Nord User Forum

World's First Look at the NEW Nord Stage 4 - At The Nord Factory!

Every night when I lay down, I can hear the boos in my head. The jeers that rise up just as I’m finishing a solo or trading 4 with the drummer.

“YOUR LESLIE EMULATION IS WEEEAK,” they shout.
“YOUR SAMPLES HAVE NO VELOCITY LAYERS.”

Pretending I can’t hear them, I load up a fresh B3 patch and feel that familiar twang of irritation as I look at my drawbars sitting there, lifeless and unmoving. The great Hammond players of old also had to suffer the indignity of manually adjusting their drawbars, I tell myself. Well. Just paying my dues, I guess.

One night, even my girlfriend finally had enough. “You’re only using Large-size samples, aren’t you? I can tell that some of your pianos aren’t fully mapped when you play down low. And that Rhodes sound is so 2016.”

Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I go on the website and look at the specs. For the last time, I tell myself. I think about the product manager, far away in some office with pretentious Scandinavian furniture, just deciding that 2 GB was good enough for a flagship product, like a child haphazardly picking out some mismatched outfit and skipping off to school without a care in the world.

What kind of man is he? Was he deliberately toying with me? Did he know at that moment how his decision would ripple across the world to taunt me from behind a glowing computer screen, bringing me to ruin with every gig?

Last night, as we were breaking down after the show, a half-wasted fan came by to greet me. Slapping me on the back, he told me in between swigs of beer that he had never heard so much character and detail in an upright piano patch. That felt good. But for the rest of the night, everyone in the band kept giving me strange looks, as if they were holding back a laugh.

Only when I got back to the motel did I find the piece of paper stuck to my back. It said “PENDING LOAD.”

I honestly think that Nord could say any number they want for memory and 95% of users would not, in any kind of practical use, know the difference.

Thanks modalmixture, love the humor.

That's a funny one, modalmixture! In the end, you have to look at it this way: I just bought the NS3 and I have zero regrets and, honestly, zero envy of the NS4. Of course if I could get the 4 for the same $4100 I paid off for the 3, that might be different. But that kind of says it all. It's just not that big of an upgrade. Whoever pointed out that the 32-bit architecture might be to blame for the 3GB ceiling is quite possibly right. I certainly hope so. Because when it comes to keyboards, more memory for sounds has been a nearly 100% constant with new releases...until the Stage 4. I can't fathom any other reason for there not being a boost to the piano storage. More high quality piano sounds in a stage keyboard is sought after by the vast majority of us buying a keyboard like this.

I just did some Googling and despite all the bitching, as far as I can see, the competition from Roland, Yamaha and Korg come nowhere near either the Stage 3 or the Stage 4.

The Andertons video sums things up nicely.

There's a lot that's new and a lot of it is great.

New Panel Layout and LED Faders!
Independent FX Chain for Each Layer!
New Preset Library
3 Synth Layers and Improved UI
The Polyphonic Arpeggiator!
Triple Sensor Keybed
Physical Drawbars!
New FX!
New Reverbs!
Layer Scenes
Triple Pedal Functionality!
New Piano Section Features
Dynamic Compression on Piano
Piano Section Unison

I dunno. Seems pretty legit to me.

StrangeAeons wrote:
What I'm terribly disappointed about is the organ engine. The C2D was released back in 2012: a company such as Nord which strives to offer the best sound quality and became one of the most successful keyboard manufacturers thanks to their Hammond emulation (and their digital synths) can't just say "well, it's still decent, let's leave it at that". The B3 engine had to be updated. I hope, just like what happened with the C2D and Electro 4, that Nord will come out with a new double-manual organ, or include a new organ simulation in the Electro 7 and then release a Stage 4 EX.

They can't wait four or five more years to get on par with Crumar, Viscount and HX3.

The problem is unfortunately that they CAN wait six years...

Why?

Because they very well know that there is no competition (unfortunately) for Nord Stage for what it does as a "one board solution" and the way it does it.
Sure, a HX3 or Crumar blows it out of the water regarding organ, but none of those companies (or others) have something like the Stage.

So in other words, Nord don't have to break their bones about it...it´s "good enough" for their target customer group.

dansnord wrote:Whoever pointed out that the 32-bit architecture might be to blame for the 3GB ceiling is quite possibly right. I certainly hope so. Because when it comes to keyboards, more memory for sounds has been a nearly 100% constant with new releases...until the Stage 4. I can't fathom any other reason for there not being a boost to the piano storage.

That may well be the reason. But I can fathom another reason... that memory cost is not insignificant, and IRL, most players don't actually need more than 2 GB of piano memory. It seems to me that sometimes people want it just because it's "more," not because they really need to load more than 10 different pianos at their largest sizes.

anotherscott wrote:

dansnord wrote:Whoever pointed out that the 32-bit architecture might be to blame for the 3GB ceiling is quite possibly right. I certainly hope so. Because when it comes to keyboards, more memory for sounds has been a nearly 100% constant with new releases...until the Stage 4. I can't fathom any other reason for there not being a boost to the piano storage.

That may well be the reason. But I can fathom another reason... that memory cost is not insignificant, and IRL, most players don't actually need more than 2 GB of piano memory. It seems to me that sometimes people want it just because it's "more," not because they really need to load more than 10 different pianos at their largest sizes.

I want it because I like to experiment and be inspired by the sounds in my keyboard. I don't "need it", but I want it. The more sounds I have at my fingertips, the more I can experiment and expand my boundaries of playing. For example, I used to dismiss upright piano sounds. While I still use grands the vast majority of the time, I'm starting to appreciate the upright sounds more and more. And I play differently when I use them. That's a good thing. I have yet to try the Pearl Upright as I would have to delete other stuff to make room and I just haven't found the time to do that. But if I had more memory in my Nord....

dcjams wrote:...The Andertons video sums things up nicely.
There's a lot that's new and a lot of it is great....
I dunno. Seems pretty legit to me.

I agree. There are a lot of possibilities with this keyboard.