Nord User Forum

Hi folks,

as alluded to here, I've pulled the trigger on an as good as new Electro 5D 61. It's still got the display protective foil on... Pictures are coming soon.

So, yesterday evening I set up both boards side by side and started the dreaded procedure of migrating programs. 1 grand piano, 5 basic organ patches (mellow, bright, crunch, 60s, Reggae), 2 Wurlies (w/ and w/o tremolo) and 1 Rhodes. I finally had to get some sleep, so I'll be doing the Clav and the few synths later tonight.

First impressions:

1 - It's still a very simple and intuitive UI. There's much more going on, so of course I had to adapt a bit. Biggest change for me is that some buttons now operate differently: it used to be press or Shift+press, now it can also be double-press or hold. It leads to a lot of tapping, but it's worth it.

2 - MIDI split! While I don't really care much for layers, being able to play the Electro's piano on the Electro and the Electro's organ (!) on the lower manual is a thrill! I used to have my MX61 for that, but its piano and organ sounds are so inferior.
Another great advantage: you can split the same engine and process the two parts differently - Wurlitzer w/ tremolo on upper, w/o tremolo on lower.

3 - The B3 is noticeably fatter and warmer. That means it also seems a little muffled at first, coming from the NE3. With the Leslie set to 122 and Horn/Rotor to 60/40, I come close to the sound I know. However, I think that with the band, the slightly darker sound will actually work better to sit more "in" the mix instead of on top of it.

4 - One tiny grievance: There is a global setting whether the sustain pedal also toggles the Leslie speed. However, there is no way to handle this in an organ/piano split - even if you deactivate SUSTPED for the organ part, it still switches speeds every time you step on it. I tend to think that selecting "Sus + Rotor" should disable the sustain function of the pedal when it is used in a part that also has the Rotary effect assigned. I will probably just buy a dedicated pedal.

I really wasn't sure about upgrading because the Electro 3 is such a great instrument. All I really wanted was the ability to play both sections at the same time. The Electro 5 gives me that and then some.

harmonizer wrote:The Electro 5 should also give you the option to use the new White Grand AP sound, and the newer EP sounds.

Yeah, I'm already thinking about the EP sounds. The White Grand is probably overkill for me, I have always had just one AP patch and I'm quite happy with it.

Yesterday I set up the missing sounds (Clav and 3 synths), so now I should be able to use the NE5 with the band instead of NE3 + MX61. What I have yet to do is program the sounds that I don't play in our songs but on my own, just for fun.

Interesting. So when you're doing that, you are effectively doubling piano and organ? I'll have to try, it seems kind of counter-intuitive to me to play the same notes for both, but seeing that it works...

Half the band is on summer vacation, I will only get a chance to test my new setup in August.

This community is awesome!

Like I said, it would have seemed natural to me to split organ and piano when I wanted both at the same time, not layer them. But after having it explained to me, it makes sense.

I'm currently on vacation (Kerteminde / Fyn / Denmark ), so I have no way of watching your video with even remotely adequate sound... I'll get back to it when I'm home.