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Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby Blazerunner » 15 Dec 2017, 21:30

Hello Folks,

I was curious as to what you guys with semi or fully weighted keys felt about your Nord Keys vs other Keybeds. I've played the Montage fully weighted, Kurz SP4, Roland Juno Keys, and the Korg R3 keys but the Nords is the first semi weighted I've ever played. My fingers feel kind of confused to say the least. :lol:
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Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?


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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby harmonizer » 16 Dec 2017, 00:29

For the keyboard that comes on the Electro 5D, Nord calls it a "Semi Weighted Waterfall". I think it is the same as what is on my Electro 3. In my opinion, "barely weighted" would be a more accurate description than "semi weighted". It is a noticeably lighter weighted keyboard feel than my old M-Audio 88es, which itself is pretty lightly weighted. The Nord waterfall keybeds are really optimized for organ.

Nord offers the option for heavier "Hammer Action" keybeds on the Electro and Stage, but I have never tried one, and I don't think I would want that either.
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby criss » 16 Dec 2017, 11:21

I like my semi weighted keybed on my Electro 5D. Very good quality. Excellent for playing organs or samples but needs some practice to playing pianos (fortunately the KBD Touch button helps very much). So, I play all three sections without problems.
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby Tasten-Bert » 16 Dec 2017, 14:08

It always depends on what you give priority in your styles of music - piano with classical masterworks or rock organ like Jon Lord. I have a real piano at home with "Renner Repetition Mechanik" which to me appears as the best and fastest keyboard. So if my main type of music would be piano tunes I would definitely go with a good 88-weighted keys masterboard. I once had one from Fatar Studiologic. But then, when I played live with the rock band and tried the "Highway Star" organ solo on it, it was much too heavy to slide and roll the keys. Today I love the waterfall board of my NE5D 61, even if it is not the optimum feel for piano tunes such as "River flows in you". This is the compromise I or mainly the audience has to make.
Conclusion: Rock Band live gigs with a light weighted 61 keys waterfall keyboard, Piano Masterpieces only with the best 88 keys hammer action keyboard.
Last edited by Tasten-Bert on 16 Dec 2017, 15:39, edited 1 time in total.
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... and I loved these of my former stuff: nord electro 3, Roland VR-760, Fatar Studio 1100, korg 01/W, Roland U-20
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby lqkahler » 17 Dec 2017, 02:23

I’ve owned both semi-weighted (Stage 2 73SW) and hammer portable (Electro 5HP). I much prefer the the hammer portable keyboard to the semi-weighted keybed. I never felt like I could get consistent control of velocity on the semi-weighted keybed. The hammer portable isn’t exactly the same as the hammer action keybeds either. The hammer portable actually feels a bit heavier or stiffer than the hammer action keybeds, but is still very playable. As others have mentioned, it mostly depends on your playing style and personal preference.
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby anotherscott » 17 Dec 2017, 02:59

Blazerunner wrote: I was curious as to what you guys with semi or fully weighted keys felt about your Nord Keys vs other Keybeds. I've played the Montage fully weighted, Kurz SP4, Roland Juno Keys, and the Korg R3 keys but the Nords is the first semi weighted I've ever played. My fingers feel kind of confused to say the least. :lol:


Very broadly speaking, there are basically two kinds of actions... hammer actions (aka weighted), and non-hammer actions (aka unweighted or semi-weighted). Within each category, there are still big differences in how keys can feel. Which SP4 did you play? If it was SP4-7, it was semi-weighted. But it still feels pretty different from Nord's SW, which "springs back" more forcefully than most.

lqkahler wrote:I’ve owned both semi-weighted (Stage 2 73SW) and hammer portable (Electro 5HP). I much prefer the the hammer portable keyboard to the semi-weighted keybed. I never felt like I could get consistent control of velocity on the semi-weighted keybed.


FWIW, I found piano to be more playable (better velocity control) on the NE5D than I did on the NS2-73 even though both have the same basic kind of keyboard. I'm not sure what accounts for the difference. Could be because the NS2 had aftertouch (which affects the feel of the landing), and/or maybe software tweaks to improve the response of the keys in the later model. Or perhaps some other unknown change. It's still not as good as a hammer action, of course, but it's better than it was, at least to me.
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby Blazerunner » 26 Dec 2017, 21:11

Yeah, I got the Semi, I wish I ordered the HD. Keys feel cheap too me on the Semi like big plastic buttons but it's the springiness that throws me off.
Last edited by Blazerunner on 26 Dec 2017, 21:12, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby JayDee » 30 Dec 2017, 04:50

I'm coming from an old school Fender Rhodes 73. I really like the feel of the NE5 semi weighted. Recalling that wedding gig at the Officers Club in the Presidio National Park in San Francisco up 2 flights of stairs, I'm growing ever more fond.
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby My Keys To Music » 31 Dec 2017, 17:54

Hi! I'm new to the forums but been playing Nord for years since the Electro 2 days. This is a great site - I have learned so much already. Not sure if I'm overstepping my bounds here but just posted a comparison between these two keybeds as I own the Electro 5D 73 key semi-weighted as well as the Stage 3 76 key Hammer Action Portable. I happen to be in a unique position to play/compare these two great keyboards side by side and have done an isolated physics/endurance test of the keybeds in my own crazy way.
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Re: Semi of Fully Weighted Electro 5?

Postby anotherscott » 31 Dec 2017, 18:16

My Keys To Music wrote:I happen to be in a unique position to play/compare these two great keyboards side by side and have done an isolated physics/endurance test of the keybeds in my own crazy way.

Fun test! Unsurprising results, though. Unweighted actions are generally fastest. As I see it, hammer action provides two main benefits: (a) better control of dynamics from ppp to fff, and (b) easier accuracy when jumping distances (because the unweighted keys tend to play even when you merely brush by them, so if you're not right on the mark, it's easy to accidentally trigger an adjacent key to the one you were aiming for).

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