Electro 7 - let it happen!

[analogika]

I think the Electro has run its course. Clavia has stopped development of organ engines and terminated their organ board line - and what is the Electro, other than the Piano with an added organ section?

An organ with an added piano section and a very basic sample player?

If you're predominantly playing organ but want access to the piano library and the occasional synth, then the Nord Electro gives you that at half the price of the Stage.

Why do you think it's the only keyboard they offer with 61 keys in the console Hammonds' C-to-C range?

[vcfvca]

But if you are mainly playing organ you won't be using an Electro. Crumar and Hammond offer more "organcentric" boards with good additional sounds. But I do think the Electro has run its course but Nord may get one iteration out of it. They have got to improve the sample player and add some of the stuff from the Stage. It was first announced in 2018 so will they ever update it?

[Gambold]

>An organ with an added piano section and a very basic sample player?<

That's an interesting take but I don't think it is either how most Electro users/buyers see the board, or how the Electro is being marketed by Clavia.

Compounding the issue is that organs require a different keyboard than pianos to function at their best. So on the Electro you have to compromise - do you go with with hammer action and piano keys, or do you take "semi-weighted" with waterfall? I think most buyers get the waterfall by default - and while the low weight of the keyboard is pleasant, in time the lack of good action for regular piano playing becomes ever more irritating.

So come time to upgrade, you have a decision to make, if you only want to cart one keyboard around. How badly do you need the organ? Will samples replace the occasional need? Since I'm assuming (perhaps wrongly), that MOST Electro players are using the organ less than 20% of the time, I don't see much of a future for the Electro.

[Rusty Mike]

>An organ with an added piano section and a very basic sample player?<

That's an interesting take but I don't think it is either how most Electro users/buyers see the board, or how the Electro is being marketed by Clavia.

Compounding the issue is that organs require a different keyboard than pianos to function at their best. So on the Electro you have to compromise - do you go with with hammer action and piano keys, or do you take "semi-weighted" with waterfall? I think most buyers get the waterfall by default - and while the low weight of the keyboard is pleasant, in time the lack of good action for regular piano playing becomes ever more irritating.

So come time to upgrade, you have a decision to make, if you only want to cart one keyboard around. How badly do you need the organ? Will samples replace the occasional need? Since I'm assuming (perhaps wrongly), that MOST Electro players are using the organ less than 20% of the time, I don't see much of a future for the Electro.

From my seat, I am exactly the audience for the Electro. Certainly 80% piano / 20% organ. But that organ needs to sound and operate in an authentic manner, which the existing Nord organ engine mostly does (save the 9th drawbar cancel hubris). I can even live with playing organ from a weighted piano action for that 20%. I use the samples on very rare occasions, so what’s in there is fine with me.

The laws of physics pretty much guarantee that we won’t see a keyboard action that simultaneously satisfies both pianists and organists equally. Unless, of course, someone invents an action that alters the physical weighting and retracts the keylip edges when the organ button is hit. Well, Star Trek tells us there is programmable matter in the 32nd century, so we have that.

We can only speculate, but I would guess that the clone organ market is too crowded and wasn’t profitable enough for Clavia. That, and that the existing organ engine sounds pretty good, is most likely why the C2D is gone and investment in the organ engine has slowed/stopped.

I am not so bold to assume what most Electro owners like/don’t like or how they see the instrument. There are many varied use cases. It’s not a secret that the Electro is their biggest seller, so I doubt we will see it disappear. I’d like to go back to using one if the next iteration checks the right boxes.

[Tasten-Bert]

>An organ with an added piano section and a very basic sample player?<

That's an interesting take but I don't think it is either how most Electro users/buyers see the board, or how the Electro is being marketed by Clavia.

Electro 5 user here, organ is my main „instrument“, can‘t name the percentage, but I guess 50 or even more. Next is piano. The sample section I only use rarely because I have the korg X50 on top which can do all this much better.

As far as the keybed is concerned: yes, clear, that waterfall and hammer action don‘t go in one board. Only waterfall can make my organ playing doable, and for the piano I have set the touch sensitivity to the most sensitive position. Works quite good. I also play grand and upright pianos so can compare.

I love the electro concept and won‘t need more. It’s a specialist for me, not a generalist.

Cheers from Germany

[ericL]

I have an anecdotal feeling that the Electro is Nord's bread and butter as it has been in the product line up for a very long time and is quite popular, based on the number of them seen on tours, videos, etc. I've been a Stage user now for so long that I have become dependent on the expanded capabilities of the Stage series, though I did have a period of time when I set up a NE5 to do all of my shows for about a year or so. It worked quite well.

I still have my NE2 and when I was gigging with that board, I was about 50% organ and 50% Wurly/clav/EP. When I got the NE3, I used the sample section about 20% of the time and found it quite useful.

I've constantly thought about getting the NE6 with 61 keys and setting it up to do as many gig duties as possible, simply for the smaller footprint and really easy portability...though the NS3 Compact is pretty easy to move and I do love the dual panels, synth section, pitch/mod stuff, etc. I play organ about 50% of the time on my NS3, so having the drawbars is important to me.

As for the NE7, it's only a matter of time. Nord will likely port over some of the things from the NS4 and NP5, like the dedicated effects per engine, maybe a few extra synth/sample features (perhaps a second layer for this engine) and whatever else...Nord is still slowly making updates to the NS4 and new product development such as a NE7 is possibly one of the reasons that their OS updates are slow moving. I would expect we'll see the NE7 by 2025, though I wouldn't bet money on it. LOL.