Nord stage 3 piano distortion

[Thesoundofblues]

Hey,

I have a nord stage 3 compact.
I have a problem with the sound of the piano engine.
IT distorts on all volumes and even more when i Play big chords.
I dont have iT with the synth engine. Also when i link my laptop to the minijack and i output iT thru the same output as the Piano iT sounds perfect.

Please help me!

Thx allready

[CRClemens]

How is your NS3 connected? Are you listening through headphones or speakers?

[ericL]

What's your output routing look like and are you hearing this via a speaker, headphones, other? Maybe a bad cable? Need more information. I have not seen this problem with my NS3.

[Thesoundofblues]

The problem appears when connecting to loudspeakers. I have tried 10 cables and 10 different speakers so i am Shure the problem is the nord! With headphones its not really there!

Thx allready

[DJKeys]

Different cables and speakers won't make a difference if the gain staging in the signal chain is the problem.

Please describe your signal chain, and the volume settings of each device in the chain. It is likely that you are overloading one of those stages.

Are you using a mixer?
What kind of speakers, active or passive, what brand?
What type of cabling?

This will help us determine the cause of this issue.

-dj

[Thesoundofblues]

So
I tried different mixing consoles , different di’s , different gain settings on speakers and mixing console. Also pad on pad off. Also i tried iT direct ibto the line input of the speaker.
My job is sound engineer, so i’m pretty dure ive doen everything i could to set the gain perfect.
Im pretty shure that there is a problem with the gain of the piano engine?

Thanks allready

[harmonizer]

If you are getting a clean sound, with headphones plugged into the headphone jack, another test you can do is plug those same headphones into the "L" or "R" line out jack on the back of the Nord. You will only get sound on one side, and the sound will probably be softer. But you can turn up the volume on the Stage and see if you get a clean sound with the Piano sounds. Do you?

[skykeys]

If the sound of your piano sounds fine in headphones, then it's likely that you're overloading an input level, either the keyboard or something else in your chain into the mixer. Lower the gain levels on the channels of the mixing board you're using. Else, something else is overloading or distorting, possibly an amplifier is "fried"?

[nathiano]

I have the same issue.. Did you find a fix?

[grooveman]

Hello.

I hate to hijack an old thread... but I'm having the same issue.

I have the stage3 and had it connected directly to my Lucas Nano 600 -- a PA system I bought specifically for this, since someone posted elsewhere that it was an awesome combination (I had nothing else to go on...). It isn't. It was giving me terrible distortion, only on certain notes, when on any of the piano settings. I fiddled with this for a few months, but could not get past it. There is nothing else in the chain, so there aren't a heck of a lot of things to fiddle with.

In frustration, I bought a Roland KC-600 -- a highly revered line of keyboard amplifiers with a nice, giant speaker cone. It seemed like it worked, then I hurt my back, and couldn't play the thing for months. I just sat back down to it now, and I find it is ever worse than the Lucas Nano...

All the other sounds are great -- it is only the piano sounds that do this, and only certain notes -- and in the range of notes that are most commonly used (c4 - c7ish). Probably 3 notes in each octave have this problem -- and god forbid you hit a chord with two or more of the offending notes.

This is a serious issue... it sounds like absolute garbage -- especially when you are trying to play something tender or soulful... it has harsh "crispy" sound, much like a blown speaker... it is impossible to overlook, or work-around.

At first, I thought it was the piano samples... but when I use the headphones -- this does NOT happen. The sound is beautiful and clean. When I put the headphones in the L or R jack, this does NOT happen. Again: clean. It is only when connected to an amplifier. I have nothing turned on in post on the Nord, I'm just using the naked piano samples. The amplifiers have no gain settings... they are 100% clean... very little to fiddle with. I've tried multiple inputs -- same problem.

I've spent a TON of money this, and I'm depressed and mortified by this... I've seen at least 3 different threads on this issue -- and no one ever has a solution... What are people doing? Are people just selling them off out of frustration and buying a Roland, Korg, or Yahmaha? Are they finding a fix, and not posting it? What are people using to amplify these thing so that they sound good?

Does anyone have any insight on this?

Thank you.