Nord User Forum

[cphollis]

A Nord Electro 3, a pair of Nord Electro 4Ds, Nord Stage 2, a pair of Nord Piano 2s, now a Nord Piano 4 and a Nord Stage 3.

Hundreds of gigs, including a few really dusty ones that had me worried.

Never a problem with contacts, not once. I also keep my boards in their cases when not actually being played, which I'm sure helps with potential contact problems.

Sorry you're having problems -- best of luck!

[Spider]

I'm also among the lucky ones. In the last 10 years I've owned an Electro 4, Stage 2, Stage 2 EX, C2, two Lead 2X, Lead 3, and Wave.

Never had a dirty contact problem (finger cross!).
No smoking environments, always kept them in their case/bag when not played, and under dust covers when not in the bag.

[Ivan Jochner]

Have had Stage 1 Classic Compact and having now NS3 73.
Stage Classic was suffering from constant reloading due to the bad Ribbon cables and contacts.
Stage 3 so far so good but out of the box black keys were squeacking like hell.

[Valpurgis]

I am one of the lucky guys with none of these problems including a 17 year old TP8O in a Korg CX3.

What should be interesting to know is if this a problem caused by dust, oxygenation/corrosion or both. Is humidity an issue? That could explain why someone has a lots of problems and others never have experienced this. Pablo?

[pablomastodon]

dust, dirt, etc...

this issue represents BY FAR the bulk of all Nord service-related problems. Here's the language I usually use in response to folks with this type of inquiry:

This issue is related to some sort of foreign matter, gunk, crud, fuzz, dirt, etc. which is fouling one or both of the two contacts for that note. Velocity-sensitive keybeds necessarily have two contacts per key; an instrument's computer brain measures the microseconds between contact closures to calculate velocity, which is then translated into volume data for pianos. Not being velocity-sensitive, organs require only the one contact to work correctly. When both contacts foul, the corresponding key will refuse to work entirely; when only one contact fouls, you have the seemingly curious symptom of having the key work fine for organs and not at all for pianos. When only the other contact fouls, piano notes will sound at FULL velocity (loud).

As you can see from the attached photo showing the details of that mechanism, every time a key is pressed, it mashes down the rubber bubble to close the contacts. This action necessarily causes air to be expelled. When that key is released, the bubble springs back up into shape, causing air to be sucked back into the chamber via those diagonal pathways I have labeled "ventilation channels." Any dust or other foreign matter which may be in the immediate vicinity can potentially be sucked into that chamber when a key is released, causing these types of problems. Located directly beneath the keys, anything and everything which may ever fall through the gaps between keys will land in this area, creating a reservoir of potential issues.

Your Nord will need to be torn apart, and the keybed itself largely disassembled in order to get to the specific point of failure, after which a quick blast of compressed air and/or a swab with a Q-tip dipped in isopropyl alcohol or acetone will usually cure the defect and restore normal function. Those keybeds are quite generic. Made by Fatar, they are used in more keyboard brands than any other on the planet. This is especially useful, because it means that ANY keyboard tech should be well familiar with this issue and how to correct it. If you know of someone local to you whose skills and experience you trust, there is no reason to not use that person to service your Nord.

[Klondyke77]

Thanks Pablo!
(For me) It's totally clear now that the "ventilation channel" is the problem. IMHO this is a faulty design.
I'm not an contruction engineer but in my opinion those contacts should be fully sealed so that there is no ventilation possible at all. I'm shure the air pressure problem can be solved in some other way. As it is constructed now it will not only lead to problems with dust that is sucked in but also with humidity, especially in condensing conditions.

[whitenoise]

I guess it happens mostly when you move your keyboard. But I had more issues with the NS2. Never had any issues with NS1, NE3, NE4
Will see how it goes with NS3. Never had any serious issues. The only issue is dust every few months.

[pablomastodon]

Thanks Pablo!
(For me) It's totally clear now that the "ventilation channel" is the problem. IMHO this is a faulty design.
I'm not an contruction engineer but in my opinion those contacts should be fully sealed so that there is no ventilation possible at all. I'm shure the air pressure problem can be solved in some other way. As it is constructed now it will not only lead to problems with dust that is sucked in but also with humidity, especially in condensing conditions.

ventilation is necessary -- that air must have somewhere to go when the bubble is mashed down and must have a source of replenishment when it springs back into shape

Fatar's underlying contact design is used across ALL of their keybeds and has been for decades. That is the most common contact design on the planet. I've taken apart keybeds which are not Fatar only to find that the designers/builders of those keybeds have copied the identical Fatar design element of these contacts. Agreed that it is an Achilles' Heel of this design, but many many people who are much smarter than you or I have presumably been studying this for a long time and seem not to have come up with a better idea yet.

The source of the problem is that anything and everything which falls through the gaps between keys will land on top of these contacts, in the close vicinity of the ventialation channels. Speaking personally, and not in the capacity of my day job, I have to wonder whether 1) this ventilation could instead be accomplished by drilling one or two small holes in the PCB beneath each bubble, or 2) a "crumb-catcher" of plastic kitchen wrap or similar could be laid across the tops of the contacts and beneath the keys to mitigate this. Kind of like how carry-out Cantonese restaurants cover the button switches of their cash registers with plastic...

[sagetunes]

I've had chronic contact problems. Here's a question: Has anyone had a contact problem on one particular key and then have the problem just disappear?

[Claucar]

I boguht my NS3C 5 months ago. I never moved it from my house and it is always covered when I don't play it. And I already have a note that lost its sensitivity...
Evidently there is a problem with this synthesizer that makes the keybed dirty very easily
I hope the folks at Nord take note of this recurring problem for many of their users.