Nord User Forum

Hello, I'm new to the forum so please pardon any ignorant questions, I'm sure most of them will be.

I've recently gotten into playing keys, originally coming from playing guitar and over the past couple of years I have acquired an OB6 and a Mellotron Micro. I love these both to death, but I find myself wanting to have access to traditional piano sounds along with a larger keyboard.

I'm not a touring musician, I have a small studio at home where I like to record what could be best classified as pop and rock music. I'm still very much a beginner with a keyboard.

There are a few things I am looking for though, and thats where the Piano 5 has popped up in my search. Here is my shortlist of requirements.

1. I'd rather 73 keys than 88 keys as space is of a premium and I'm not going to be playing Beethoven any time soon.
2. I'd like to be able to sell my Mellotron Micro and use the Nord instead for these sounds.
3. I have no interest or need for Organ sounds.
4. I'd like to be able to layer piano and synth/strings sounds and the P5 seems to hit that mark well, I love that I could layer two Mellotron sounds and also have an upright Piano blended with an FM piano at the same time. This is perfect for me!

So I guess my questions are, are there other Nords I should consider? And, will the action on the P5 be counter productive to someone who is still a beginner? I guess an Electro 6 could be okay, but like I said I dont have any need for the organ and I love the 4x layers that the P5 can do.

Hi sentionaut

and a very warm welcome to nord and this great forum full of enthusiasts.

I think that your choice is a good one with an NP5 in the 73 keys version. Finest piano sounds, good pianolike keybed, ability to layer even two piano- or two synth sample sounds, access to a large number of free sounds at nord‘s website. Just do it!

A Nord Stage 3 would add a bit more regarding real synth sounds, if you feel you‘d like to use and modify them more intensely, but that‘ll be all.

Sunny regards from Germany

Tasten-Bert wrote:Hi sentionaut

and a very warm welcome to nord and this great forum full of enthusiasts.

I think that your choice is a good one with an NP5 in the 73 keys version. Finest piano sounds, good pianolike keybed, ability to layer even two piano- or two synth sample sounds, access to a large number of free sounds at nord‘s website. Just do it!

A Nord Stage 3 would add a bit more regarding real synth sounds, if you feel you‘d like to use and modify them more intensely, but that‘ll be all.

Sunny regards from Germany

Hi Tasten Bert!

Thanks for the warm welcome.

It sounds like I am on the right track then. I don’t think I’ll need much more than the stock synth sounds on the P5 as I’ll still have my OB6 that is providing synth duties. I also have an Elektron Analog Four, so I’ve got a lot of synth ground covered I think.

How are the Mellotron sounds considered in the Nord world? Im a bit confused about what Mellotron sounds come with the P5 as it looks like the new sound format means it’s not compatible with the Sound Library 3.0 where the Mellotron sounds live.

The cool thing about my Mellotron Micro is you can very easily combine two sounds at once, so I look forward to being able to do that with the Nord.

Also, I assume the audio out is just mono / stereo of whatever sounds are being played. Would be cool to have Audio over USB to have each audio sample exported in its own individual track.

I think this is a good example of where a piano like action may not be the best option. Perhaps you could also consider a Stage 3 compact with its semi weighted keyboard and synth capabilities. Or alternatively S2C, E6D, E5D. You can layer samples + piano with any of those. Even if you're not likely to use traditional organs, the organ engine provides an interesting extra oscillator source for some out there pads and lead sounds with a few effects added.

If hammer action is not a deal breaker for you, I recommend a Stage 3 Compact, because you never know if a bit of Lesliefied B3 is the missing piece in a puzzle. Won't add much (if any) to the cost and weight, but you get organ and more synth. A big thing I would say is also the pitch bend (lovely) and modulation wheel that you don't get on Piano 5.

sentionaut wrote:How are the Mellotron sounds considered in the Nord world? Im a bit confused about what Mellotron sounds come with the P5 as it looks like the new sound format means it’s not compatible with the Sound Library 3.0 where the Mellotron sounds live.

I'm quite confident that the Mellotron sound collection will also be part of the Nord sample library 4. As it is in Sample Library 3, 2 and 1. This should be a question of time. And if we have to accept that the publishing of the new sample library is delayed, I sometimes wonder if that has to do with the round robin feature in the new format: Every note needs 2 or 3 samples for random alternation. No idea if this will be part of the features for Mellotron sounds, too.

CountFosco wrote:I think this is a good example of where a piano like action may not be the best option. Perhaps you could also consider a Stage 3 compact with its semi weighted keyboard and synth capabilities. Or alternatively S2C, E6D, E5D. You can layer samples + piano with any of those. Even if you're not likely to use traditional organs, the organ engine provides an interesting extra oscillator source for some out there pads and lead sounds with a few effects added.

Thanks for the reply, I guess this is what I am curious about. Why do you think it would not be the best action? I assume because it is simply harder to play the piano action compared to something semi weighted?

With my OB6 it has Fatar keyed of some kind and while it is easy to play it feels a bit weird when I use it to play piano samples. I figured most folks learning on piano are probably not buying a stage keyboard but rather one of those small home pianos that usually have some kind of piano action.

Elias wrote:If hammer action is not a deal breaker for you, I recommend a Stage 3 Compact, because you never know if a bit of Lesliefied B3 is the missing piece in a puzzle. Won't add much (if any) to the cost and weight, but you get organ and more synth. A big thing I would say is also the pitch bend (lovely) and modulation wheel that you don't get on Piano 5.

I dont think hammer action is a deal breaker for me. But the Stage 3 Compact seems to me to just have all these extra features that I dont think I would use. Can the Stage 3 also do 2 layers of synth + 2 layers of piano at the same time?

FZiegler wrote:

sentionaut wrote:How are the Mellotron sounds considered in the Nord world? Im a bit confused about what Mellotron sounds come with the P5 as it looks like the new sound format means it’s not compatible with the Sound Library 3.0 where the Mellotron sounds live.

I'm quite confident that the Mellotron sound collection will also be part of the Nord sample library 4. As it is in Sample Library 3, 2 and 1. This should be a question of time. And if we have to accept that the publishing of the new sample library is delayed, I sometimes wonder if that has to do with the round robin feature in the new format: Every note needs 2 or 3 samples for random alternation. No idea if this will be part of the features for Mellotron sounds, too.

That is interesting, so the P5 looks like it just has one or two Mellotron samples by default, but the rest will have to come with Nord sample library 4? Has there been any talk of when that library might be available?

I think I would hold off until it is.

Nobody knows when the Nord Sample Library 4 will be finally published. There was a draft online for some days under a hidden address maybe in June, but that one was withdrawn/locked away from the Nord staff.