Nord User Forum

[MartinJ2EX]

Nord Piano 5 with 73 keys virtual hammer action technology keybed spotted on instagram...
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMLt3lVL-GP ... vjmgniqj2z
(instagram post has been removed)

It’s not yet officially released by Nord, though...
I think we’ll see an official release pretty soon! Fingers crossed!
Update: Officially released on March 30, 2021
https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-piano-5

Some nice new stuff is coming towards (new) Nord Piano users

* Piano Engine with 2 Layers (2 Piano samples simultaneously) with Layer Detune
* Sample Engine with 2 Layers (2 samples simultaneously)
* 88 and 73 key virtual hammer action technology models
* Split Point Crossfade
* New Layout: Piano | Sample | Program+Screen | Effects
* Same Reverbs as on the Wave 2 [Booth, Room, Stage, Hall, Cathedral] including Dark & Bright Mode and "Chorale" Mode

* 2GB Piano Memory
* 1GB Sample Memory (for comparison: Stage 3 has only 480MB storage!)

Watch on youtube.com

* Same grey color scheme as first seen on Stage 3 (Thank you, Nord! This one’s a keeper!)

I’m curious, if the effects can only be applied to one single Engine/Layer, or multiple

[Spider]

I have no idea who the guy is but I see he's endorsed by Nord on their website, so no surprise he got a pre-production unit for test and promotion.
Interesting they resurrected the "compact" version after the not-so-successful Piano 2 HP. The "Virtual Hammer Action" has been around since the NP3, but I still don't understand exactly what it does...probably some software trick to improve a bit playing the FATAR keybed (in fact, the Grand doesn't have it), but has anybody noticed a marked difference? Curious to see how it will work out on a 73-key action...will it be HP, or even SW?

[FZiegler]

There is a Mike Bereal bank among the Product Library sounds for the Stage 3. So I consider it trustworthy. And it's very nice to see the massive number of likes and comments for that post.

[MartinJ2EX]

I have no idea who the guy is but I see he's endorsed by Nord on their website, so no surprise he got a pre-production unit for test and promotion.
Interesting they resurrected the "compact" version after the not-so-successful Piano 2 HP.
...will it be HP, or even SW?

I’m sure it is the same keybed as on the Nord Piano 4 (or 5, that is) but with 73 keys.
The different and better keybed is the one thing that separates it from the Electro HP (apart from the organ, of course)

There is a Mike Bereal bank among the Product Library sounds for the Stage 3. So I consider it trustworthy. And it's very nice to see the massive number of likes and comments for that post.

I have no doubt it’s legit
Just interesting to see a teaser from an endorsed artist without any official statement from Nord - but I guess it’ll come very soon.

[MartinJ2EX]

I’m sure it is the same keybed as on the Nord Piano 4 (or 5, that is) but with 73 keys.
The different and better keybed is the one thing that separates it from the Electro HP (apart from the organ, of course)

The thing is, I've almost never seen a high-end FATAR piano action (TP/40 and variants) in less than 88 keys. Literally the only one I can think about was the HA action in the old NS2 (not EX). And that was in 76-keys format, not 73. From a quick check of FATAR's website, it seems their hammer actions are only available in 76 or 88 keys. So, this new 73? A semi-weighted piano? A customized FATAR action, or maybe a totally new supplier, like they did when they sourced the Kawai action for the Grand? I'm quite curious about this!

Just interesting to see a teaser from an endorsed artist without any official statement from Nord

It's become a farily normal marketing strategy: people trust more influencers, youtubers and online shops than the official companies' channels, so many companies release these "leaks" which of course are exactly the opposite: carefuly planned and timed teasers to drive up the hype for the new product.
So you see new "unknown" products used on ig and yt, or an online shop with a product page that appears "by mistake" and is then hurriedly taken down, or The Famous Guy who in an interview nonchalantly mentions the new product (only to retract later)...it's a fairly normal teaser campaign, only that nowadays it's not run on the company's traditional channels

[BjoernFromEarth]

Nord needs to release quite constantly new products to the market otherwise they will run out of money. Selling new keyboards to roughly the same crowd of people is the only thing that generates money for Nord. This tiny company has to pay wages and all the other fixed costs so they NEED to release regularly new products which are so convincing and so much better than the previous version, that the same people will get their money together to buy the new thing.

[MartinJ2EX]

To me the biggest reason for surprise isn't so much the marketing strategy... but the fact that yet ANOTHER piano is coming... the Grand is only 2 years old and I am not sure there was that much wrong with the Piano 4. I guess I can forget the successor to the C2D any time soon...

I totally agree!
Well, sure there was nothing wrong per se...
Although, I guess, some people have been longing for two pianos and two samples in one Nord keyboard without having to get a Stage (some may not need Organ or a Synth)

And in some way, with the Piano 5 series, Nord is firing back at Yamaha and their CP series ...
Now Nord Piano can play two independent Piano samples, be it Acoustic, Electric, Digital owe, even detuned - and also have two independent Samples - that’s nice!

(CP88/73 only have Acoustic Piano + Electric Piano + Samples)

[BjoernFromEarth]

In advanced mode, the CP series can also play two Acoustic Pianos or two Electric Piano at the same time. You can shift Acoustic Pianos to the Electric Pianos section and vice versa.

[BjoernFromEarth]

Yes I guess this is what Martin meant... a sort of "response" to that.

Yes, but with regard to this particular feature, it is Nord that is playing catch up, not Yamaha

[Spider]

Yeah, interesting that they are bringing the two-panel architecture also to the Piano (and so, arguably, to the future Electros? They have always shared almost all features with the Piano and Stages). At first, when I saw the octave shift buttons so close to the keys I cringed, it looked like a sure recipe for disaster (switching octaves accidentally while playing). But then I saw it is a "shift" function, and the buttons primarily control the two panels ...which could be a different recipe for a different disaster .

This puts the new pianos (and Electros, if they will share the two-panel structure) much much closer to the Stage. Hard to justify paying so much more for a Stage, when now even the "lesser" keyboards have so many features...maybe an indication that the Stage 4 will finally give us more panels, at least for the synth section?

To me the biggest reason for surprise isn't so much the marketing strategy... but the fact that yet ANOTHER piano is coming...

We have to accept that stage pianos are BY FAR the most lucrative segment of the market. Clavia is probably selling at least 20 pianos for every Lead/Wave that goes out of the warehouse...and probably 200 pianos for every drum or organ (when the C2D was even produced).
They are in the rather uncomfortable position of being a small-but-not-too-small company. If they were a boutique 2-3 person operation, they could probably do whatever they wanted without worrying too much about sales numbers...as long as they sold something. But they are a 40-person operation in a high-cost country like Sweden, competing with the Big Guys in the most ferocious segment of the market. I think that most of the competing companies are either much larger or much smaller, and/or producing everything in China.
It's a testament to Nord's philosophy and quality that they're still in the business at all, but it's no surprise that at some point in their growth they had to decide to shift their core business from synths to a more mainstream, high-grossing segment (even trying to enter the home market with the wood stand and monitors, which I find some rather awkward products for their history).