Thoughts about new releases

[zahush76]

I'm actually not understanding this.
I know we should be thankful and all, for every new sample nord releases.
The thing is that well over a year now, useres have been asking for new, updated, improved and more detailed versions of some of the electro-mechanical keyboard sounds (rhodes, wurly, clav).
As been said on other threads on the subject - some of the "current" samples are dated back to 2001 (!!!).
Some of the rhodes samples were on my nord electro in its first version. Not to mention the clav and wurly that didn't change at all.
Now i have the Stage 2, and little has changed in that departement.

Instead, nord has been sampling every instrument imaginable - even if less nessecary for us as keyboard players.
If i want a good convincing bass, there's no way a 7mb library can touch stuff like trillian or scarbee mm bass.
A couple of months ago nord released brass section samples. Now i see they re-released an improved version! Of a brass section!
They even did that before re-releasing rhodes samples.
They designed 4 new instruments.

It seems like they will do anything imaginable but releasing better rhodes, wurly and clav...
And these are some of the most frequently used sounds. I just don't get it

[jazzystu]

What was that, New Rhodes and Clavinet sounds?

Thought not.

They need to keep up with this game as sadly the existing sounds are aging quite badly.

Do I want a Stage 3 or something else? At the moment, that is an open question.

[organut]

It seems like they will do anything imaginable but releasing better rhodes, wurly and clav...
And these are some of the most frequently used sounds. I just don't get it

+1

I also don't understand why they don't license higher quality instruments like Scarbee, Neo-Soul or Cfrentzen Rhodes. Instead they are licensing a mediocre bass VST??

Also, why the hell don't the open their sample format to third party developers? F.e. Native Instrumenst does that very successfully with their Kontakt Sampler format which made the Kontakt sampler No 1 in it's market. I am sure that many people would be ready to pay for really good stuff.

[mistral_73]

They may have understood this forum poll as the opposite to it's meaning:
http://www.norduserforum.com/post15266. ... les#p15266
I would NOT most want the following new samples.

It makes sense in this way:
3% score for the brass sound, so it is very wanted, a lot more than electric pianos...
And about the bass, which is not in the poll of the "not wanted", it's just perfect...

>I believe Clavia stills reads us from time to time.
We may have to offer them good glasses, or maybe dogs...


Cheers

[Ecaroh]

I don't get it either...?!? What is the use for these bass sounds?

Take acoustic bass for example: without enough velocity layers and perhaps release samples, acoustic bass is lifeless for sure. All these noises and differences in timbre make it sound real. So I don't think any of us will use those sounds in recordings. Practically any sample set with more details will sound better...

How about live playing? Maybe there're few guys who would use these sounds with their left hand, when there's no real bassist around. I still think that this not what 90% or more of us do.

Personally I don't bother even testing these sounds. I have my samplelibraries in my computer; I will use them if I need bass sounds and even that is very seldom.

So why Clavia does not respect the wish of great majority here? We have said it hundred times: Clavia is best for pianos and e-pianos. Why they do not develop this further?

[anotherscott]

How about live playing? Maybe there're few guys who would use these sounds with their left hand, when there's no real bassist around. I still think that this not what 90% or more of us do.

I play LH bass a lot at gigs (and I've always felt that Nord's strengths are greatest as a gigging board). I don't know what the percentages are, but I imagine that more gigging keyboard players need bass sounds than many other sounds Nord has... but I'm glad they're all there as options for those who can use them.

The biggest problem with Nord as a LH bass board is that the splittable boards (where LH bass makes sense) don't include a low E unless you get a weighted action. But enough has been written about that!

So why Clavia does not respect the wish of great majority here? We have said it hundred times: Clavia is best for pianos and e-pianos. Why they do not develop this further?

It is much easier to create single-velocity samples than multi-velocity samples, so it's nor surprising that the former come out with greater frequency. I would not assume they are not also working on other, more complicated projects while they are releasing these. It's also a function of what other companies are doing, as in some cases, they have partnered with other sample makers. So if some other sample maker has come out with new basses, there may be little more that Nord needs to do beyond signing a license agreement.

Anyway, sure, I'd really like to get a new Wurly, a dark Rhodes with a better bark, and some velocity-layered Pianets. I assume Nord is not intentionally ignoring their users' wishes. But in the mean time, I look at all the rest of these as nice bonus sounds, not things distracting Nord from more important things. And I think it would be a shame if every time Nord releases a new sound that isn't a piano, all we see are complaints wishing for something else. GIft horses, and all of that. And as you say, it's been said a hundred times. Two hundred won't change anything, it's not like they don't know there's a desire for these things.

[jazzystu]

I'm a modern pianist/organist and I used to drag a Rhodes, Minimoog, Clavinet and Hammond C3 around.

I could set the Rhodes/Clav up as I saw fit, however I am limited to Nord's sounds to a degree.

We have enough pianos and samples to sink the titanic, however the electric pianos are very very wanting.

I wanted a keyboard to do everything (regardless of cost) and I find myself looking at effects boxes and other keyboards.

Come on Nord, this isn't good enough.

Get something we can put in the Npno slots please!

[Dieguet]

Hi,
I totally agree with Anotherscott in all of this:

Anyway, sure, I'd really like to get a new Wurly, a dark Rhodes with a better bark, and some velocity-layered Pianets. I assume Nord is not intentionally ignoring their users' wishes. But in the mean time, I look at all the rest of these as nice bonus sounds, not things distracting Nord from more important things. And I think it would be a shame if every time Nord releases a new sound that isn't a piano, all we see are complaints wishing for something else.

[cupachump]

I also don't understand why they don't license higher quality instruments like Scarbee, Neo-Soul or Cfrentzen Rhodes.

A very good point. In the past they have used Freddan from http://www.fenderrhodes.com/ to provide their rhodes samples, which admittedly are very good. But we desperately want more variety, and maybe this new Broomstick Bass heralds a new era of Nord buying in tried and tested sample banks from vsti manufacturers while they focus on the hardware side of things.

Because of the strength of the Scarbee brand (although now owned by NI), it would be a very strong marketing tool to have "now with Scarbee Rhodes and Wurlitzer" on their material imo...

[anotherscott]

I also don't understand why they don't license higher quality instruments like Scarbee, Neo-Soul or Cfrentzen Rhodes.

Even assuming that people agreed these were all necessarily good choices, there are some obvious possible limitations. Like, maybe Scarbee is not interested in licensing their sounds to other manufacturers. Or maybe the file sizes for the samples you want form them are too large to fit in a reasonable size for the Nord, and getting them down to that size wouldn't give you the desired results anyway.