Nord User Forum

dcjams wrote:

sentionaut wrote:
Good luck and please report back. I was just reading through some other posts on this forum and others and it sounds like its common enough.

I've also been somewhat surprised by the discovery after what sounds like similar research to yourself.

The first thing worth saying is, other than this issue, the Nord has completely surpassed my expectations. It's a truly gorgeous instrument. It's my first Nord too.

I suppose manufacturers are constantly making decisions balancing cost, design, function, use etc. It may well be that Nord figure that they create instruments for live use where for the most part mechanical noise will never be noticed. Sure, I'd rather pay more to guarantee none, but it might explain their reasoning.

I certainly much prefer an internal power supply to a wall-wart.

I really hope your replacement is free of issues.

In my little studio I have two products with OLED screens, both from Elektron and there is no noise from these at all. And I have never seen Elektron users complain about noise from their screens. I also have an Sequential OB6, I've owned other Dave Smith synths in the past as well and there has never been any issues with power supply noise. They all have internal power supplies as well.

So I am very surprised to read so many comments from Nord users saying its normal and you just have to live with it. It should not matter if the instrument is used on stage or in a studio, a high end instrument like this should not have these issues. The fact that some people report it and some people do not and some people report it after a period of use, to me says these issues are preventable and that Nord has either cut corners, has poor quality control or doesn't care about its customers. Perhaps a combination of all three?

I had a similar issue with my Nord Grand - buzzing noises coming out of the transformer AND oled display. I recently returned it since it was a b-stock unit. Now I'm going to order a new one - fingers crossed there will be no buzzing sounds.
Otherwise unfortunately I'm done with Nord. If the price point would be 1000 EUR lower - ok (but still not really ok). But since they claim to be a high quality manufacturer because they build their instruments by hand and want us customer to pay the price for that kind of quality therefore Nord has to fulfill their own promised high quality level.
From my probably a bit german nitpicking point of view I can and will not accept such stupid minor f*** ups at this price point. Compared to my other devices f.e. Yamaha MODX8 / Motif XF7 there are no such issues. So maybe handmade isn't that good after all?!? Or is handmade just an excuse to use parts with minor quality? Or maybe Nord has to improve QA?

In addition the wooden red board in the very center of the Nord Grand was also a bit uneven.

I talked to a sales person at thomann.de and he was really surprised hearing about my complaints. He told me that his experience with Nord showed him that their products are indeed at a high quality level. So maybe I was just 'lucky' to receive a flawed Nord Grand. Who knows...

For me since the Nord Grand costs about 3200 EUR I expect a nearly flawless instrument. Sure the sounds are really awesome and I personally like the keybed very much but if my replacement unit struggles with the same issues again I'll return it immediately and wait for Namm 2022. Therefore if Yamaha, Korg, Roland, Kawaii present a similar product compared to Nord Grand or Nord Piano 5 - good luck to Nord trying to sell quality flawed products and have fun in staying in the 'exotic handmade market segment'.

ryanhardo wrote:I had a similar issue with my Nord Grand - buzzing noises coming out of the transformer AND oled display.

I had a hum rather than a buzz. It's only audible if one's in complete silence, and even then it's minimal. I tried four Nord Piano 5s, all from different retailers. All the same. Nord claim it's normal and is a result of some of their design decisions, which I fnd somewhat mystifying given nothing else in my studio does it.

However, once I accepted that's how it is and that I didn't have a duff unit, I can say without reservation that it stopped bothering me at all and I adore my Nord Piano 5.

I just noticed it then actually, as I was typing, there was a lull in ambient background noise.

It just means "the Nord's on" to me now.

Obvioulsy you may not feel the same and you could be describing a fault. I don't have OLED noise either.

Good luck!

I can hear my nord stage 3 but my grand doesnt have any audible noise from power supply

wanted to buy a nord piano 5 88 so bad ... but i run fanless PCs, my room is very quiet.i have what my father describes as "dolphin ears" my buddies C2 organ is loud from the transformer. ive been around a few nords that are quiet , but ive definitely seen my fair share of noisy ones. if they could just quiet thier displays and power solutions they would garner much more respect from me ..... and business. our instruments are sacred and metaphysical , so to ignore the fact they are not zen outside headphones is a huge mistake.

so i bought a yamaha YC88. i think the nord sounds better yes ( though they are apples and oranges) , but ive owned many yamaha's . there all silent and have never had any hardware issues , solid build quality. food for thought nord!

icemonk wrote:wanted to buy a nord piano 5 88 so bad ... but i run fanless PCs, my room is very quiet.i have what my father describes as "dolphin ears" my buddies C2 organ is loud from the transformer. ive been around a few nords that are quiet , but ive definitely seen my fair share of noisy ones. if they could just quiet thier displays and power solutions they would garner much more respect from me ..... and business. our instruments are sacred and metaphysical , so to ignore the fact they are not zen outside headphones is a huge mistake.

so i bought a yamaha YC88. i think the nord sounds better yes ( though they are apples and oranges) , but ive owned many yamaha's . there all silent and have never had any hardware issues , solid build quality. food for thought nord!

I can't really remember the last time I noticed the noise, and I can't remember the last time it bothered me, but ... puts ear against Nord ... yeah it's still there.

I don't really get it either, and I can see why it might drive you to the YC88, which is a great board

FZiegler wrote:Maybe it's the power supply, maybe it's the OLED.

post141568.html?hilit=buzz#p141568

Maybe its maybelline ... no its just nord ignoring the fact their transformers are annoying as heck and there oleds whine . ridiculously lazy engineering or an intentional FU , you decide. gonna mod my NS3C soon to silence the transformer , as for the oleds there not to bad i have to get me head next to the keyboard , can always get a 80 dollar oled from syntaur and roll the dice! also the power supply boards on syntaur look different maybe a new revision ? ill revise it my self thank you very much-u .thanks nord!