Gambold wrote:*And it's debatable if whatever profits they funneled to Chris Maene wouldn't have been more cleverly spent modernizing the sample library, with better descriptors and a search feature. But that's another thread...
Chris Maene's flagship store is half an hour away from where I live in Belgium. Very impressive with all the acoustic pianos, concert hall, etc. Wonderful to walk around and look at all the goodies. Never seen that many Grand pianos together in one location. I was in awe. They do stock digital pianos but their number pales in comparison to the acoustic models. They also make their own and are apparently internationally renowned.
Still, bit of a 'posh' atmosphere, I thought...
But I don't think I fully understand your post. You make it sound like Chris Maene owns a part of Nord...
Gambold wrote:I'm sorry, you must have missed the memo. CLAVIA CAN DO NO WRONG. THEY DO NOT NEED ANY EXCUSES FOR ANYTHING.*
Suggesting otherwise will get you a dim reception here. This is not an objective forum. It's a club, an appreciation society, and while you can make light grumbles about the lack of this grommet or that widget, calling into question the wisdom of Clavia's marketing, programming, or engineering is not going to win you any cuddles here. You'll quickly be labeled a troll, and depending on the fervor of your calling, the pile-on can become engrossing...
Well, I'm not here to troll or to criticize Nord and on a discussion forum like this, criticism is something that's only natural.
I had been reading and hearing nothing but praise, but that got a bit dented when I discovered how mediocre the keybed was on something like the Stage 3 88 or the Piano 4. Compared with the likes of Roland, Yamaha or Korg, Nord should be ashamed that they release premium boards with that kind of keybed. Still, truth be told, I dislike Fatar keybeds in general so any brand using them won't get any thumbs up from me, so it's not just on Nord. But especially Nord shouldn't be using them, not with the prices they're charging. For comparison : the Piano 4 isn't actually all that expensive at 2500 euro, a bit more than the Yamaha CP88 and Roland RD2000, both around 2200 euro. But the CP88 and RD2000 both have much much better keybeds than the Piano 4, and I'm forgetting Korg's Grandstage, which also easily beats the Piano 4.
The Nord Grand is a big improvement with the Kawai keybed : the RH3 is the best plastic keybed there is, so I hope that Nord will start working together with Kawai in the future instead of Fatar. But to put things in perspective : Kawai MP7SE costs 1350 euro, the Nord Grand 3350 euro. Your mileage or anyone else's mileage may vary, but the Nord sound library isn't worth 2000 euro to me...
I did consider the Grand briefly, though, but opted for the MP11SE in the end.