Nord User Forum

[Schorsch]

Hi,

I’m thinking of buying an Electro, primarily to get the best possible B3 clone sounds plus some synths, primarily Pads. It will be used in combination with either a Roland RD800 or a Yamaha MOXF8 as the “Piano section” in my setup.

I want to have Drawbars and 73 keys, wondering which one I should take:

- new 6D
- used 5D or older versions

Leaving money aside which one would you recommend and why?

Best regards Georg

[Schorsch]

Hey there Georg,

The 5D vs. the 6D basically boils down to what was described in this thread here:
nord-electro-forum-f9/nord-electro-5d-61-or-nord-electro-6d-61-t15508.html

Depends on you needs, but probably. Personally, I wouldn't have a lot of use for the ability to play all 3 engines at the same time vs. only 2, but seamless sound transitions are really nice, as is extra sample memory. And while there's no apparent immediate benefit to the new .nsmp3 sample format, it is likely there will be in the future. Also, it's nice to have most of the clav EQ options back again. You do lose some MIDI flexibility, and you have Organize mode instead of Set List mode (which is probably a bit of a backwards step, but simpler), so it's not the right choice for everyone. Even taking price out of the equation.

[Schorsch]

Thanks a lot Chris!

Do you know which MIDI flexibility is lost with the NE6 in detail, and also how about the NE4 or older versions?

Best regards Georg

[stiiiiiiive]

HI!

The fourth generation has physical drawbars only on the 61 keys model, so I guess it reduces your choice down to the two models covered above.

[t9cstudio]

I have come to the conclusion it's best to buy the newest of anything anymore. You never know when they will declare last year's model "obsolete". Certainly before this year's. I could've got the NE5 for 500 less, but it's only one more payment for me to have the latest.
Re: midi, it may not affect you with a nice in-sound keyboard below the Electro, but I was disappointed by the Exp pedal not being assignable to one upper sound, say a pad and not assigned to an AP, both played on a lower controller. I can live with it, but...

[harmonizer]

The Electro 4 (and previous) lack a real split function: with the Electo 4 and older, you can only split two different organ sounds. If instead you want to split an organ sound and an EP or acoustic piano, only the Electro 5 and 6 can do this.

[Schorsch]

Hey there Georg,

The 5D vs. the 6D basically boils down to what was described in this thread here:
nord-electro-forum-f9/nord-electro-5d-61-or-nord-electro-6d-61-t15508.html

Depends on you needs, but probably. Personally, I wouldn't have a lot of use for the ability to play all 3 engines at the same time vs. only 2, but seamless sound transitions are really nice, as is extra sample memory. And while there's no apparent immediate benefit to the new .nsmp3 sample format, it is likely there will be in the future. Also, it's nice to have most of the clav EQ options back again. You do lose some MIDI flexibility, and you have Organize mode instead of Set List mode (which is probably a bit of a backwards step, but simpler), so it's not the right choice for everyone. Even taking price out of the equation.

Update:

Yes, there is an immediate benefit to the .nsmp3 samples, see post103520.html

Also, the organ bass (the lower section of the NE5 B3+bass option) can now be used in conjunction with other sounds, not just organ on top.

Also, the 6D has the Numeric Pad entry mode. This trades off single-button access to sets of 4 programs for two-button access to sets of 16 programs. (And on the NS3, this function gives you two-button access to sets of 25 programs instead of 16.)

Do you know which MIDI flexibility is lost with the NE6 in detail

You can no longer play an internal sound below a split while playing an external sound (by itself, or layered) above. (Neither board lets you do the reverse, i.e. assign an external sound below a split). One thing this was especially useful for was making up for the lack of a real synth function in the Electro. You can hook up something like a Roland Boutique module, and have a nice synth. But on the 5, you could be playing that synth above your split, while your left hand continued to play a Nord piano, organ, pad, whatever. No more.

As for NE5 Set List vs. NE6 Organize, as I understand it (haven't tried it all myself):

1. Set Lists allowed you to have 200 additional ways of accessing sets of up to four of your Programs, without using up any more of your 400 Program locations. Each 4-Program Set List entry (Song) which took up one of the 200 Set List locations will now instead take up 4 of your Program locations in order to have the same functionality (i.e. to give you a set of 4 buttons that give you the 4 Programs you need for a given song). So you can conceivably run out of Program locations much more quickly. For example, re-using combinations of existing programs 50 different ways (i.e. for 50 different songs) used to use up 50 Set List locations and zero additional Program locations. Now that function would use up 200 of your 416 Program locations. Another way of looking at this is that you now have a total maximum of 104 songs which would leave you zero locations for other Programs, whereas on the 5, you have a maximum of 200 songs, with don't take away any of your 400 Program locations (though those Programs are still what you use to create your 200 songs). (And on the NS3, which works more like the NE5, you have a maximum of 400 songs instead of 200, and each song can contain up to 5 sounds instead of up to 4.)

2. If you use the same sound in many songs, with Set List mode, you could make changes to that sound just once (by editing the Program), and every song that used that sound would automatically now be using your new, updated version of that sound. Now you'd have to copy your new sound into every location where you'd used that sound. OTOH, this now prevents the possibility that you alter a Program and find that it changed the sound in a whole bunch of your songs, if that's not what you wanted to do.

[CountFosco]

One thing this was especially useful for was making up for the lack of a real synth function in the Electro. You can hook up something like a Roland Boutique module, and have a nice synth. But on the 5, you could be playing that synth above your split, while your left hand continued to play a Nord piano, organ, pad, whatever.

..which is very cool. I use that to play 1 mono synth sound on my Lead A1 keyboard (using slots A and B). Then copy those two slots to C and D, and control only those two slots on the Electro 5. So I can do a slidy mono synth solo in 2 part harmony. But Scott when you control a module like the Roland Boutique with an Electro, you miss any pitch bend or modulation wheel control, right? That was one reason I didn't add a synth module to my Electro. I'd be very happy to be stood corrected.

[anotherscott]

when you control a module like the Roland Boutique with an Electro, you miss any pitch bend or modulation wheel control, right? That was one reason I didn't add a synth module to my Electro. I'd be very happy to be stood corrected.

Most (not all) of the Boutique synth modules have pitch and mod ribbons on them. Placement may not be ideal, but it's better than nothing.

[Schorsch]

Hi again,

I checked the user manuals of both the NE5 and the NE6, and found that the NE5 offers much more detailed configuration options for the B3 than the NE6. How relevant is this if one is primarily focused on the B3 clone capabilities of the NE?