New Nord Electro 6 vs used Electro 5 or Stage 2 questions

[rullgardin]

Im trying to decide between a new electro 6 or a used electro 5 or stage 2(compact) and i have a lot of questions which i can't find the answers for searching the internet. A new electro 6 will cost the most, while a used electro 5 or stage 2 will cost about the same in my country (Norway)

1. Piano sounds - will the same piano samples sound the same on each of the boards? not counting the piano filters. Are there different DACs on each board?
2. Sample library - what is the difference between sample library 2 and 3, is there any difference in sound quality between the two?
3. Polyphony - will i be able to notice the difference between the lower polyphony of the electro 5/stage 2 vs the electro 6 with normal playing?
4. Effects - will the effects and amp-sim sound the same on the three boards, are they all stereo?
5. B3 emulation - how much difference is there between the organ on the stage 2 vs the electro 5/6?

Thanks!

[Rusty Mike]

Im trying to decide between a new electro 6 or a used electro 5 or stage 2(compact) and i have a lot of questions which i can't find the answers for searching the internet. A new electro 6 will cost the most, while a used electro 5 or stage 2 will cost about the same in my country (Norway)

1. Piano sounds - will the same piano samples sound the same on each of the boards? not counting the piano filters. Are there different DACs on each board?
2. Sample library - what is the difference between sample library 2 and 3, is there any difference in sound quality between the two?
3. Polyphony - will i be able to notice the difference between the lower polyphony of the electro 5/stage 2 vs the electro 6 with normal playing?
4. Effects - will the effects and amp-sim sound the same on the three boards, are they all stereo?
5. B3 emulation - how much difference is there between the organ on the stage 2 vs the electro 5/6?

Thanks!

It would help to know what type of music you play, or how you intend to use the instrument. My responses below are somewhat generic.

1. All three instruments support the v5.x AP and EP piano samples. According to Nord, they will all also support the new v6.0 EPs in the (near?) future, and the E6 will support the new EP filters in addition to the v6 piano library. Some on this forum have speculated that the DACs are different between the Stage and Electro models. If you can give each instrument a listen, maybe you can tell. I can't.

2. Supposedly the Sample Library v3 samples include additional information. I'm not sure if there is currently a significant audible difference between v2 and v3 sample libraries.

3. Are you asking about the piano polyphony? I've been playing Nord instrument for years and never noticed any polyphony limitations. For the sample synth, it depends on what you intend to play and how. If you are looking to play piano type of stuff using the sample synth, you'll hit a polyphony wall earlier with the Electro 5 or Stage 2. But again, it depends on what you plan to do with it.

4. The rotary simulation on the Stage 2 is older than on either of the Electros, and some have commented on that. The Electro 6 includes a new tube overdrive effect not available on the other two. All of the other amp sims and effects are the same ones Nord has been using for years. On the Stage, you can vary the amount of effect for each sound. On the Electros, it's pretty much "on" or "off", although the E6 has a "deep" setting for Effect 2 and a Control Pedal feature for Effect 1. The E5 does not have those capabilities.

5. The Stage 2 uses the older C1 organ engine and rotary simulator, while the E5 and E6 both use the newer C2D engine. I believe Nord says that only the E6 has the C2D rotary model (including the "close" setting), but their website is misleading. The E5 comparison chart shows that it also uses the newer 122 simulator. Either way, the organ engine on both Electro models is newer. However, that does not mean the B2 on the Stage sounds bad. I have a Stage 2EX and the organ sounds just fine to me. Again, your ears will tell.

Think about the type of music you play and how you intend to use the instrument. The Stage, even though it's older, has a great synthesizer on it, while the Electros can only play back the synth samples with relatively limited editing capability. The Stage's keyboard also has aftertouch, not supported on the Electro.

[Frantz]

Hi,
1. DACs make no hearable differences
2. To be confirmed, my answer is No
3. Yes
4. No
5. You have to try, its matter of taste
Bye.

[rullgardin]

Thanks for your throughout answer! This helps a lot!

I play mostly alternative rock and electronic/synth stuff. I already have a roland jx-3p and a moog rogue(+ a lot of soft synths), so the synth in the stage 2 is not so important for me. I will only be using it at home and in the studio. I mostly interested in the electric piano, b3 + transistor organs and the mellotron/chamberlin sounds. Im leaning towards the electro 6, but what i think would be nice with the stage 2 is the ability to for example layer two mellotron sounds and filtering them(and maybe adding a synth layer), also having the ability to vary the amount of the effects would be nice. The stage 2 will also be a bit cheaper.

Btw, does anybody else know about the audible differences between nord library 2 and 3?

[Pianolin]

If you are looking for primarily piano, then you would get acoustic pedal noise on the stage and not on the electro. You may have to use a triple pedal to be able to use it dynamically the way it's designed to sound, although it seems others got it working in the settings with any pedal and the effect wasn't dynamic. The other acoustic properties such as string resonance and soft release. I'm not sure if the stage had key off noise or jot. Just a heads up as far as acoustics would be.
Is the used model your looking at an HP keybed? If yes then I wouldn't recommend buying used since they tend to get clunkier and louder with usage so you would definitely want a proper warranty. Especially if it was used heavily previously. As far as the sample libraries I'm pretty sure Nord said themselves that the actual sound quality is the same. But the general upgrade from the electro 5 to the 6 is not significant.

[rullgardin]

If you are looking for primarily piano, then you would get acoustic pedal noise on the stage and not on the electro. You may have to use a triple pedal to be able to use it dynamically the way it's designed to sound, although it seems others got it working in the settings with any pedal and the effect wasn't dynamic. The other acoustic properties such as string resonance and soft release. I'm not sure if the stage had key off noise or jot. Just a heads up as far as acoustics would be.
Is the used model your looking at an HP keybed? If yes then I wouldn't recommend buying used since they tend to get clunkier and louder with usage so you would definitely want a proper warranty. Especially if it was used heavily previously. As far as the sample libraries I'm pretty sure Nord said themselves that the actual sound quality is the same. But the general upgrade from the electro 5 to the 6 is not significant.

Thanks for the info! Im looking for the SW version not the HP, and the pedal noise will not be important for me

[harmonizer]

The Stage 2 Compact has 500MB piano bank memory. The Stage 2 EX Compact has 1GB piano bank memory (twice that of the Stage 2 "non-EX"). The Electro 5 also has 1GB piano bank memory. The piano bank memory is used to hold sounds for acoustic piano, electric piano (Rhodes/Wurlitzer), and Clavinet. If you are actually looking at a Stage 2 (non-EX), I would consider its 500MB piano bank memory to be limiting, and would suggest you avoid it.

Stage models have pitch bend control on the keyboard. Electro models do not.

Stage models have more flexible split capabilities. The Electro 5 basically has one real split, and the sound on the opposite sides of that single split point must be from different sources (piano bank, sample bank, or organ). So on the Electro 5 you can't have a split where you have acoustic piano and electric piano on the two sides of the split.

[Spider]

Im trying to decide between a new electro 6 or a used electro 5 or stage 2(compact) and i have a lot of questions which i can't find the answers for searching the internet. A new electro 6 will cost the most, while a used electro 5 or stage 2 will cost about the same in my country (Norway)

1. Piano sounds - will the same piano samples sound the same on each of the boards? not counting the piano filters. Are there different DACs on each board?
2. Sample library - what is the difference between sample library 2 and 3, is there any difference in sound quality between the two?
3. Polyphony - will i be able to notice the difference between the lower polyphony of the electro 5/stage 2 vs the electro 6 with normal playing?
4. Effects - will the effects and amp-sim sound the same on the three boards, are they all stereo?
5. B3 emulation - how much difference is there between the organ on the stage 2 vs the electro 5/6?

Thanks!

1- pianos and samples are exactly the same among all Nord models which can load them. (short answer, the long answer is that there may be small differences due to action, velocity curves or how the firmware "reads" the samples, but they are basically the same)
2- no audible differences
3- I've played Electro 3 and 4 and Stage 2/2EX for years. Never noticed voice stealing on pianos. In the synth section yes, when playing chords with sustain pedal, the voice stealing is perceptible
4- the effects are essentially the same among the models you listed. On the Stage you have a bit more flexibility in controlling them through mmorph, mod wheel and/or control pedal.
5- the Stage 2 has the oldest emulation, the Electro5 and 6 have the same, newer one. It depends on the use. The Stage 2 is more than good enough for "generic" organ accompaniment. If you're playing music where the hammond sound is prominent, the improvement in the Electros can make the difference.
Maybe the most important difference is not in the sound: on the Electros you have real drawbars and you can mount the half-moon switch. These are important for proper hammond playing technique. But again, if you're only using it to provide background chords, it will not matter.


All considered, if I were you I'd go with the used Stage 2. It gives you everything the Electros do, and then more (multitimbrality, pitch and mod wheel, a real synth section, etc etc). The only real advantage of the electros is in the organ sound and interface, but if you're not a dedicated hammond player it will not matter much.

[analogika]

The sample content of v2 and v3 samples is identical.
However, V3 come with additional parameter info (filter cutoff, envelopes, etc.) that make it quicker to build usable sample synth sounds on the Stage 3 vs. Stage 2, and presumably also allow the Electro 6 to have better-shaped samples than the Electro 5 despite the extremely limited controls on the sample playback engine. I have yet to see a direct comparison between the two engines, though.

I dearly, dearly loved my Stage 2 and constantly got compliments on how good the organ sounded, but the „close“ setting on the Leslie is a major difference in the newer engine that I‘m very glad to have since I switched to a Stage 3.

[analogika]

Seamless transition between sounds is a killer feature that I miss in my Electro 5, but that is available in Electro 6 and Stage 3. Not in the Stage 2 though.
Worth thinking about if that's a killer feature also for Your use/playing.
Perhaps a minor thing compared to the items You specifically asked about, but an additional 5 cents to think about...