think just one, and it could have been a matter of the settings in use at the time. Organ is a bigger question, there have been a number of people saying it's not as good as the current Electro organ. Another conversation to follow.

[keyboardnut]

I have a 3 and a 3 compact as of today and the compact is just awesome i found the 3 to heavy for gigging, hence the purchase os the compact !
I have all sorts of keys from kronos , yamaha montage , fa06 but out in front of them all for gigging is the nord stage range they are just so easy to program and use.
The sounds also cut through live and have a depth i have never achieved on any other system.
Personally i think the organ engine is awesome and i really like having the drawbars on the compact!!
After having a stage 2 the 3 is a big improvement however nord need to bring out the sample editor and make there libraries compatible soon as this is starting to become a pain when trying to recreate the old sounds i used to have before!!!!

[keyboardnut]

I have a 3 and a 3 compact as of today and the compact is just awesome i found the 3 to heavy for gigging, hence the purchase os the compact !
I have all sorts of keys from kronos , yamaha montage , fa06 but out in front of them all for gigging is the nord stage range they are just so easy to program and use.
The sounds also cut through live and have a depth i have never achieved on any other system.
Personally i think the organ engine is awesome and i really like having the drawbars on the compact!!
After having a stage 2 the 3 is a big improvement however nord need to bring out the sample editor and make there libraries compatible soon as this is starting to become a pain when trying to recreate the old sounds i used to have before!!!!

Sound and depth greater than the Kronos and/or Montage? Now your just being irrational; LOL.

Come back and post your impressions of the Organ section after owning it for a few months. Since you have the Kronos; compare the Chorus 3 on the CX3 engine to the Chorus 3 on the Stage 3.

[analogika]

Look, we know that the C3 chorus and the percussion are broken. That doesn’t change the fact that the organ engine sounds pretty damn good. I’ve played a couple gigs and a few rehearsals with it and had lots of fun, at least.

[Pidcin]

Can someone elaborate on my question 1 regarding the synth section ?

Also i don’t predominately play one section more than the other . They will all be equally played . I don’t do any gigging , just recording . I’ll be using lots of Rhode and acoustic piano sounds and organ sounds , and lots of synth . That’s usually what my songs have in them . So I’m thinking perhaps the compact and an external controller might do the trick.

And how do you guys mean the c3 is broken ? Why is the Nord stage 2 organ “better “ than the 3?

[MrTobbe]

4. The Nord stage 3 synth section has super waves and a lot of people use super waves for many styles and I know it’s popular in EDM and electronic music because you can detune, modulate , and space the waves to create wider sounds but I heard that this is not possible . Could anyone shed some light ?

The SuperWaves are probably what you expect - they simulate having a lot of oscillators with the same waveform, but slightly detuned, and slightly panned differently, to give the SuperWave a nice stereo image. However, both the detune and stereo spread for each SuperWave, are fixed. It seems like the oscillation modulation knob have no effect on SuperWaves, unfortunatly, but still - they sound great! and you can also layer any SuperWave with a simple wave (sine, saw, pulse, square) as a sub-oscillator, and set the pitch of the sub-osc independently of the SuperWave, but this pitch is only in semitones, not detuning in cents, in this case.
Then you can of course use two simple oscilators, in the detune configuration, and run them in unison mode. The unison mode, which also was found in Stage 2, gives a similar result as SuperWave - it both adds a couple of detuned oscillators and spread the across the stereo field, so it basically turns any simple wave into a "super wave". There are three levels of Unison, which basically are three different levels of detuning of the oscillators.
Then what's new for the Stage 3, is that you can also have use two oscillators and detune the two, then you can modulate the detuning with an LFO or envelope, if you like, but again - this configuration is only available for the simple waveforms.