nic cue wrote:Hello all,
personally, I think this wish list is a good idea!
But the question could also be : does we really need new models or just improved sounds to play for a few years yet with current models (for NE, NS, NP)?
For the NE (that i'm an owner): this keyboard line was acclaimed for his easyness of use. The current NE6 has already lot of functions (3 sound engines, that can be splitted or layered, transitions, etc...), when you see its evolution from NE2. Still a few new models, and it will be a workstation (quite the opposite of the original interest of this keyboard) or... a N. Stage!
Next to that, version 6 of nord piano library is relatively recent, just 1 acoustic piano and all rhodes (yes, it's not nothing!) . We could have a few new acoustics piano, and a revisted wurly for example... And why not an improved B3 (for the C/V and percussion) on the current machines?
Admittedly, Nord could do exactly what you described, just like when they updated the C2 with the C2D's newer simulation: that is, they could release updates for older Electro and Stage keyboards whilst releasing new models that focus on hardware improvements (e.g. more piano and sample memory, faster speed transfer, more polyphony etc). And yet, they never updated the Electro 4 with the 5's Hammond simulation, and the new White Grand Piano only runs on the latest Nord keyboards. It's a commercial strategy, imagine they release an Electro 7 with 2 GB of piano memory and 1 GB for samples, a bigger, colour screen and an improved B3, announcing that Electro 6's getting that B3 update too: they'd lose a lot of potential sales due to the fact that many will either buy a discounted or used Electro 6 as they probably don't care about the other new features.
And, once again, as you cleverly wrote, there isn't much more room for improvement before the Electro becomes a Stage. We've objectively reached a point where we've exploited the 80, maybe 90% of a current digital emulation technologies' full potential. There's room for improvement and every maker has its strongpoints (I vastly prefer Nord's pianos over Korg's, but Crumar and Viscount have the edge over the Hammond simulation, just like Korg and Roland are definitely better on the synth area compared to many of their competitors and so on), but the difference isn't as significant as it was in the past. I'd say it's even negligible in most cases. As things stand, the only way to build your dream workstation featuring Ivory's 70 GB pianos, HX3's organ engine, Arturia's VSTs and so on, is using a computer, where top-notch softwares take that 80-90% and brings it up to 100%. There'll be a new software revolution for sure, but the times will be much longer compared to the past: take Korg products for example, in ten years, spanning from 2001 to 2011, we moved from the Triton (which offered more or less the same sound quality as the Trinity) to the Kronos (an outstanding improvement); in the following ten years, we went from the Kronos to... the Kronos, as the Nautilus still features the same engine and is still (rightly) considered of one the best-sounding workstations available.
All this long-winded speech to say that, since Clavia, nor its competitors, can really amaze us with groundbreaking improvements in the short (and probably the middle too) term, all that's left for a company's releasing new products with minor improvements and, above all, not supporting older hardware as much as it could technically be possible too. A way to mitigate this would be releasing new models less frequently and/or focusing on delivering new products. Being a trustworthy company, that's what I expect Clavia's to do: case in point, the Wave 2, or the new samples released in the sample library 2 format; also, if they don't release a new Electro in the next months, they could break the 3-years update cycle for the Electro, and since it'll still sell as it's as good as the day it came out, it's a win-win for both customers and Nord itself (which keeps selling and saves on R&D costs). Anyway, when they'll choose to release a new Electro, and whether they'll update the 6, will tell us a lot about Nord's near future. They could get by by updating the B3 simulation and increasing the sample memory, but then I have no idea what they could pull out of their hat without merging the Electro and Stage lines.
