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Everything about Nord keyboards in general; which one to choose, the sound manager, sample editor, and general discussion about the sample and piano libraries.
Clearly a direct effort to undercut the Nord Stage 4. I wish them well.
Only 20-something years after the fact.
Mike from Central NJ, USA
Tools: Ten fingers, two feet, middle-age brain, questionable judgement and taste Current Nords: Piano 5 73, Electro 6D 73
Ownership History: Electro 2, Electro 3-73 SW, Electro 3HP, Electro 4D, Stage 2EX 76HP
But looks like Roland remembered to add the XLR outputs, 2nd MIDI out, and USB audio output to their 'Stage 4'
And audio interface, and mic in (maybe it will have a vocoder)?
It looks a lot like the perfect combo of the NS with all the most common user requests.
BUT... https://sandsoftwaresound.net/namm-2025-roland-v-stage/
here they estimate a price of 3500-4000€. Yikes!
I imagined it would cost half as much as a NS4, to compete with the Yamaha YC line.
At that price it would've been an amazing product. But in the same price range of the Nord, it must really bring something outstanding to make users switch brands. We'll have to hear the sound quality. Roland is much superior to Nord on sounds like strings, brasses, winds etc. Pianos may be on par depending on tastes, organ is supposed to be better on Nords. We'll see...and hear.
I think they're going to have problems if the pricing info turns out to be accurate.
The NS4 88 is being offered 4,359 euros by Thomann with the proposed V-Stage at 3,999. That's not enough of a price spread to sway many people, and I doubt features like XLR outs and 2nd midi channels will be enough to sway prospective buyers.
Besides, lots of folks who want a premium all-in-one performance keyboard have already gravitated towards Electros and Stages. That's gonne be a hard momentum to overcome.
Better if they went with a Behringer strategy of *really* undercutting their target,
These users thanked the author cphollis for the post:
cphollis wrote: ↑15 Jan 2025, 17:34
I think they're going to have problems if the pricing info turns out to be accurate.
The NS4 88 is being offered 4,359 euros by Thomann with the proposed V-Stage at 3,999. That's not enough of a price spread to sway many people, and I doubt features like XLR outs and 2nd midi channels will be enough to sway prospective buyers.
Besides, lots of folks who want a premium all-in-one performance keyboard have already gravitated towards Electros and Stages. That's gonne be a hard momentum to overcome.
Better if they went with a Behringer strategy of *really* undercutting their target,
... and the Roland "Stage Key Strategy" has always been a undercut price.
The V-Combo (Vr-09/730) was a really attractive thing (I still own one),
that sold in an unchanged Design over more than 10 years,
what surely has (also) been caused by the attractive price Tag.
In order to survive in the "Nord Stage" class in the long term,
more virtues are needed than the missing elements of a Nord Electro...
... onstage since '78 on the endless (?) hunt for the perfect stage keyboard...
Current Gear: NS4_73 - Crumar7 - GSI Gemini - Roland Fantom-06 / VR-09 / RD-300GX - Yamaha PSR-SX900 / MX49 - Studiologic NumaX73
Former Gear: ... too much...