Nord User Forum

[c0wfunk]

Hello all;

I am on the eve of purchasing the Electro 4 SW73 and am oscillating between super excited and anxious to make sure I'm making a good decision. I started out as a synth player, occasionally messing around on pianos, but mostly playing Moog gear - little phatties, voyagers and the like were all around for a little while. Then I acquired an old Korg DW8000 with its horrible hand shredding keys but creamy analog tones. And I started enjoying to play piano more. Then I joined a southern rock band with a big sound where my main duties are organ and some rock piano. So I messed with VSTs and got irritated and tons of wires and general frustration. So I found a Korg SP-100 on Craigs list for $50 and again fell in love with playing hte piano. I went dual keys and used the DW8000 as a passable organ to practice with and pulled off a couple of gigs.

So now I"ve cleared the way to get myself a Nord and after a lot of deliberation and reading and reviews I settled on the NE4 SW73. The one thing worrying me is that I've gotten used to the Korg SP100 which really is a nice keybed and I"m comfortable with it. I've never owned or used a waterfall keyboard before but will probably end up playing mostly b3 and some EP and then some light piano on some of the ballads. I tried to find one at the guitar center here where I am having the holidays but they only have the Stage 2HA and no keyboards there had waterfall style. Can anyone tell me how does the waterfall style compare to the moog's keybed?

Second thought is that what if I end up wanting to keep the SP100 in my rig for piano .. are there any recent versions of the kurzweil micropiano or is everyone just doing ipad for that kind of thing now? Is the micropiano even worth considering if I go this route or has anyone seen a better/ comparable little box that I can grab for a hundred or two bucks and get the SP100 sound up to par? After hearing the piano tones out of the nord it's going to be hard to go back to the sp100's piano sound, but I will definitely lose some versatility as I play both keyboards quite a bit right now. I'm thinking that's because I'm not satisfied with either really and I can just concentrate on one at a time with the new situation.

So much to consider; mostly because I still have a week before I can get back home and it'll be in my hands and all I'll want to do is play .

This forum is great; I've enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts on mono vs stereo, the different patches, and all the rest as I've obsessed over the last week on this since I decided I can pull this off.

Cheers,
Jeremy

[simonbeck]

I have an Electro 3 73 with the waterfall keybed, and I find it extremely playable for organ, electric piano and even acoustic piano.

Here's some background:
Back in the mid-1990s I got an 88-key fully-weighted MIDI controller and an Alesis NanoPiano module. At the time I was playing straight piano in an 8-piece blues band, and it was what I needed. I later found that it was pretty useless for organ work (the action was too heavy and slow), and by 2006 I was using a 76-key unweighted Casio WK-3000 home keyboard for just about everything, including blues and rock gigs.

I joined a ska band, and we eventually got a real vintage Wurlitzer 200 piano, so I just used the Casio for organ sounds. The Wurly had a fast, light but weighted action, and when the band sold it (it was becoming impractical to gig with it) I got my Nord instead.

The waterfall keybed suits the Wurly sound really well - not too light and noticeably higher quality than the Casio. I now use the Nord for both Wurly and organ, and have used it for acoustic piano on various projects as well.

Good luck with your Electro - you won't regret getting it!

[c0wfunk]

HI simonbeck thanks for that, exactly the kind of story I was looking for. I know it will be awesome and a huge upgrade. It is a little hard going on faith and Internet reviews but I'm really excited! The waiting is the hardest part as they say..

[simonbeck]

My NE4 SW73 was delivered today from Sweetwater .. I had about 15 minutes on my lunch break to fiddle around and so far am delighted with the feel of the keys. The semi-weighted feel is definitely a lot nicer for piano playing than the synth action keybeds I've been used to. For what I need I think I like it more than the weighted keys on the stage 2 I'd been playing at Guitar Center over the holidays. I get to practice tonight with the band and put it through the paces!

Cheers