Want to sell my Electro for the Piano, but I need a B3 too!

[Gambold]

So I'm at the point where I'm kinda done with Electros, and I would love to trade it/sell it and get a Nord Piano. This would chiefly be to get weighted action - after years of playing a waterfall Electro on stage, I can tell it's not good for either my technique or finger strength. I have a Korg SV-2, but it's a beast and its acoustic pianos can't touch Nord's library. It stays at home as a practice board or when I want to pretend I'm playing a Rhodes.

The Piano of course has no drawbars. As I am in a cover band I do need a B3 every now and then. 49 keys would be fine, but the Hammer M-Solo is too much $$. Any suggestions for a decent, not stupidly-priced B3 board that I could rack above a Nord Piano for performance?

I don't need to sound like Joey DeFrancesco but I do need drawbars, percussion, rotary and fairly decent Leslie emulation. I'm probably asking too much, but thought I ask the pros!

Thanks, Gambold

[be lee vit]

Hi Gambold,
Am I remembering right that you had your hands on a Crumar Desktop module a while back? If you still have it I’m sure you’ve considered combining it with an economically priced midi controller…that would probably be the most cost effective way forward.
Barnaby

[Rusty Mike]

Definitely some options to consider, but first a question about your use case: Are you looking at a single keyboard solution, or are you willing to carry a second one?

If you're willing to go the 2-keyboard route, you could consider:

1. Hanging on to your Electro as a top tier - it's already paid for!
2. Getting a smaller pre-owned Electro. Anything from the E4 on up sound great for B3 emulation
3. Getting a Hammond, Crumar, etc. either new or preowned. Hammonds are pricey and if 100% authenticity is not your goal, you may want to skip that option
4. Doing a controller w/ an iPad based organ VST such as Gallileo or VB3m. Not sure I'd want to fiddle with all the wires and connections, but that's just me

If you want only a single instrument:

1. Connect the above mentioned iPad/VST to your piano and just deal with the piano action
2. Find a GSI Gemini, Ferrofish or other similar organ module
3. Download some of the organ samples into your new Nord Piano. I've done this and they work in a pinch

Another thought is to wait just a few more months to see if Nord will release an Electro 7 with improved TP-110 action. Make your decision in February.

[cgrafx]

If you want something light weight maybe look at the Yamaha MX49 (8.38 lbs) or MX61 (10.6 lbs).

Actually pretty decent synth and has usable B3 sounds (not spectacular, but definitely usable).

[catosim]

The Roland VR 09 is maybe an alternative, it has drawbars, percussion, not sure about the decency of the Leslie sim.
Haven't tried it myself.

[Gambold]

I had a similar move a month ago. Had a Wave 2 on top of a Stage 3 compact. Use this for a wedding band setup.
Played the B3 on the Stage via midi on the Wave 2. Nice that the drawbars are very close to you left hand.
The stage is under-used because only used for Piano with some strings or pads

Bought a Nord Piano 5-73 cheap just for playing at home and for my daughter and as backup (I can always find a reason for GAS)
I like the action so much that I thought about changing the Stage with the Piano.
That would mean that I would loose the B3 emulation. I liked the Wave 2 with 4 sounds for splits and layers.
In the end I moved the stage 3 to be the top-board and the Piano below.

Only a electro on top would mean less synth sounds, and I would miss the pitchbend and modwheel for filterstuff on the synth sounds.
Also the Stage 3 is a great back-up in case of failure of the Piano.

a little bit heavierer (I use a softbag for the piano), but still fits in the trunk of my car. Much nicer feel!
There is space on the Piano on both sides for a Ventilator, B3 simlator, iPad....

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[Gambold]

I come with a different suggestion, just to offer you an alternative to evaluate: you may keep the NE6 and get a Studiologic Numa X Piano 73 to use as 73-key Hammer Action external master (this is actually my current setup for band rehearsals and live, but with a NS3 instead of NE6), even if you may not use NXP sounds at all, it will provide 4 MIDI Zones, a 4ch audio mixer and USB Audio capabilities for adding Virtual Instruments from computer or tablet.

So basically it would be a portable counterpart of your SV2 and you will still have a quite similar setup both at home and outside, which I think is not a bad thing.

NXP uses the new Fatar TP-110 keybed which is quite and improvement compared to the TP-100 (HP) one, even if it is not a TP40 (as NP5-73's) and keeps the overall weight low + you will still be able to leverage your NE6 alone for simpler/lighter gigs (or just the NXP, with its own sounds or VSTi).

Of course it would be best if you could try it pesonally, to see if you like the TP-110 keybed or not (or buy it online with possibility to return if you don't like).

[Bjosko]

+1
Excellent solution with the NumaX as piano keyboard.
I have used this solution in my second band, but have now switched back to using my NS3 in both, as I need the sample possibilities from my Nord. I am a Crumar fan when it comes to organ, so am using a Mojo 61 at gigs, and a Crumar/GSI DMC 122 2 manual with builtin Gemini with my second band.
Action wise I don’t think the Numa is up to the NP5, but pretty good, cheap, lots of audio and midi possibilities and light weight.

[busterkeys]

you could look for a used Viscount legend solo or a Crumar mojo. but it seems like it would be best just to buy a used Nord piano and keep the electro 6 to stack on top of it. that way, you still have the organ section, and extra memory for samples and pianos.

[Gambold]

Hi Gambold,
Am I remembering right that you had your hands on a Crumar Desktop module a while back? If you still have it I’m sure you’ve considered combining it with an economically priced midi controller…that would probably be the most cost effective way forward.
Barnaby

I did! But I had a devil of a time getting it to consistently work the the MIDI on my Electro 6. Granted, I'm a "midiot," but I was pretty careful about following instructions and did get some support from Sweetwater. It still kept winking out randomly. So...I sadly returned the Crumar to Sweetwater.