General Discussion of the Nord Stage (EX), Nord Stage 2 (EX), Nord Stage 3, and Nord Stage 4 Synths, FAQ, Troubleshooting etc.

Nord Stage 4 USB 3.0 ???

Postby Soeren » 24 Mar 2023, 21:04

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking to get the new Stage 4. Does it have USB 3.0 communication or the really old USB 1.1 (like all the Nord stuff) ???

Thanks ;)
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Nord Stage 4 USB 3.0 ???


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Re: Nord Stage 4 USB 3.0 ???

Postby superbender » 24 Mar 2023, 21:13

Soeren wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm thinking to get the new Stage 4. Does it have USB 3.0 communication or the really old USB 1.1 (like all the Nord stuff) ???

Thanks ;)


As the driver is still the same, I would assume USB 1.1.
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Re: Nord Stage 4 USB 3.0 ???

Postby Elias » 25 Mar 2023, 11:03

I remeber more knowledgeable forum members saying that USB transfer speed is not the bottleneck in the system. I think the limiting factor with "downloading" pianos and samples to the intstrument is the memory itself. So USB 3.0 would be unnecessary.
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Re: Nord Stage 4 USB 3.0 ???

Postby Valpurgis » 25 Mar 2023, 12:43

I trust Nord perfectly well know which transfer speed is adequate for their use of the USB port.
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Re: Nord Stage 4 USB 3.0 ???

Postby EricBarker » 26 Mar 2023, 21:59

There is no reason for it to go above USB1.1. Audio itself rarely goes above 2.1, even for large multi-channel interfaces, cuz Audio bandwidth is tiny. This is just data, very small amounts of data... on a device with a very slow bus. USB3 would be like putting a Hemi on a Golf Cart.

The only advantage to USB3 would have been using a USB-C jack, which I would be in favor of. The world is going USB-C. A is done, B is alright but unnecessary. I have plenty of B->C cables at home, so this isn't really a big deal, but a C would have been nice. However, you can't use USB-C with 1.1 (as far as I know), and it wouldn't be worth it for Clavia to upgrade their hardware for the soul purpose of changing the plug type.
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Re: Nord Stage 4 USB 3.0 ???

Postby Swampfox » 26 Mar 2023, 23:54

USB 1.1 is only 12 Mbit / second and from the 1990s. I doubt that Nord is using that standard which would require over 2 hours to transfer 4 GBytes of data at zero overhead.
USB 2.0 has a transfer rate of 480Mbits/sec, is still around, and likely what they are using. Theoretically, you could transfer 4 Gbytes in a couple of minutes which, again, in theory would be fast enough to backup and restore an NS. I think a full restore on mine takes about 20 minutes, which lends credence to USB not being the bottleneck.
USB 3 starts at 5Gbit/sec and could move 4Gbyte in well under a minute, probably in the 10-12 second range.
As far as the Audio bandwidth issue, it is irrelevant since Nord does not pass audio over the USB bus, only midi and internal files.
Moving to USB 3 would likely require completely redesigning the architecture of their boards, which clearly did not happen with this iteration of the device.
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