Nord User Forum

[KeysIrl]

Hi there. Looking to buy a Nord Stage Piano but can't find which has multiple assignable outputs anymore? It seems like Nord Stage 3 had but not recent ones? Mainly want it for great piano sounds and to be able to split with left hand bass to assign to a seperate output than the piano, not so much for organ/synth. Any help appreciated.

Also is Thomann the only option to buy for someone in Ireland?
Thanks

[FZiegler]

Welcome, KeysIrl,

the Stage 3 _is_ the latest version of the Stage series from Nord. Even if it's from 2017. And it does have two pairs of outputs that you can use - in a characteristic way (see manual). Which doesn't mean that there aren't newer stage pianos (lower case 'S') by Nord.

But I don't understand why it's important for you to have that feature. Typically, it's used to route the organ through an external Leslie sim. Why would the left hand bass need to be routed to another amp? Is your use scenario only for at home? Why then buy a stage piano?

[FZiegler]

It is extremely useful to a mixer to have the keyboard bass on a separate channel from the rest of the keyboards.

A) being bass, it may need to be processed differently — compressed, completely dry (vs. panel reverb on the regular outputs) etc.
B) it may need to be level-matched with a real bass when the two are sharing duty throughout the gig. This is much easier if it’s a separate fader.

I play in a Band where the drummer and I alternate on keyboard bass during the set, with one or two pieces where the guitar player switches to electric bass.

First thing the sound guy requested was to have my bass on a separate output.


Edit: and yes, this is easy on the Stage 3.

[FZiegler]

Picking up from Analogika's post...

If you have a sound-person, yes, he may want to process the bass independently (EQ being another example), and also he may simply want to be able to increase or decrease the volume of the "bass guitar" without also increasing/decreasing the volume of the rest of the keys. And if you're playing with a live drummer, it can become even more of a factor, because he also has to be concerned with the balance between the "bass guitar" and the kick drum.

But all that (and analogika's comments) is about playing when you have a separate sound person. The more common scenario for me is in a band where we almost always run our own sound from the stage, where bass is not even going into the PA. Even if keys are not going into the PA either (going instead into my own powered PA cab that I play my other keys through on stage), I still usually have a separate bass amp when I'm playing LH bass, as opposed to having everything come out of my main keyboard amplification. I have a small, lightweight Markbass bass amp. The bass guitar emulation coming out of the keyboard simply sounds more authentic when it is played through a bass amp. It just immediately has the right tone and fullness, I guess for the same reasons that a real bass guitar sounds better played through a bass amp than being plugged directly into a typical "weekend warrior" PA. There may also be a spatial advantage that also provides authenticity form the audience's perspective, that the bass guitar sound is coming from its own space on the stage, and not coming out of the same box with the keys.

[FZiegler]

Ok. Thanks! Wow. Never thought of routing bass to a separate amp. But never played l.h. bass on stage, either.

I would just hold that the Stage series is the only piano from Nord with multiple main outs. Same thing for Stage, Stage EX, Stage 2, Stage 2ex. The Lead A1 also has 4 outputs - one for each slot.