The Nord Piano Library - unsolicited advice for a makeover

[maurus]

Perhaps Clavia should hire you as their new strategist. Care to send a job application?

Get a beer!

[harmonizer]

>There is no need to retire anything.<

I think it's important for a company to phase out dated and relatively unused material - at least dump them in an archive section. Promoting the older and in many cases weaker samples for download suggests that the company isn't bothering to update them. Which in Clavia's case is too often the truth.

Consider that companies don't really know *all* the ways people are using their products.

[Gambold]

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[Lewthepianoguy]

Please forgive my comments here, but...

Firstly I don't find the older sampled pianos outdated, as a session pianist as well as a studio musician, it's nice to have some variation in texture, etc. Though I do understand the issues of "outdated" compare these pianos against korg, yamaha and roland's internal stock and you'll find much better in the nord, that's why I'll only go for nord, maybe Kurzweil, but as kurzweil's impossible to acquire in the UK without either selling your body or soul and waiting months for a boat with a crate to pop to the UK with some new friends (oops) then, that's how it is.

I would ask that nord be more creative with their sampling. As my background is from the acoustic piano, it's all well and good just sampling tuned instruments which have had a bit of care, let's be creative here. If any of you remember Native Instruments "Una Corda_ or the Giant, these are cinematic pianos deliberately designed to work in certain ways. Not only that but if you look at the anatomy of a piano, like how Roland took on the challenge with the "V-Piano" (which didn't sell that well due to the high price tag and lack of dealers), you'd realise that the modelling for strings including metals, damper felts, hammer felts, etc, there's so much you could do with a piano to change voicings etc, not just using EQ filters, etc. Piano Synthesis could also be a way forward here. There's also some unique instruments of the piano family missing which could be added here.

One thing I do find missing and it's something I'd prefer having, is an expanded collection of the "Digital Pianos", let's grab the known models such as the korg 01WProX, Trinity Pro X / Triton series, Yamaha's Motif series, etc there's a good selection of instruments digital piano wise to sample from which would be a benefit to the nord.

I use my iPad Pro now to replace virtually everything I once owned, though there's a challenge when it comes to certain machines which have a close bond to me.

Rather than insult what we've owned and used, let's draw from it, be creative, give Nord the feedback from professionals like us who work with their gear every day and ask them to come up with some new instruments, etc.

Just my £2.75 +VAT wprth lol

[That1Guy]

I say don't get rid of any, but would always love to see more. Maybe something experimental like the "Giant" that many use as a VST. Would also love to have a pitch bend and mod on the electro as welll as a filter cutoff in the synth. All those things aside, I still love the sound and feel way better than anything else on the market.

[Lewthepianoguy]

I say don't get rid of any, but would always love to see more. Maybe something experimental like the "Giant" that many use as a VST. Would also love to have a pitch bend and mod on the electro as welll as a filter cutoff in the synth. All those things aside, I still love the sound and feel way better than anything else on the market.

Yep, the electro could do with pitch / mod which I do find a bit of a put off, but that said, each is it's own flavour.

I wish there was a way to expand the sampling ram / storage for the stage so that synth / sampled instruments could be loaded. also a way to convert soundfont 2 onwards to nsmp format, but that said, we're using unique tools compared to the usual suspects.

[afroskully]

welcome back, Gambold.

[brane]

Totally agree with Gambold (new), back again with humour and verve :
- Gds : yes
- Uprights : downrights
- Elecs : on the rhodes again and again, reactualize old samples.
- Digitals etc : take on me 200%
- Clav : 300%
-Harpsichord : Saturday night fever 400%
Thnks Gambold

Yes, i agree: Elecs : on the Rhodes again and again, reactualize old samples.

[kirsty]

Kurzweil, but as kurzweil's impossible to acquire in the UK without either selling your body or soul and waiting months for a boat with a crate to pop to the UK with some new friends (oops) then, that's how it is.

Lew, I am in the UK and have had 2x Kurzweils over the last 6 years or so, both from gear4music at York and delivered next day (with free return option within a week). They have most models folks would want from the Kurz range so I wouldnt say they are THAT hard to get hold of. They will happily fetch one out of the warehouse and set it up to demo if you visit their showroom too.

Back on topic

I dont see any need to retire the old samples. Some of them are still quite good in their own right and more choice is always better as long as new stuff keeps drifting through regularly to keep things current and the library idea relevant.

What could be a new idea is for Nord to start off a new wave of XXL samples, starting with a new killer piano. I would happily allow a 300/400/500mb chunk out of my 2gb memory for a new killer sample that would rival some of the VSTs

[Gambold]

RE my call to retire old samples:

--First, I didn't ask for that many to go. Two grands, the Concert Grand samples, which I doubt anyone is using. If anyone *honestly* is using one of these as their go-to, please chime in and tell us why! Plus I suggested pruning the bloated uprights section down to about half its current roster. All of these cuts could be kept in an archive section, where they would, most likely, be ignored.

--To the notion that more is better, lots of choice is great, let it be, etc - Clavia sells their boards partially on the merits of their sound library. It's a big draw and also a justification (among other things) for the premium price we pay. Most other vendors don't have such a benefit and if they do, charge you up the wazoo to download additional samples.

--By keeping all these older, and in some cases demonstrably weaker, samples in their active library, it doesn't force the company to update more consistently. Newbie comes on, sees all these grands and uprights, goes oh wow and happily pays 3K or whatever for his Piano 4. Newbie doesn't realize that some of these samples are kinda old, created with dated technology, and that there's a Nord forum of dedicated players who have been clamoring for updates and XL versions of the classics for years now.

SO - I say clean up the library, keep the best, move the bottom third to an archive section, and let's get some new, large samples in there. It's almost 2019, we haven't had a Grand or Rhodes in two years.