NORD STAGE 4 officially announced for February 16th 2023

[DanielD71]

World's First Look at the NEW Nord Stage 4 - At The Nord Factory!

Best video for me from Today’s video
The NS4 is awesome !
Regards

[anotherscott]

I want it because I like to experiment and be inspired by the sounds in my keyboard. I don't "need it", but I want it. The more sounds I have at my fingertips, the more I can experiment and expand my boundaries of playing. For example, I used to dismiss upright piano sounds. While I still use grands the vast majority of the time, I'm starting to appreciate the upright sounds more and more. And I play differently when I use them. That's a good thing. I have yet to try the Pearl Upright as I would have to delete other stuff to make room and I just haven't found the time to do that. But if I had more memory in my Nord....

An approach I'd suggest is loading all the pianos in their smallest size. You could load EVERY grand and upright piano simultaneously in 1 GB. You'll be able to discern their different general characters. Some you'll almost certainly never want to bother with again, you can delete those and just reclaim the space. Then for the ones you find most appealing and are likely to use most often, load the largest versions. Listen to them against the smallest versions and make sure the difference matters to you. If you happen to like the resonances of the large version but prefer the basic tone of the small version (it happened to me with at least one of the pianos), cut back from the XL to the L for that one, which basically gives you the Small mapping but with the XL resonances. (And if you don't have an 88, or don't play much outside of the meat of the keyboard. you may even cut back from the L to the M, since the difference' is in the resonances at the extremes.) Once you settle on which "bigger" version you want, delete the small version to free up that space. A strategy like this will give you the greatest number of pianos at a quality that works for you. (Again, I found that largest is not always best!)

And before you ask, "yeah, but why should I have to bother?", I'd say, "why should everyone else have to pay more for their keyboards so that you don't have to bother?"

[Swampfox]

Whoever pointed out that the 32-bit architecture might be to blame for the 3GB ceiling is quite possibly right. I certainly hope so. Because when it comes to keyboards, more memory for sounds has been a nearly 100% constant with new releases...until the Stage 4. I can't fathom any other reason for there not being a boost to the piano storage.

That may well be the reason. But I can fathom another reason... that memory cost is not insignificant, and IRL, most players don't actually need more than 2 GB of piano memory. It seems to me that sometimes people want it just because it's "more," not because they really need to load more than 10 different pianos at their largest sizes.

I want it because I like to experiment and be inspired by the sounds in my keyboard. I don't "need it", but I want it. The more sounds I have at my fingertips, the more I can experiment and expand my boundaries of playing. For example, I used to dismiss upright piano sounds. While I still use grands the vast majority of the time, I'm starting to appreciate the upright sounds more and more. And I play differently when I use them. That's a good thing. I have yet to try the Pearl Upright as I would have to delete other stuff to make room and I just haven't found the time to do that. But if I had more memory in my Nord....

The issue isn't just the number of Pianos you can keep loaded, it's also a limitation of the quality of the sampling process of the instruments stored . The very best VSTs are larger, sometimes much larger, than 4 GB. Arguably, you don't need such extreme detail, or authenticity from a stage piano, but it's a limitation and frankly a design decision made by Clavia.

[BucF16]

The more I look at it, the weakest thing about the NS3 is the effects section, and the NS4 is a quantum leap forward in effects.

[anotherscott]

The issue isn't just the number of Pianos you can keep loaded, it's also a limitation of the quality of the sampling process of the instruments stored . The very best VSTs are larger, sometimes much larger, than 4 GB. Arguably, you don't need such extreme detail, or authenticity from a stage piano, but it's a limitation and frankly a design decision made by Clavia.

I think you're suggesting that, if Nords had more memory, Nord could come out with larger pianos which could sound better. But considering that their largest piano is only 244 mb, even having 2 gb instruments out there gives them plenty of leeway to make something larger if they want to.

One problem is, if they started coming out with 1GB, 2GB, or bigger pianos (if they made models that would accommodate them), those pianos would not run on older machines, negating one of the biggest long term appeals of the Nord brand, that the old machines can usually load the new samples.

Also, size isn't everything. Many people have preferred the 200 mb Nord pianos to the multi-gigabyte Kronos pianos. If you use your ears to compare the results, you may come to a different conclusion than you would merely by reading specs. Nord know hows to make great sounding pianos that don't need tons of memory. People have had complaints about Nords... but the quality of the piano sounds is rarely among them. So the counter argument could be, why put money into fixing a problem that doesn't exist, addressing something that people are already happy with, when there are so many more useful things they could be putting their design and financial resources into? And since these things do have costs, why ask consumers to pay for something that most of them probably won't even see a real audible or operational benefit from?

[Winds]

World's First Look at the NEW Nord Stage 4 - At The Nord Factory!

Best video for me from Today’s video
The NS4 is awesome !
Regards

Thanks for this. As an NS3 user, and more of a piano/synth player not so much organ, some features I find interesting are the FX are no longer global, the dynamic compression for piano, the pump effect with the ability to control using the triple pedal, new reverbs, and now 8 panels instead of the usual 5 to switch between patches which is pretty nice. I would say for completely new users and if they identify as piano/synth players like myself. these settings alone could be worth considering over the NS3.. again the lack of SONG mode (among other features) could be a bit of a letdown but perhaps that's the point. Some people will identify with the NS4 more, others with the NS3.

Personally I would have probably gotten the NS4 if I never bought the NS3. But as I have acquired the NS3.. as of now, it's enough.

[tsss27]

Let's also not forget to mention that Nord's samples are losslessly compressed. The largest piano is not actually 245MB, it's double or more. Ok, still small compared to these VST's but the point is they are fitting in more than what it may first appear.

[agcohn]

I will say that the Anderton's video was definitely a lot more informative about the updates than the official videos. I mean the videos of the different keyboardists was interesting, but unless someone is super familiar with the limitations of the Stage 3, it's not like we can "hear" the difference from a video of someone playing the keyboard. I would have found it a lot more informative if they had been interviews with the keyboardists with them discussing the new features they are using in the videos.

[spalding12]

I will say that the Anderton's video was definitely a lot more informative about the updates than the official videos. I mean the videos of the different keyboardists was interesting, but unless someone is super familiar with the limitations of the Stage 3, it's not like we can "hear" the difference from a video of someone playing the keyboard. I would have found it a lot more informative if they had been interviews with the keyboardists with them discussing the new features they are using in the videos.

i believe Nord doesn't understand marketing
and they don't care to

i LOVE Jack Duxbury
Andertons videos are always wonderful
but.... (and i love him)... he's a Nord FANBOY of the utmost degree
and... maybe because i've watched too many crime shows over the years...
it was as if Nord called Jack... flew him to Stockholm to accomplish some DAMAGE CONTROL because of the nearly universal negative thoughts on the internet about the Stage 4 today
yeah... that's a crazy thought... i know
but... Jack @ Andertons has NEVER said a negative thing about ANY Nord keyboard EVER
he was the PERFECT one to sit with the "product specialist" for that "HIGHLY REHEARSED" demo of the Stage 4

ok... i'll stop writing my James Bond script here

if you doubt what i said about Jack Duxbury
have a look at this:

[Swampfox]

The issue isn't just the number of Pianos you can keep loaded, it's also a limitation of the quality of the sampling process of the instruments stored . The very best VSTs are larger, sometimes much larger, than 4 GB. Arguably, you don't need such extreme detail, or authenticity from a stage piano, but it's a limitation and frankly a design decision made by Clavia.

I think you're suggesting that, if Nords had more memory, Nord could come out with larger pianos which could sound better. But considering that their largest piano is only 244 mb, even having 2 gb instruments out there gives them plenty of leeway to make something larger if they want to.

One problem is, if they started coming out with 1GB, 2GB, or bigger pianos (if they made models that would accommodate them), those pianos would not run on older machines, negating one of the biggest long term appeals of the Nord brand, that the old machines can usually load the new samples.

Also, size isn't everything. Many people have preferred the 200 mb Nord pianos to the multi-gigabyte Kronos pianos. If you use your ears to compare the results, you may come to a different conclusion than you would merely by reading specs. Nord know hows to make great sounding pianos that don't need tons of memory. People have had complaints about Nords... but the quality of the piano sounds is rarely among them. So the counter argument could be, why put money into fixing a problem that doesn't exist, addressing something that people are already happy with, when there are so many more useful things they could be putting their design and financial resources into? And since these things do have costs, why ask consumers to pay for something that most of them probably won't even see a real audible or operational benefit from?

I love my Nord and mostly agree with what you are saying. Yet, some of the very best AP VSTs do sound more natural, at least to my ear. Scarbee EPs are also wonderful and the most Rhodes-like out there but his file size is over 4GB, and that's modelling an EP. Yet, that's an apple to oranges comparison, because the Nord still has some of the best sounding Pianos you'll find on a slab. Even in my home studio I almost never use computer VSTs, it's just not worth the effort. I'd buy a NS4 if I didn't own a NS3 but I'm not rushing to upgrade, it has zero to do with the perceived memory issue but rather that the NS3 is such a good keyboard, more than suits my needs and doesn't justify replacement.