Choice of Upright/Grand Piano sounds and their use in genres

[Spider]

with my current situation I have to make do with what I can, so my time is extremely precious and limited.

Ok sorry, I didn't consider personal issues. Of course when you find some free time, you really should try out the pianos for yourself.
In the meantime, you have all those threads about the "best" Nord piano sounds, that can be summarized in short:

- Nord piano sounds are "raw", without much -if any- postprocessing after sampling. So don't expect lush, balanced, "perfect" sounds like you will find on other brands. That's the result of a lot of processing, EQ, compression, reverb etc. On Nords, you are expected to do this by yourself and find the tone you like using the controls on the panel.

- on average, the Nord pianos are quite bright and with a relatively short decay. A bass note from a real grand piano will ring for almost a minute before completely dying out. Nord doesn't have such long samples.

- Brightest pianos, useful for cutting through a dense mix (electric rock-pop bands etc): Bright Grand, Silver Grand, Italian Grand, Royal Grand. Among them, the Bright is the brightest (you'd guess!), almost to the point of being harsh. The Italian and Royal are not as harsh but maybe a bit bland, not much personality. My personal favourite is the Silver, I find that it cuts through the mix as well as the Bright but it also has some nice overtones and character. With these pianos, usually the thing you'll do the most is use EQ to tame the highs/mid highs as needed.

- "Rich" pianos, with lots of harmonics and overtones: White Grand and Imperial Grand. These are the ones that maybe sound the most like a real grand piano in the room. Great for solo piano, ballads, or anything really. Can get a bit lost in a dense mix. Having tons of harmonics in all the frequency ranges makes them very malleable to EQ, you can adapt them to almost any setting, room or amplification.

- Soft pianos: there's really only one, the Velvet Grand. It can sound muffled and boring, but don't dismiss it. With EQ and using the dynamics curves you can bring out a nice character from it, and it's maybe the sample with the longest decay. For what is worth, it's my second-favourite after the Silver.

- oldies but goldies: Grand Lady D, Studio Grand 1 and 2, Concert Grand Close and Ambient. These are not available in XL format (it was not introduced at the time) but it's their only real weakness. Apart from that, they are still perfectly usable and are some of the best all-around pianos you can find. The Lady D is still at the top of the list for many Norders!

[Winds]

with my current situation I have to make do with what I can, so my time is extremely precious and limited.

Ok sorry, I didn't consider personal issues. Of course when you find some free time, you really should try out the pianos for yourself.
In the meantime, you have all those threads about the "best" Nord piano sounds, that can be summarized in short:

- Nord piano sounds are "raw", without much -if any- postprocessing after sampling. So don't expect lush, balanced, "perfect" sounds like you will find on other brands. That's the result of a lot of processing, EQ, compression, reverb etc. On Nords, you are expected to do this by yourself and find the tone you like using the controls on the panel.

- on average, the Nord pianos are quite bright and with a relatively short decay. A bass note from a real grand piano will ring for almost a minute before completely dying out. Nord doesn't have such long samples.

- Brightest pianos, useful for cutting through a dense mix (electric rock-pop bands etc): Bright Grand, Silver Grand, Italian Grand, Royal Grand. Among them, the Bright is the brightest (you'd guess!), almost to the point of being harsh. The Italian and Royal are not as harsh but maybe a bit bland, not much personality. My personal favourite is the Silver, I find that it cuts through the mix as well as the Bright but it also has some nice overtones and character. With these pianos, usually the thing you'll do the most is use EQ to tame the highs/mid highs as needed.

- "Rich" pianos, with lots of harmonics and overtones: White Grand and Imperial Grand. These are the ones that maybe sound the most like a real grand piano in the room. Great for solo piano, ballads, or anything really. Can get a bit lost in a dense mix. Having tons of harmonics in all the frequency ranges makes them very malleable to EQ, you can adapt them to almost any setting, room or amplification.

- Soft pianos: there's really only one, the Velvet Grand. It can sound muffled and boring, but don't dismiss it. With EQ and using the dynamics curves you can bring out a nice character from it, and it's maybe the sample with the longest decay. For what is worth, it's my second-favourite after the Silver.

- oldies but goldies: Grand Lady D, Studio Grand 1 and 2, Concert Grand Close and Ambient. These are not available in XL format (it was not introduced at the time) but it's their only real weakness. Apart from that, they are still perfectly usable and are some of the best all-around pianos you can find. The Lady D is still at the top of the list for many Norders!

No worries, the links to the threads have been super helpful. I made a sort of quick list (sort of like a cheat sheet) for myself in reference to the threads and posts I have read so at least I can narrow down which ones to try. Your summary for sure helps a huge lot and I will be adding it to my list. Thank you very much!

[Hlaalu]

- Soft pianos: there's really only one, the Velvet Grand.

Not sure if the OP mentioned he wants grand pianos only, but there's the (upright) Felt Piano as well that came out recently which is the softest.

[Rusty Mike]

There are also 14 upright pianos in the library. In general (and there are variations to this), the uprights tend to have less thunderous low end and stronger voice in the midrange. This could be considered an advantage in a louder band where you don't want to compete with the bass player.

The character and ambience of the cabinets are much more prevalent in the uprights than they are in the grands. Provides a ton of personality to these pianos. Nord does not treat these instruments as novelties, but rather respected instruments in their own right.

Also, in general (again, variations), the midrange and upper notes tend to be less harmonically complex. The primary exception to this is the Grand Upright, which is a Yamaha U3, typically known for their biting upper end. If you're looking to cut through and keep the piano bass end tamed, this could be one to consider.

Personally, I consider the Amber and Queen uprights to have excellent overall tone and authenticity, and the Amber is my go-to in many cases. They both sing quite well. Others have said the Blue Swede and Black uprights work well for blues piano. The Felt is very soft and the Mellow is not as soft, with just a bit more punch.

Can't say much about the spinet models (Baby, Bambino), as I'm personally not a fan of that sound. The Felt and Pearl are newer additions; sorry to say I've not test driven either one yet.

Bear this in mind as you listen and make your choices: When you're on the stage, absolutely nobody in the audience (or that band for that matter) are going to tell the difference between a grand and upright sample. Forget about the names and go with what makes your ears happy!

[agcohn]

- Soft pianos: there's really only one, the Velvet Grand. It can sound muffled and boring, but don't dismiss it. With EQ and using the dynamics curves you can bring out a nice character from it, and it's maybe the sample with the longest decay. For what is worth, it's my second-favourite after the Silver.

I have really grown to love the Velvet Grand over time as I have ventured more into trying to sing while playing the piano, especially if I am trying to sing softer / quieter songs. I consider it more of an accompaniment piano than a solo piano. The treble has a nice round sound that doesn't interfere with my ability to hear my own voice clearly, but it's got a really powerful bass, so it has a nice rhythmic punch.

The Grand Upright is also a very nice piano for quieter more "acoustic" style songs. It's still got some nice brightness to the treble, but the overtones / harmonics are reduced compared some of the grand samples, so it's great for accompaniment.

[Winds]

Thanks to this thread I tried some of the recommended pianos mentioned here and other threads (although only I've yet to properly listen to the upright or other sections for that matter). I found the Silver Grand to be quite a pleasing sound. Before I tend to almost always gravitate towards the White Grand but I find after a while it can be too rich and can be quite fatiguing to my ears. I did try the Royal Piano 3D which was not bad, but I found the sound to be a bit... flat. The Silver Grand however is not as rich as the White Grand, but it still sounds pretty decent especially when I tried in an acoustic setup (not band setting so no drums), and as someone said before it cuts through the mix quite well, where vocals can still be heard but I can hear my piano as well. Thanks for all the replies and links to threads, it helped a lot!

[Spider]

Yes I limited my summary to grand pianos to avoid putting too much on the plate. But yes, I totally agree that there are some hidden jewels among the uprights, Nord is probably the only brand that treats those not as an afterthought but as quality instruments in their own right.

The Grand Upright (they could probably find a less confusing name...) and the Queen Upright are so good that...I don't use them because if I want that big, full, orchestral sound I will just use a grand!

The Black Upright is my personal favourite, I find that it sounds great and typically "upright", but without the honkiness and hollowness of other samples.
The Amber, Rain and Romantic are excellent too, with more of a "home piano" feel.
As mentioned, the Mellow and Felt are soft (very soft) pianos, good for ballads and lounge music.
The others are "character" pianos with lots of harmonics, a less full sound (less bass, more midrange, thinner sound) and various levels of personality (some may call it "detuning" ), from the Baby and Bambino (again, some less confusing names would've helped...) with their "old grandma's parlor piano" feel, to the wild detuned mess of the Saloon and Honkytonk.

[cliff]

I happen to like Blue Swede a lot for live play. Although it is an upright, it cuts really well in the mix and doesn't get weird as it gets loud. Perhaps the slight out-of-tune quality is part of that. Not the best sounding piano of the bunch by a long shot but really works well live.

[afroskully]

I have always been a fair-weather fan of the Velvet Grand. But after reading this thread I realized that as much as I love playing the White Grand in a loud band setting, quieter passages and definitely playing solo at home can be challenging with it due to how rich it is and maybe a bit easily triggered on the SW keybed. I went back to the Velvet again and yet again, I like it for the softer stuff.

I really only have the need for one Upright and it's always been the Amber. I tried to replace it with the new Pearl but it's just not responsive enough for me.

[RemedyMusic]

This thread is very helpful. My NE6d just arrived at the capital city here in my country. And i will be picking it up in a day or two. So im lurking here in the forums for the reason that Nord system is completely new to me. This is my first Nord. I expect that there will be a learning curve on my end.

Instead of asking the same question, i will bookmark this thread so that i can come back to it. Thanks guys!