Nord User Forum

Hi folks,
I currently gig with Nord Stage 2 76, now thinking of upgrading to the Nord Stage 3 88. For gigging musician with dates/rehearsals every week, can any of ye give me some insight on how easy/hard the transition to the new model was?

Was a difficult to convert and port over the patches?

Did the seamless transition feature make a big difference to your performance? How long did it take to adjust to the new board layout.

Thanks for your help,
P.

If you can afford to have both machines side by side for a few days while you transition, you can use the "shift" button and twist any knob on the Stage 2 to find out the saved value for easy transfer to the new machine. That won't be a perfect match, but it will get you close quickly. You can load all your existing samples into the Stage 3, as well.

Many things will be a lot easier and faster to get right on the Stage 3 than on the Stage 2, due to the added capabilities and the slightly brighter basic sound.
I never could seem to get a really useful pop brass sound on the Stage 2, and it took me about thirty seconds on the Stage 3. Also, it seems much easier to get beautiful, rich strings.

The seamless transitions make a HUGE difference to me. Being able to just switch patches without worrying about delays and reverbs and decays cutting out is just such a boon.

analogika wrote:If you can afford to have both machines side by side for a few days while you transition, you can use the "shift" button and twist any knob on the Stage 2 to find out the saved value for easy transfer to the new machine. That won't be a perfect match, but it will get you close quickly. You can load all your existing samples into the Stage 3, as well.

I just did this. Takes time, but it's quite easy job to do.
If you play organ part using dual keyboard mode like I do, don't upgrade yet. Wait until they fix that swell pedal bug.

PODGESAX wrote:How long did it take to adjust to the new board layout.

Are you talking about the panel itself? Zero. It's almost the same panel, except with rotary per Slot and the transpose button moved to a less stupid place. The synth with its dedicated display is a huge relief and much nicer.

The new Bank structure and Song mode are still (after a year) taking some organisation. I haven't found an ideal structure yet for my usage, but Song mode has proven very useful for projects where I need only a handful of programs.

Thanks for the responses folks, is the pending load feature gone? Can’t find it in the manual and I depend on this on the NS2.

Pending load is gone, but you have seamless transition and song mode instead.

Also, the swell pedal bug is fixed in today’s 1.50 upgrade

I've just discovered the long thread on the Pending Load function.. I'm baffled as to why such an essential feature was removed. It's essential for me, won't be upgrading unless it's sorted.. come on Clavia?

You’ve seen that the number buttons now give direct access to all 25 programs of a bank if you change them to numerical access, right? (11-15, 21-25, 31-35, etc.)

analogika wrote:You’ve seen that the number buttons now give direct access to all 25 programs of a bank if you change them to numerical access, right? (11-15, 21-25, 31-35, etc.)

Yes, that doesn’t cut it I’m afraid, not going to remember individual numbers for those rarely used patches.