NORD STAGE 4 officially announced for February 16th 2023

[AgoZone]

Anyone have insight on the pricing approach for Nord?

How are instruments like the Fantom 8 and Montage priced $1,700 below the Stage 4 while appearing to have significantly more capability? Does it come down to physical parts (more knobs/switches etc.) on the Nord?

Very intrigued by the Stage 4, but I’m puzzled.

Nord is a premium product, and is priced that way. This should be familiar to anyone who has priced Porsches against their Audi counterparts, for example.

They use good hardware, and use a lot of it (buttons, sliders, knobs, leds, etc.) to expose much of the useful functionality to the performer. I do not know specifics, but they appear to invest very heavily in software development, and have invested heavily in creating a vast library of musically useful samples that span the range of their instruments, old and new. I find their designs and choices thoughtful and elegant compared to others.

They also compare favorably in price to purchasing multiple keyboards.

[maxpiano]

Even no volume adjusting, let alone switching on and off an effect. Very basic feature. If I imagine that for switching between 2 different adaptations of the same sample you'll need both layers of that section, it's not what I'll intend to do very often. But a nice way to switch back and forth between two sets of totally different sounds in verse and chorus.

An evolution of what you could do with Slot A/B switching or changing Program with seamless transition, in this case it is more flexible as you can have 2 "configurations" of on/off statuses of each section/layer so for example (if I understand well how it works) you can prepare all 7 layers switch between piano A + Synth A and some FX piano A + Synth A/B/C+Organ B and other FX

[keyboardcat]

For this price, Nord should use BETTER hardware, at least better fasteners and some steel reinforced blocks for where the fasteners go into the unit, maybe epoxied in place (since welding steel to aluminum is hard and besides the two metals will corrode when touching)

On my Piano 3, EVERY screw on the back of the unit has been stripped, or so has its female counterpart. The thickness of the material the screws go into is laughable. These screws are junk and should start out being A2 or A4 316, not the soft metal that they are currently. (the reason why is because I need to switch between 120/240vac)

My keys also impact on rebound with the upper case panel that sits above the keys unless the case is bent/supported a certain way.

And if you screw the most forward corner screws on the endcaps too much, they actually physically touch and resist movement for the highest and lowest keys. Come on y'all..

I thought it was funny that they marked up the price of the triple pedal 2 by $100 over the Triple pedal 1. Give me a break.. that's just because they can. I have a lot of disposable money, and I'm balking on this one.

On the other hand, inflation is real and understated... it's probably over 20% in the developing world, especially if you look at input costs (raw materials) that aren't reflected yet in current retail pricing of most manufactured goods.

But a $100 mark up on that pedal (yes, I know, there are more continuous switches in there, and a little more functionality.. but it isn't expensive or complicated stuff! Could it be more than $15 at most?) from $250 is a 40% increase in price. That's wack-o and isn't inline with an increase in functionality and inflation.

Seriously, $350 for the pedal?

[superbender]

For this price, Nord should use BETTER hardware, at least better fasteners and some steel reinforced blocks for where the fasteners go into the unit, maybe epoxied in place (since welding steel to aluminum is hard and besides the two metals will corrode when touching)

On my Piano 3, EVERY screw on the back of the unit has been stripped, or so has its female counterpart. The thickness of the material the screws go into is laughable. These screws are junk and should start out being A2 or A4 316, not the soft metal that they are currently. (the reason why is because I need to switch between 120/240vac)

My keys also impact on rebound with the upper case panel that sits above the keys unless the case is bent/supported a certain way.

And if you screw the most forward corner screws on the endcaps too much, they actually physically touch and resist movement for the highest and lowest keys. Come on y'all..

I thought it was funny that they marked up the price of the triple pedal 2 by $100 over the Triple pedal 1. Give me a break.. that's just because they can. I have a lot of disposable money, and I'm balking on this one.

On the other hand, inflation is real and understated... it's probably over 20% in the developing world, especially if you look at input costs (raw materials) that aren't reflected yet in current retail pricing of most manufactured goods.

But a $100 mark up on that pedal (yes, I know, there are more continuous switches in there, and a little more functionality.. but it isn't expensive or complicated stuff! Could it be more than $15 at most?) from $250 is a 40% increase in price. That's wack-o and isn't inline with an increase in functionality and inflation.

Seriously, $350 for the pedal?

It seems that they use the following Kawai pedal https://www.musik-ebert.de/products/kaw ... JMQAvD_BwE .We have to wait if it works.

[cphollis]

Based on my initial reading, subject to misinterpretation?

It appears that the feature previously know as NS3 "song mode" is back, and more capable than ever . The top level construct is a Program which invokes a set of Section Presets. Programs can be organized via the ORGANIZE button (as before). You can run sequentially, by category, by bank/page, etc.

512 programs, which is organized in 8 banks with 8 pages each, with each page having 8 programs. For my use case (setlists), I can simply step through sequentially as before, or (hopefully) use user categories, etc. Plenty of functionality there.

What I didn't appreciate is the re-usability of the program components via Section Presets. I've dialed in my sounds on my Nord so often as I build new voices it's sort of second nature by now; this changes that. Come up with the perfect EP, organ, synth, etc. and save it as a Section Preset. For synth work, you can sync parameters (e.g. mod wheel filtering) across the edits with a special button press. Plenty of section presets (2x64 for piano and organ sections, 8x64 for synth section), and very nice that a section preset also saves your FX as well

This is all starting to look very nice indeed. It will take a while to figure out how best to use it all, but now there is a lot more there than before, and certainly worthy of the NS4 designation.

[Schorsch]

The download section is now active: https://www.nordkeyboards.com/downloads ... rd-stage-4

And new version 7.70 of Sound Manager available for download as well now

[cphollis]

Three things that I just saw that I like?
- a new "bus and destination" model for the four outputs
- separate midi channel inputs for each of the seven sections
- a very new and very deep FX section with plenty of new capabilities

[Musicfreak1988]

Hi all

I'm currently using a NE6, but I'm maybe looking to upgrade to a NS3 or maybe even NS4, but I'd like to know if it'd be possible to do a split / layer like this:

double bass | piano + strings

On my NE6 I only use a "double bass | piano" split with the crossfade function, but from time to time, I'd like to add a soft pad or string layer to only the upper keyboard zone. I'd also like it to (cross)fade into 'nothingness' (or the double bass sound, like the piano does now). This brings me to the following questions:

1) On the NS3, I could program a synth (sample) / piano split under panel A and then program strings to panel B. I'd use panel A primarily and press both when strings are needed. Can I program the strings of panel B to only function in the upper keyboard zone? Will it (cross)fade into 'nothing', since I won't program a second double bass in the lower region of panel B? Is this right?

2) What would be the way to do it on the NS4? I know it has 3 synth / sample engines, but I'd only need two to combine with one piano engine. Can the split / layer described above (double bass | piano + strings) be achieved with both piano and strings of the upper keyboard zone crossfading with the double bass sample of the lower keyboard zone? From the buttons and faders of the synth section, I can make out it'd be easy to adjust the volume of the string sound.

I read both the manual of the NS3 and NS4, but while it was clear that the panel A / B-function on the NS3 would be a solution, I can't find a solution as clear for the NS4. Thanks for your insight and help.

[maxpiano]

2) What would be the way to do it on the NS4? I know it has 3 synth / sample engines, but I'd only need two to combine with one piano engine. Can the split / layer described above (double bass | piano + strings) be achieved with both piano and strings of the upper keyboard zone crossfading with the double bass sample of the lower keyboard zone? From the buttons and faders of the synth section, I can make out it'd be easy to adjust the volume of the string sound.

I read both the manual of the NS3 and NS4, but while it was clear that the panel A / B-function on the NS3 would be a solution, I can't find a solution as clear for the NS4. Thanks for your insight and help.

It is just the same as on NS3, also on NS4 each section layer can be assigned to one or more of the Zones you define with the Split function

[DanielD71]

I hope the external section can be use with the 3 internal layer synths at the same time.
I do not mind only being only able to play the external sounds without the possibility to change volume, etc.

So that we can have 3 internal synths + 3 external.