Nord User Forum

A while ago we were all excited about the discovery of some "secret" new Nord piano sounds. They were (briefly) on the mothership site (though only discoverable via google) - we managed to preserve the files for you to download on the forumhttps://www.norduserforum.com/nord-user-samples-nsmp-samples-f14/gospel-keys-npno-t15312.html.

The consensus was that these were a part of the abandoned "Gospel Piano" release promised for NAMM 2017 http://soundtechuk.blogspot.com/2017/01/nord-introduce-legendary-vintage.html.

But though these are foundational sounds for a lot of gospel and worship music, they're also all over late 80s and early 90s popular music. The association with church music may well have put a lot of you off trying out what are - in fact - excellent sounds.

So I did a bunch of short demos for you, which may spark your interest in these very specific, beautifully recorded, and fun to play "secret" pianos. I've used a touch of chorus 1 and a touch of "soft stage" reverb from my NE5D - I used a Kawai VPC1 to trigger the sound. There's no additional processing, and (other than the sound) the same settings are used for each recording. I start each time with the same sustained chord, and then play something that seems to fit the sound for about 30 seconds.

The Roland MKS20 was a rack unit that featured very early attempts at digitally modelling piano and rhodes (Epiano1) sounds, plus a digital piano (Epiano2)

• MKS20Epiano2.mp3

• MKS20Epiano1.mp3

• MKS20Apiano1.mp3

The Roland Rhodes Mk80 was a very controversial "digital Rhodes" from the short period when the trademark was owned by Roland. It used similar technology to the MKS20 to provide what were, at the time, very expressive and realistic piano and rhodes (Epiano1) sounds, plus a very familar digital piano sound (Epiano2) and a combination of the two (Epiano3).

• MK80Epiano3.mp3

• MK80Epiano2.mp3

• MK80Epiano1.mp3

• MK80Apiano1.mp3

The JD800 was a 1991 Roland digital synth that featured a very bright (like, ridiculously bright) dyno-rhodes sound called "Crystal Rhodes".

• JD800.mp3

Just in case anyone finds it useful, I also demoed the "official" versions - the "Layer" pianos and the newer DigiPianos - in the same way.

I'm pretty sure Digital Piano 1 has a relationship to the Korg M1

• DigiGrand1.mp3

Digital Piano 2 sounds closer to the Roland modelling attempts in the post above - this is quite close to the MKS20 Apiano1 to my ears.

• Digigrand2.mp3

I find both of the Ballad Eps pretty non-descript. As you can hear they record beautifully, and I think they would work in context for any late 80s-early 90s ballad. So a couple for when you get the phone call from Diane Warren.

• BalladEp1.mp3

• BalladEp2.mp3

On the hybrid I can certainly hear the JD800. I think it is layered with a Rhodes of some description.

• HybridEP.mp3

This feels like the MKS20 Apiano layered with a Roland "Rhodes" epiano. I could be wrong though.

• SilverEP.mp3

I used the same settings and process as for the files above. One think that struck me was even though these are "Small" files the layers especially sound huge - much more polished and much richer than the "secret" pianos. Depends what you need, really. I think these record well but are less inspiring to play, but you may think otherwise.

Very cool, thanks!

Edit: read again.. sry

Awesome example recordings

MartinJ2EX wrote:You could also link the post where you got those “secret” samples
Would be very cool for everybody who unlike me doesn’t have those insanely awesome samples

He has!