NORD STAGE 4 officially announced for February 16th 2023

[cotosso]

I'm pretty sure everyone was ready to cheer.

You seem to be "pretty sure" of many things apparently, lucky man!

I am not as much, lot of doubts but I hope instead that part of that "everyone", i.e. people who know how Nord works long time and the history of their products, probably had more realistic (downsized) expectations, so no cheer but neither disappointment for NS4, just "as it could (realistically) be expected", an evolution but not a revolution and no rush to buy it if not really needed and/or affordable.

[Gambold]

>You seem to be "pretty sure" of many things apparently, lucky man!<

A lot of certitude wasn't required this time. We were all famished for new product. If this thing had been awesome we'd all be scouring for the best prices right now and speculating on ship times....not arguing over whether or not to be bummed out.

The comments on the Nord Facebook group (I'm not a member) are almost universally negative, especially about price and lack of a memory upgrade. This group is not as sophisticated as the users here but they do represent the general online market pretty well.

[changearound]

I hope you're wrong in suggesting that to use an External you have to sacrifice an internal synth. This would mean you could only have 3 in total compared to 4 (2 internal synth + 2 External) of all previous Stage models.

Yeah, it's a trade-off. I discussed this at nord-stage-forum-f3/nord-stage-4-offici ... ml#p160929

Call me wildly optimistic but it's possible that we get 3 synths and 3 Externals. Until we get to see a manual we don't know for sure.

[StillPlayin]

…Just bought my NS3-88 a couple of months ago and absolutely love it. I have to say, the NS4 unveiling is an odd sigh of relief for me. The $4,199 I spent on the NS3 is looking fantastic…

This for me as well. I now have a second Stage 3 88 and happy I made the purchase at the reduced price.

And I’m surprised by those expecting something revolutionary with the 4. It’s a Nord Stage, built for live use, with improvements. Not a workstation.

[Duplobaustein]

This feature set is even underwhelming my least expectations...the amount of chuzpe Clavia has is unlimited obviously.

[StrangeAeons]

I won't complain about the price: it's a bit too high, but not significantly higher than it was or what the competition asks for similar keyboards. Imho, Nord did a fine job, considering their business model revolves around relatively small, incremental upgrades rather than constant revolutions (just like Apple and many other companies): if we all agree Nord's pianos are the best ones around and the samples and synths are great, then you can't really ask for more than more memory, engines and a better interface.

What I'm terribly disappointed about is the organ engine. The C2D was released back in 2012: a company such as Nord which strives to offer the best sound quality and became one of the most successful keyboard manufacturers thanks to their Hammond emulation (and their digital synths) can't just say "well, it's still decent, let's leave it at that". The B3 engine had to be updated. I hope, just like what happened with the C2D and Electro 4, that Nord will come out with a new double-manual organ, or include a new organ simulation in the Electro 7 and then release a Stage 4 EX. They can't wait four or five more years to get on par with Crumar, Viscount and HX3.

[rockymtnnord]

And I'm not going to buy a Stage 3, even at the current reduced prices, because again, I'm not interested in sinking that much money into a technology that is that old. If I want a vintage instrument I'll buy a Rhodes.

Keep your eyes on the classifieds, I'm sure there will be plenty of used ones as the NS4 hits the market. I got my NS388 in 2019 used for $3k USD. You might not find a price quite that low post-inflation, but there are always deals to be had and people who need to sell their gear for cash. And if you can get your hands on one, the water's fine. The NS3 does not at all feel like a dated piece of hardware.

[rockymtnnord]

I'm wondering what the MIDI channel situation is like on this new board. If they've removed the panels, it would be awesome if every part (2 organs, 2 pianos, 3 synths/samples) could be sequenced on its own separate MIDI channel. The current setup with the NS3 is a two-channel setup, everything on Panel A and everything on Panel B.

[Gambold]

>They can't wait four or five more years to get on par with Crumar, Viscount and HX3.<

Once they (very quietly) discontinued their organ line, that was a big flag to me that they wanted out of the B3 emulation biz.

I wonder why they even still offer it on the Stage. The keyboard isn't really suited unless you get the Compact and who wants that. The Electro seems to fit the bill of having a built-in organ with drawbars - maybe it would have been better to focus all the development on the Stage with enhancing memory and improving the Piano and Synth features - and dump the organ altogether. Then develop the organ on the Electro, which doesn't have a synth. Would it matter? How much crossover is there with devoted synth programmers and B3 players? I bought the Electro for the organ. The pianos were a happy benefit. I don't do synth programming much.

Did any of those players on the new Stage 4 videos go near the organ?

[anotherscott]

What is the big disappointment here?<
...
my own personal disappointments in the memory size, pricing, and lack of "something new" - I'll be passing.

Pricing... expensive, no doubt. If people were expecting a bargain, I could have predicted they'd likely be disappointed.

Memory size... It's double what you have in your E6. Based on your usage, would having "only" double what you have really be an impediment for what you expect to be doing in the next 5 years or whatever?

"Something new" is nebulous. I'm not sure any updated Nord ever made had something so revolutionary when that new model came out where people said "wow, I never would have expected that, where did they pull THAT from?" Nor do I think any "updated model" from Korg, Yamaha, or Roland has ever created that kind of jaw-drop. Something really "different" usually rates its own name. Anything that is an updated version of a previous model (i.e. indicated by a new number or letters) is going to be evolutionary, almost by definition. Other than memory (and a lower price, good luck), what did you really expect/hope for from this?

This feature set is even underwhelming my least expectations...the amount of chuzpe Clavia has is unlimited obviously.

Same question... what did you really expect/hope for? What were those least expectations?

I see lots of useful progress here. To me, the addition of the Preset Library is huge... that will make a big difference in the ease of assembling patches. No longer having to decide between a model with drawbars or a model with LEDs that show the current position is nice... though we are losing the buttons that let us smoothly move them from that position. Live use at the gig is improved with the 8 patch select buttons and the completely independent and simultaneously accessible on/off/volume controls for each of the 8 sounds (2 organ, 2 piano, 3 other). I suspect I'll prefer editing many of the synth parameters from the screen, if it will allow me to adjust the parameters with endless controllers. (Not as good as the LED-circled rotary encoders of the Nord Lead 3, but better than the lack of anything but the fixed jump-when-you-move-them knobs on the NS3.)

Just as some people preferred the NS2 to the NS3, I'm sure there will be people who prefer the NS3 to the NS4, whether for song mode or drawbuttons or something else. On balance, I suspect most people will prefer the NS4. Whether it's worth the money is, of course, a different issue.

Gambold, if your NE6 falls short for what you'd like, and you can't justify the cost of the NS4, I don't know why a well-priced NS3 should be dismissed just because it's "old technology." It's still mostly better than what you have. If you like the Nord approach and sounds, getting an NS3 might be the only way to get something better at a more affordable price for some time. Unless you are just going to hope that the Electro 7 will have the right feature/price combination for you.

What I'm terribly disappointed about is the organ engine. The C2D was released back in 2012: a company such as Nord which strives to offer the best sound quality and became one of the most successful keyboard manufacturers thanks to their Hammond emulation (and their digital synths) can't just say "well, it's still decent, let's leave it at that". The B3 engine had to be updated.

My guess: They don't know how to make it clearly any better than it is. Or at least, how to do it within the resources available while the board is also doing everything else it has to do. And you know, even among other brands, people don't agree about which ones sound better than which. Keep in mind, Nord has made improvements in the past... and every time, a bunch of people will say they liked the older one better. And honestly, I still think it's quite good. Of all the boards that aren't stand-alone clonewheels with little-to-no other capabilities, I think the Nord is arguably near the top. It at least beats the clonewheel options from Korg/Vox, Roland, Kurzweil, and Dexibell, IMO. To me, it also beats any multi-sound Hammond except the SK Pro. I think the only other board of its type that is really competitive is the Yamaha YC series. So to me, it's not like they're lagging this field, they're closer to leading it.