Gambold wrote: 06 May 2026, 20:39
The Electro 7 is also a pricey beast, and golly, you just aren't getting a whole lot more or different than the E6 for your money*.
For piano-focussed people, the new hammer action can be huge, if it is indeed as much better than the TP/100 as has been reported. (Triple sensor and half-damper support too.)
For organ-focussed people, the question will be how much better you think the Nord Organ 3 engine is.
For multi-function people, the addition of a true synth section makes it a whole other animal (and are also why the pitch and mod controls now make much more sense).
And then generally, the separate effects per section, with rate and depth knobs, and other interface improvements (new display, fifth patch button, push-button encoders) are things likely to be appreciated by many.
I think this is a very substantially upgraded model compared to the 6. Of course, if the 6 perfectly satisfies, that's cool too. But IMO you are getting a lot of significant improvement in the 7. I'm hard-pressed to think of anything else I could have reasonably wanted/expected from an update to the 6. (Yeah, people always want more memory. Eh.
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Well, there is one thing I don't know if it has, which I would find really important. The NS4 has a mode where the screen shows you the names of the programs currently under the 8 buttons, which I find extremely useful. I wonder if the E7 has a program display mode that lists which Programs are currently under its 5 buttons...?
But yes, it all comes at a cost. But at least a lower one than going to the NS4.
Gambold wrote: 06 May 2026, 20:39
*I know some have obsessed on the last-minute {mod}wheel and pitchbend, but let's be real here - most people who wanted this kind of thing bought a Stage.
And now they don't have to!
But more to the point, I think many who needed that thing, and didn't have or couldn't justify Stage money, bought some other brand altogether. So now Nord is more competitive with other gear, where you don't have to go quite as far into the stratosphere to get these functions. e.g. it makes the Electro a better competitor against the Yamaha YC, Viscount Legend One, Hammond SK Pro, Roland V-Stage, even if still significantly pricier than most. I mention those in particular because none of those existed when Nord came out with the Electro 6, these are all arguably new competitors to the Electro line, to one extent or another. And the Electro 7 goes against these models better than the 6 did, for numerous reasons, including the presence of those controls.
Gambold wrote: 06 May 2026, 20:39
Having them installed on the Electro might help marketing to noobs, but seasoned-Electro users are usually traditional-type keyboardists, looking for great acoustic, Rhodes, and organ sounds - and the occasional strings or synth when the rest of the band demands it. Whammy bars and blurp buttons just don't come into play that often.
"Noobs" includes any keys player who hasn't bought an Electro before, which I think is a pretty big market. But as for "seasoned-Electro users," I'd suggest a few things, to some extent picking up from what I've already said here. One is that I think the board doesn't exist only (or even primarily) to appeal as a possible upgrade to owners of earlier Electros, or to what I think you're seeing as the "traditional" Electro customer; rather it's designed to have a broader appeal than that. More noobs.
Second is that the argument about seasoned Electro users not caring about pitch/mod controls is circular. It may be true, but also because, in a chicken-and-egg manner, the lack of these features is to a good extent what has *defined* these customers as ones who don't need them in the first place. If they needed them, they had to buy something else. (And like I said, now they don't have to.)
There's also the folks who use the Electro in conjunction with some other board, who have their synth functions there (in some cases, maybe even using the pitch bend of their other board to manipulate the sounds of the Nord). Again, for these people, this (and the accompanying new synth section) may lessen the need to even have to pair it with another board.
And then, even for those for whom "whammy bars and blurp buttons just don't come into play that often," there's still the occasional time that they do, and they may have sacrificed the ability to do some things they may have ideally liked to do, because the Electro was otherwise the best tool for the job at hand. And now they don't have to make that sacrifice.
So there are numerous things that come into play here. And I think in opposition to your theory that Electro users don't need these things, there is the very fact that there was so much pushback about the E7 not having them, that Nord changed course and added them. How much of that pushback was from "seasoned" Electro owners who wished their Electros had them vs. from others who have never bought an Electro (perhaps because they simply would not buy a board without them, as much as they might otherwise have wanted to), I don't know. But there seems little doubt that the market desire was there. And like I said, the very fact that, unlike any previous Electro, this one has a true full-fledged synth built-in makes it more relevant than ever before.
Though personally, the stuff I mentioned in the first section of this post is stuff I find more important than the pitch and mod wheels, and alone would have made this a strong upgrade. These extra controls to me are just gravy. But I understand why some people find them essential... so much so that they may well have been the reason some people have never purchased an Electro. (For my own use, I'd have scrapped the mod wheel in favor of aftertouch! I so rarely have a hand free for manipulating those left-hand controls anyway.
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Gambold wrote: 08 May 2026, 01:54
>Still it seems that they increased their sales by 17% last year <
https://www.largestcompanies.com/compan ... key-ratios
If you are referring to the earnings before taxes figures, yes they did significantly better in 2025 than 2024...but this was after tanking in 2024, years after Covid. Their earnings before taxes over the past two years (2023-2025) have grown by a total of 3% - or an average of 1.5% a year.
That's not a happy average for a business. It indicates a flat customer base and no new market penetration...here we are, the oldies and moldies who still buy Nords
I'd be curious to know how the low years did versus competition, e.g. whether Korg, Roland, etc. did much better. Regardless, a year of 17% growth after a couple of years of low growth would indicate to me that, whatever they are doing, they are moving in the right direction.
But as for no new market penetration, or just the oldies and molides still buying Nords, I'm not sure what you're saying there (or whether these figures necessarily support it). Do you mean that you think that Nord is selling mostly to an existing customer base (people who have previously bought Nords)?
