From Nord: Good news regarding the new Enhanced EP:

[OrpheusNY]

...Collection and EP filters! We are working on implementing these features for the following products:

Nord Piano 4 and Nord Electro 6:
Support for Enhanced EPs (V6) and EP filters.

Nord Piano 3, Nord Electro 5 and Nord Stage 2/2EX: Support for the Enhanced EPs (V6).

[analogika]

Excellent. As expected.

[Gambold]

Not excellent for anyone who doesn't have one of those models.

As I've suggested before - Nord's updating of its piano library is principally intended to promote regular sales of new keyboards to its user base. The unexplained huge file sizes of the later Grands and Uprights was evidence of this. Now these enhanced EPs are too. The "great benefit" of the piano library has a shelf life.

I purchased my Electro 4sw on July 15, 2015. It's not yet 3 1/2 years old.

But it is now too old to download pretty much anything in the piano libraries that has been loaded in the past year or so, either through incompatibility or huge file sizes. That's Nord's way of telling me that three years is the limit - you want the new sounds, then buy a new board.

Sure, I can always download the Smalls and Mediums. But I bought a Nord to use its features, and only a small percentage of my playing is in a group, where resonance might get drowned out. I want large files. Forget about XL, I can't have that unless I want one sample on my board. And forget about the Enhanced EPs, even though I, like so many others, have been begging for better Rhodes sampling for years now. Now it's finally here, but - buy a new board.

It's not a welcoming business model and I will be looking elsewhere when it's time to put the E4 to rest.

[dkernohan]

As analogika said - pretty much as expected. Instruments that don't support the piano filters are unlikely to get the extra piano filters. But a bigger, richer, set of Rhodes sounds I am very much looking forward to.

[catosim]

Not excellent for anyone who doesn't have one of those models.

I purchased my Electro 4sw on July 15, 2015. It's not yet 3 1/2 years old.

When you choose to buy a Electro 4sw, the Electro 5 had already been presented months ago.
The new Electro 5 had by that time almost 3 times more storage than Electro 4sw.

I´ve waited several years between the Nors stage classic and my new Nord stage 3.
When the Stage 3 was released, lots of NS2ex became available at a fair price.
I decided to buy the newest product instead of the older generation, because of the future opportunities.
If I had made the different choice due to a better bargain, It would have been unfair complaining about the developments for the newer generations - and the lack of backwards compatibility.

In MY opinion.

[NordPH]

Not excellent for anyone who doesn't have one of those models.

As I've suggested before - Nord's updating of its piano library is principally intended to promote regular sales of new keyboards to its user base. The unexplained huge file sizes of the later Grands and Uprights was evidence of this. Now these enhanced EPs are too. The "great benefit" of the piano library has a shelf life.

I purchased my Electro 4sw on July 15, 2015. It's not yet 3 1/2 years old.

But it is now too old to download pretty much anything in the piano libraries that has been loaded in the past year or so, either through incompatibility or huge file sizes. That's Nord's way of telling me that three years is the limit - you want the new sounds, then buy a new board.

Sure, I can always download the Smalls and Mediums. But I bought a Nord to use its features, and only a small percentage of my playing is in a group, where resonance might get drowned out. I want large files. Forget about XL, I can't have that unless I want one sample on my board. And forget about the Enhanced EPs, even though I, like so many others, have been begging for better Rhodes sampling for years now. Now it's finally here, but - buy a new board.

It's not a welcoming business model and I will be looking elsewhere when it's time to put the E4 to rest.

Why would you expect these updates for a discontinued product?
The E4 was released more than 6 years ago.

[Ledbetter]

Yes, what a shame Nord keeps producing higher quality samples. It is a mystery why more memory, cheap as it is, was not included in earlier and even current models. But your Electro 4 still does what it does when you bought it, and at least a little more if you’re willing to swap out samples. No complaints here.

[afroskully]

can someone explain why the samples (not the filters) would work for the E5 but not the E4? and E3 for that matter?

[JayDee]

I'm PO'd at Apple because my IPhone 5 -released the same time as an Electro 4- doesn't have the features of the newest model XS. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be a way to backload those features.

[anotherscott]

It is a mystery why more memory, cheap as it is, was not included in earlier and even current models.

Not a mystery at all. Many threads on it. The kind of memory the Nords use, which permit it to work the way it works (load new sample sets that then become immediately available at quick boot), has not been cheap.