New! Nord Electro 7!

[MartinJ2EX]

After a quick check:

This is not really the new product that many people were waiting for.

All in all, it’s somewhat disappointing.

When you compare product development at NORD with YAMAHA, for example, the gap between the MONTAGE M and its little brother, the MODX M, has become increasingly smaller.
With NORD, it feels like the opposite: the gap between the NS and its brother, the NE, keeps getting larger.

I think the Nord Electro series, especially Electro 6 has been doing very well, so will Electro 7.
Some fellow keyboard players have an Electro 6, for reasons:
* lightweight, portable
* "it's a nord" + "it's red"
* great piano sounds - they use one grand or EP they like, and that's it, most of them never download new pianos..
* some B3 or maybe a synth or strings pad (most of them never create their own sample sounds with the sample editor...)

want a better piano action? Go get a Yamaha YC
want THAT Roland Synth sound, but in a direct-access stage piano package? Get a V-Stage
want loads of layers of synths, pianos, modulation, fx? Get a Kronos, Montage, MODX, Fantom.

want two layers of pianos, B3, 2+ layers of synth AND samples? Get a Nord Stage (4, 3,...)

But: everyone else just needing that one piano sound, some hammond here and there, some strings and brass samples, they're fine with an Electro 6 (and now 7, because maybe they'll add a chorus to the synth, and a different chorus to the EP).

and now, back to

[Rusty Mike]

After a quick check:

This is not really the new product that many people were waiting for.

All in all, it’s somewhat disappointing.

When you compare product development at NORD with YAMAHA, for example, the gap between the MONTAGE M and its little brother, the MODX M, has become increasingly smaller.
With NORD, it feels like the opposite: the gap between the NS and its brother, the NE, keeps getting larger.

I think the Nord Electro series, especially Electro 6 has been doing very well, so will Electro 7.
Some fellow keyboard players have an Electro 6, for reasons:
* lightweight, portable
* "it's a nord" + "it's red"
* great piano sounds - they use one grand or EP they like, and that's it, most of them never download new pianos..
* some B3 or maybe a synth or strings pad (most of them never create their own sample sounds with the sample editor...)

want a better piano action? Go get a Yamaha YC
want THAT Roland Synth sound, but in a direct-access stage piano package? Get a V-Stage
want loads of layers of synths, pianos, modulation, fx? Get a Kronos, Montage, MODX, Fantom.

want two layers of pianos, B3, 2+ layers of synth AND samples? Get a Nord Stage (4, 3,...)

But: everyone else just needing that one piano sound, some hammond here and there, some strings and brass samples, they're fine with an Electro 6 (and now 7, because maybe they'll add a chorus to the synth, and a different chorus to the EP).

and now, back to

Horses for courses - depends on your needs.

First, to look at it from a business/product management perspective, if the Electro wasn't selling well, Nord might have shifted gears a bit to gain better market appeal. That does not seem to be the case. The Electro uniquely fills a spot it seems, and I guess it sells very well. I also don't think it competes with the Stage, as the Electro is more a solid "bread and butter" product (think bottom tier keyboard in a two-keys setup). Even if it did nudge into Stage sales a little bit, Clavia would not care since you're still buying a Nord product.

I'm not sure the Montage/MODX comparison is apt. Those instruments are more synths/workstations, where Clavia has never positioned any instrument in their product line like that.

Subjectively speaking about competing products, I've owned a YC73 for a while now and have had a very difficult time with it. Although the keyboard action is good for piano, there is no piano in the library that suits my ear and I find them all slightly irritating. The organ engine is great, but there is no high trigger feature, so organ playing on the 73 is somewhat laborious and artificial. It also does not have multiple drawbar presets per patch, so you have to switch patches to jump drawbar presets. Not ideal. One more point - I have to pull the owner's manual and supplements out every time I want to make program changes due to their cryptic UI. Every. Single. Time. The Electro just works.

I have no impressions of the Legend One piano library, but the organ sounds pretty good from what I've heard. The Legend One is also very organ-centric, and I would not play a semi-weight action for piano, which I currently use 90% of the time.

I would not even entertain the Roland. Semi-weighted action is a non-starter, it's too heavy and it's just $100USD less than the E7 (funny I don't hear anyone complaining about THAT price). There is no comparison there for me. I also would not use at least 30% of the capabilities.

Little bit of a spec comparison here:

Keyboard Action:
Electro 7HP: Hammer action triple sensor by Kawai
Roland V-Stage 76: Semi-weighted waterfall
Viscount Legend One 73: Semi-weighted
Yamaha YC-73: Weighted balanced hammer action dual sensor


Weight:
Electro 7HP: 13 kg / 28.66 lbs
V-Stage 76: 15.2 kg / 33 lbs 9 oz
Legend One 73: 11.5 kg / 25.57 Lbs
YC-73: 13.4 kg / 29 lb, 9 oz

My thinking is that people who need all the features of a Stage will buy a Stage. If you think about the capabilities, the Stage 4 73 is about 2.5 times the instrument over the Electro for not quite 1.5 times the price, based on USD. By that comparison, the Stage represents a decent value.

The other interesting thing is that even most of the Nord and third party demos of the Stage focus mostly on the piano sounds, and not even layered piano sounds. So how are real musicians actually using the instrument? It's great if you're getting a lot of mileage out of the capabilities.

Keep this in context. I'm a big fan of the Electro - the E7 will be my 6th Electro purchase. It fits my own use case very well for usability, sounds, build quality and portability. I'm not down on the Stage; I just have no need for all of its functionality and the carry weight is not worth it to me. The comparison makes no sense to me.

[Gambold]

USA pricing, from Kraft Music. I didn't bother looking up the 61-key version:

Electro 7 73 HP - $4000. (Nord 6 HP currently $3200, so a 25% increase)
Electro 7 73 SW - $3600. (Nord 6 SW currently $2900, so a 24% increase)

Well, we knew they would be higher. I predicted $500 more, along the lines of 15-18%....Clavia went quite a bit more than that. This is consistent with just how expensive the Stage 4 is, a keyboard essentially priced out of the retail market and aimed at professionals and institutions. Considering that the "improvements" are at first blush a bit underwhelming...it's disappointing. $4000 for an Electro with a decent keyboard, geezus.

I would definitely tell first-time buyers* to canvas the vendors for price cuts on the Electro 6. These won't happen soon, but they will happen and that's the time to strike - discounts are usually 10-15%. To put it succinctly:

The Electro 7 73 SW for $3600 does NOT have enough unique and forward-looking features to justify another $1000 of spend, over a discounted Electro 6 73 SW for $2600 or less.

Please, feel free to argue the contrary. I'm all eyes.

*as for repeat buyers, obviously we are sick in our own disease, prices and features are not a priority. WE JUST NEED A NEW NORD.

[Gambold]

>I would not even entertain the Roland. Semi-weighted action is a non-starter, it's too heavy and it's just $100USD less than the E7 (funny I don't hear anyone complaining about THAT price).<

Ha ha, nobody buys Rolands. This is a serious forum with serious keyboard players!

[cphollis]

I stand by my earlier statement that the Electro is Nord's gateway drug to get you into the Stage.

[cphollis]

.

[ogunter]

The deal maker or breaker for me will be if the Organ sounds are improved from my electro 4. I can't wait to read the reviews.
And I wish they had put at least 3 outputs so I could play the Organ patches to a Leslie and keep the piano going stereo to speakers or mixer.

[Rusty Mike]

The Electro 7 73 SW for $3600 does NOT have enough unique and forward-looking features to justify another $1000 of spend, over a discounted Electro 6 73 SW for $2600 or less.

I'm a bit inclined to agree with regard to the SW models. My Electro 6 73 is going nowhere.

It's really the new HP action that has the appeal to me.

[ericL]

The deal maker or breaker for me will be if the Organ sounds are improved from my electro 4. I can't wait to read the reviews.
And I wish they had put at least 3 outputs so I could play the Organ patches to a Leslie and keep the piano going stereo to speakers or mixer.

You’ll need a Stage for that last item. Most any Stage will do. NE7 looks like an awesome new board!

[Ecaroh]

I am curious about the new HP action marketed as Kawai made.

How good it is and how will it last? I have very bad experiences about previous HP models. I first bought NS3 with HP keys and in a week it started to have horrible mechanical noises. Luckily I managed to return it. And to my experience it was not anomaly, HP keyboard is a nightmare, at least the first generation(s) of it. I have tested some old HPs, keyboards are rubbish nowadays, time really isn't treating them well.

So does ”Kawai” somehow change this equation?