Nord User Forum

Hi everyone,

I recently bought my first Nord (a piano 4 that is) and I can't believe what I'm hearing... The noise-level in the grand piano samples is so high...?! I don't understand. I thought the grand pianos on a Nord should be one of the best a stage piano could get...?!
I am really dissapointed... I can hear the pianosound itself might be ok, but the unreal amount of noise that comes with it, is simply unbearable! It is so heavy, I've stopped using them. The only pianosound I can play without frustration is the 'Bright Grand'. That one is ok. In this sound I can cut a little bit of high frequencies, (which are the ones carrying the noise I'm talking about) in the EQ-section. All the other 'piano grands' are very hard to listen to, due to the noise within the sample itself. Play one note and you hear it instantly, play a few notes and the noise is even building up really badly...

And it can get even worse. The piano 4 also has a switch 'soft/mid/bright', which offers a kind of EQ-preset. Using the 'bright' setting here pushes the noise even more and makes the piano sound ridiculously cheap (no kidding, this is exactly how I feel about it)
I will add a sample of what I'm hearing in this forum later on, but I allready wanted to check if anyone is suffering from the same problem.

So, one frustrated Nord user here, looking for some help and/or advise (or maybe just some empathy...? )

Maybe some extra information:

- I'm using the same headphones as always (Beyer-DT770).

- changing headsets makes no difference, listening through speakers (good active ones) doesn't 'solve' anything either...

- I have never noticed this terrible amount of noise in samples before (on other keyboards I mean) . Not in the past on my Roland RD- stage pianos, and not on the other instruments I'm using right now (jupiter 50 / Korg Sv-1).

- I always downloaded the best samples available in the Nord library and listened to the samples with a flat EQ and no dynamic interventions.

- In general I would like to add just a little bit of brightness on my piano-sounds (in my studio that would normally take just a tiny little bit of that, so I'm really not talking about live situations, desperatly trying to get through the mix for instance). But as mentioned, there is absolutely no way I could add some high frequencies, since the noise is only getting more and more present if I do so...

- listening online to the grand pianos for the Nords (on YouTube f.e.), doesn't give me the same amount of noise. Examples of the different 'grands' as you can hear them in the Nord Library on the official Nord website, also sound a lot better.

So... is all this unique to my instrument, or is anyone experiencing the same problem on his piano 4...?

Thanks for sharing your opinion/remarks on this!

TeeGee

Hi TeeGee,
I've noticed some sounds similar to what you're describing when I play with the "String Res" button pushed. Not sure if that's how it is labeled on the Piano 4 but that is how it's identified on my Stage 2. It refers to sympathetic string resonance. I'm not sure if this is causing what you're experiencing but I thought it might be a good thing to check out.
Barnaby

Hi Barnaby,

Thanks for your reply!

I've allready eliminated every single option that might influence the sound. So before making any judgement, I'm listening to the samples as 'naked' as possible, so to speak...
The noise is really a lot more present than string resonance, soft release or pedal noise for instance could ever produce I'm affraid...

Cheers
T

This might be an isolated issue as I have never heard any hiss or noise from any of the samples. The only thing that does make a noise is the bright setting on the pianos, the rest have no audible noise. If you think you have every option checked, then check again! It always happens to me that whenever I think I thought of everything there is always something I'm missing! Hope this helps

Hi TeeGee,
Try recording a noisy sample of a single note (a high note is preferred as they tend to be "cleaner", that is ,more like a sine wave) and run a spectral analysis (using, for example, Audacity). Or post a recording here and someone on the forum can run it through Audacity for you.
Understanding the frequency (spectral) content of the noise often provides a clue to the source of the noise.
If you perform the spectral analysis yourself, please post a screenshot of the spectrum for the forum to assess.
Please note which sample you used to allow people to compare your result to their local samples.
-pterm

It might be gain staging, e.g. Nord board too low, amplifier too high. You can get a LOT of hiss that way.

@TeeGee72 I'm curious how did things turn out? Did you ever solve the mystery?

I'm curious too. i hear no noise under normal conditions. i would make sure anyone else with this issue does as suggested and turn the nord to max, and use the proper gain staging.

i mix and master audio and use a nord grand and previously a nord piano 88. they sound identical. i recorded them side by side.

i will say every individual note sample is an audio recording and inherently has (a very small amount of) noise. while it is a superb recording and not noticeable on it's own (unless you have a problem with your nord or equipment), it can become apparent when stacking the same note repetitiously in some specific circumstances. another way it can become aparent is with post processing. while it holds up well, the dry pianos with eq and and compression can bring out hiss from stacked samples building up.

in reality, I've played and recorded a long time and rarely notice this. i still consider the nord samples the absolute best of their type (built into a device) and some of the best even not of their type...

Are the headphones plugged directly into the headphone jack on the instrument?

-dj

I have only noticed excessive noise on my Nord Piano 4 in rare circumstances. The first was when I tried using a crappy pair of headphones with a 1/4" adapter that wasn't designed for them. My better headphones with custom 1/4" adapter sound absolutely fine.

The other time I have noticed noise is with certain devices plugged into the "Monitor In" input, though I haven't spent time to figure out what the cause is, likely a bad cable. My Boss DB-90 Metronome causes the most noise / static when plugged in, while my iPad causes a lot of cable noise / static when being plugged in or shifted around while it is plugged in.