NORD STAGE 4 officially announced for February 16th 2023

[spalding12]

>when you try to maintain a form factor just for the hell of it <

This was more likely a cost decision. And I guess 2GB of memory is the permanent ceiling now. No increase from the Piano 5 or Grand. Or Stage 3, for that matter.

It does have lots of pretty lights.

You hit the nail on the head
it feels like I'm dealing with IBM in 1987
it is as if keyboard manufacturers lose the phone number for chipset manufacturers
many others are guilty of it
you should be able to put every single sample on their website at its highest resolution in any keyboard costing $6000
because that's what most people want
no one wants to sit around with the sound library manager before every dig to move things around
that makes no sense in 2023
the worst part is that we waited six years for this
everybody else can sing the praises of the other improvements in the things they like
but the memory management and allocation and availability is archaic and not even worthy of the keyboard made 15 years ago
memory is cheap
how can this be what we get in that realm six years later?

[florence]

the spec says:
2 Individual Layer Scene Setups

What does it really mean? each program contain a link to 2 organ preset, 2 piano preset, and 2 synth preset? so you can switch between them with a single button?

In what is that different from switching from program1 to program 2 ??

[Schorsch]

So who comprises the Clavia house band that is backing up each one of these Nord Artists? They are all wearing Nord hoodies...where can I get one of those?

They will ship it with your new Nord Stage 4, at an uplift of just 199 USD

[Gambold]

>shocking that this is what we get after six years<

I don't know if it's shocking. It's a top-end product, and the best of its kind out there. The pricing is an assault, but...if they can sell them regardless of that, than the market has spoken. They will likely get a lot of institutional orders, and maybe that's all they need to maintain the pleasant buzz of running a small, well-regarded company and keep the coffers full. Innovation and major design changes cost a lot of upfront money - why spend that when they are humming along.

[maxpiano]

>when you try to maintain a form factor just for the hell of it <

This was more likely a cost decision. And I guess 2GB of memory is the permanent ceiling now. No increase from the Piano 5 or Grand. Or Stage 3, for that matter.

It does have lots of pretty lights.

You hit the nail on the head
it feels like I'm dealing with IBM in 1987
it is as if keyboard manufacturers lose the phone number for chipset manufacturers
many others are guilty of it
you should be able to put every single sample on their website at its highest resolution in any keyboard costing $6000
because that's what most people want
no one wants to sit around with the sound library manager before every dig to move things around
that makes no sense in 2023
the worst part is that we waited six years for this
everybody else can sing the praises of the other improvements in the things they like
but the memory management and allocation and availability is archaic and not even worthy of the keyboard made 15 years ago
memory is cheap
how can this be what we get in that realm six years later?

OK, easy, "punish" them and don't buy it

PS: can you give us an example of a 2023 keyboard that can do that, i.e. load ALL of the libraries available for it and that is not a "PC in a keyboard chassis"?

[analogholic]

Anyone having an idea whether the B3/Leslie in the Stage can be upgraded like when the Nord C2 was upgraded with the C2D engine? Not positive to wait another 6 year for an update….

This is the question....

It would be a bit ridiculous if they released a new organ clone (C3D?) and then maybe an Electro 7 will have that tech and not the NS4...

On the other hand, IIRC, the Electro 5 got the close miked Leslie long before the NS3 was released...

Maybe they "solve" that issue by releasing the NE7 first

[spalding12]

>shocking that this is what we get after six years<

I don't know if it's shocking. It's a top-end product, and the best of its kind out there. The pricing is an assault, but...if they can sell them regardless of that, than the market has spoken. They will likely get a lot of institutional orders, and maybe that's all they need to maintain the pleasant buzz of running a small, well-regarded company and keep the coffers full. Innovation and major design changes cost a lot of upfront money - why spend that when they are humming along.

I do not disagree with you
but the memory issue is garbage
no one wants to have less than a full quality sample installed because of memory limitations
that should never happen anymore even if they want even more money to give you a unit with more memory
2 GB of piano samples is reminiscent of keyboards from 20 years ago
and the fact that they didn't add anything six years later is ridiculous
in fact it's insulting
it should've been 4 GB
that would've cost them less than you can imagine
that's my only point
it is as if they don't care about something that is so basic
someone in corporate who is 130 years old thinks that memory is still expensive
it is NOT
not the kind of memory you need for this issue

[spalding12]

>when you try to maintain a form factor just for the hell of it <

This was more likely a cost decision. And I guess 2GB of memory is the permanent ceiling now. No increase from the Piano 5 or Grand. Or Stage 3, for that matter.

It does have lots of pretty lights.

You hit the nail on the head
it feels like I'm dealing with IBM in 1987
it is as if keyboard manufacturers lose the phone number for chipset manufacturers
many others are guilty of it
you should be able to put every single sample on their website at its highest resolution in any keyboard costing $6000
because that's what most people want
no one wants to sit around with the sound library manager before every dig to move things around
that makes no sense in 2023
the worst part is that we waited six years for this
everybody else can sing the praises of the other improvements in the things they like
but the memory management and allocation and availability is archaic and not even worthy of the keyboard made 15 years ago
memory is cheap
how can this be what we get in that realm six years later?

OK, easy, "punish" them and don't buy it

PS: can you give us an example of a 2023 keyboard that can do that, i.e. load ALL of the libraries available for it and that is not a "PC in a keyboard chassis"?

it isn't about punishing them
it said they really don't care what people do want
you can find another keyboard even for $2000 less that has so little memory
and not one bit more than six years ago
in the same exact chipset by the way is what I hear
where were they even find those?

[Gambold]

>you should be able to put every single sample on their website at its highest resolution in any keyboard costing $6000<

The architecture argument is not one I'm qualified to engage in - others here have provided reasons, or maybe excuses, as to why things have not changed.

I would agree that it seems counter-intuitive this far along that Clavia can't provide adequate enough storage for their samples. Especially because the samples keep getting bigger. For this kind of money you want to run the XL versions, regardless of whether or not the audience can hear the difference. You are paying for this capability so you want to use it. Yeah, these boards should have 5GB or 10GB or whatever to render any decision about what am I going to load moot.

[analogholic]

>shocking that this is what we get after six years<

I don't know if it's shocking. It's a top-end product, and the best of its kind out there. The pricing is an assault, but...if they can sell them regardless of that, than the market has spoken. They will likely get a lot of institutional orders, and maybe that's all they need to maintain the pleasant buzz of running a small, well-regarded company and keep the coffers full. Innovation and major design changes cost a lot of upfront money - why spend that when they are humming along.

I think this is it...they know they can sell them anyway....

This was my first thought after my big dissapointment with the organ section...what´s the competition right now?

Yamaha YC? Crumar?

If the YC would have a killer organ which it unfortunately is very far from having, maybe the situation would be different.

I hope I'm wrong here, but if they speculate like this, it´s kind of sad...instead of wanting to be cutting edge..."nah...it´s good enough for our target customer group"