Nord User Forum

[Schorsch]

Sample synth, hmm. If you can't do what you need to do with an acoustic piano, a Rhodes, or a Hammond, you have to ask yourself what exactly ARE you trying to do? Be a keyboardist? Or become an effects machine for your band? Is this about developing and presenting your personal sound, or aping the sounds of a thousand studio engineers?

Well, my "Mantra" is to play songs the way I like and can perform with my existing equipment and band, asking myself "why should I copy a song exactly the way it was originally produced since it already exists?" However there are songs which live and die with a certain sound, making this the "heart and soul" of the song. I am therefore also open to use these specific sounds or at least something which get's close to it, this is why I appreciate the capabilities of the sample synth when it cannot be done sufficiently with Pianos or Hammond. But .... these are exceptions .....

[ACCORDIONMAN]

Sample synth, hmm. If you can't do what you need to do with an acoustic piano, a Rhodes, or a Hammond, you have to ask yourself what exactly ARE you trying to do? Be a keyboardist? Or become an effects machine for your band?

I've also gone down this thought process, but I became immediately stuck when I considered I'm not playing a piano/Rhodes etc. I'm playing a digital keyboard with that sound on it 'pretending' to be a piano. A fake piano. Or in the case of a Rhodes a fake, fake piano. (The DX7 Rhubba Rhodes....don't even go there! fake fake fake piano...).

So where do you stop? What about a fake DX7 synth brass? Or a synth strings?

I love these kind of debates....!

[JayDee]

Yeah, you could do Superstitious with Acoustic Piano instead of a fake clavinet, which no one on the dance floor would care whether it was the real thing or not. Then stick to your guns as a sensitive 'Artiste' and play an Ahmad Jamal tune, watch the dance floor empty, be berated by the club manager because revenue went down by over 50% since the girls weren't dancing, in fact they left. You got fired but got a gig in a jazz club and made 2 glasses of Guinness as your payment.

It can depend on your place in the musical universe, but a lot of actual gigs where they quaintly pay you expect you to be an entertainer as well as musician and generate money for the club. Up to you whether you accept the expectations of that type of 'Top 40' gig, or whether a couple glasses of Guinness ain't so bad if you are playing to please yourself and no one else. If you do 200 gigs a year in club bands as I use to back in the day, I can GUARANTEE you there will be many gigs it will be expected for you to make an effort to sound like the tune you are covering. You don't have to accept them, though. I like Guinness.

[Gambold]

I've also gone down this thought process, but I became immediately stuck when I considered I'm not playing a piano/Rhodes etc. I'm playing a digital keyboard with that sound on it 'pretending' to be a piano. A fake piano.

I would riposte by saying that yes, you are playing a fake piano or Hammond but primarily because you don't have the wherewithal to haul a 3000-pound upright or 500-pound B3 and Leslie setup onto the local bar stage. So you are compromising with the next best thing, which is a Nord emulator. What you are NOT doing is putting your trumpet, vibes, flute, or violin away so you can play simulations of them on a keyboard, effectively acting like a one-man band.

Yeah, you could do Superstitious with Acoustic Piano instead of a fake clavinet, which no one on the dance floor would care whether it was the real thing or not. Then stick to your guns as a sensitive 'Artiste' and play an Ahmad Jamal tune, watch the dance floor empty, be berated by the club manager because revenue went down by over 50% since the girls weren't dancing, in fact they left.

I'm going to suggest that if your band is wholly dependent on you and your li'l ole Nord with its sample library to keep the girls dancing in the room, you guys have bigger problems than can be covered in this admittedly aesthetic debate. I'd take a look at your setlist and maybe your front person first. People aren't leaving the dance floor and/or the venue because the keyboards aren't sounding just like some 80s record album. I WISH we were that necessary! They leave because they don't like the singer and/or the song.

[Gambold]

I can say this - when I go into a bar (which is probably too often) and I see a Nord on the stage, I get all excited because, hey, it's a Nord. I see them on TV a lot but they are rare in the Chicago bar scene...too many damn Korgs everywhere.

I would aver that about 95% of the time, the Nord player is either playing acoustic piano or a digital keyboard, like an electric grand. Not too many organs, I think organ playing is something of a dying art in pop right now.

They almost NEVER trundle out strings, or horns, or Celtic whistles or bells or whatever. Some of them might have a small or not-so-small synth as well if that's the kind of band it is, but the Nord always seems to be reserved for the (ahem) serious sounds. And I'd much rather listen to them play those, then fudge away on a Microbrute because they think the squeals are helping, rather than sadly present a keyboardist who has become part of the effects package. Lasers are next...

[JayDee]

The clav on Superstitious is frosting on the cake. If you have that capability on your synth, in this particular instance, why you wouldn't want to use it. Either way, no worries. The real point I attempted, apparently ineptly, to make was that the esoteric jazz would lose THAT audience ( and jazz pays even worse than the top 40 gigs). In these particular clubs in the SF Bay Area granted 80's 90's, they wanted to dance. Crucial parts and sounds associated with the 'Hit' can help, so there is that to the original discussion. If there were a lot of girls and they were dancing that loosened the guys wallets, generated mucho dinero for the club. You got asked back, and we were. I have no issues if folks don't want to use the sample section. I do agree about seeing Nords in clubs, almost exclusively EP, Piano, and Organ.

[Gambold]

Not sure how esoteric jazz came into the equation. The ladies have always wanted to boogie...and they have for decades without benefit of a synthesizer flurping in the background. Really, the beat is finally up to the drummer. We could be playing a washboard up there for all they care. I wish it wasn't true, but it is...the keyboardist is generally the least interesting person on the stage, unless they are also the vocalist.

[jimmyjames]

At the risk of reigniting the debate in this thread, really just wanted to say I don't use the sample section much in my E4 but would use it more if I had the E6 with pitch bend response...and would use it even more if portamento/glide is added in a future model. The band I'm in does a lot of late 70's and 80's covers...being able to cover the gliding hook sounds used for many of the tunes is essential. I use my Casio PX 5S to cover these now. Adding this basic feature to a future NE7 sample section would not cross the line to "well you should get a Stage" IMO.

[CountFosco]

At the risk of reigniting the debate in this thread, really just wanted to say I don't use the sample section much in my E4 but would use it more if I had the E6 with pitch bend response...and would use it even more if portamento/glide is added in a future model. The band I'm in does a lot of late 70's and 80's covers...being able to cover the gliding hook sounds used for many of the tunes is essential. I use my Casio PX 5S to cover these now. Adding this basic feature to a future NE7 sample section would not cross the line to "well you should get a Stage" IMO.

At the risk of saying "well you should get a Stage". I don't know how basic a feature glide is - it also requires a monophonic mode. An Electro plus a synth is a great combo for a live setup. But if you want a single keyboard to cover it all...... well, you should get a Stage.

[anotherscott]

I don't know how basic a feature glide is - it also requires a monophonic mode.

Not necessarily... his Casio PX5S has glide but no monophonic mode. But yeah, practically speaking, i think for most players, if you want glide, you kinda want a mono mode too. Nord's best Electro solution for this so far has been the Electro 5, which let you split the keyboard and play an Electro sound with your left hand and an external sound with your right. Then you could get your lead synth sounds from a small, relatively inexpensive Roland Boutique module (most of which even include pitch and mod ribbons) or some other external device.