Nord Electro 5 HP 73 initial thoughts and mini review

[iamdave]

Ahh... I may have finally found home. Sorry, having trouble wiping the grin off my face.

So I am a guitarist originally but I'v e always had a passion for keys. in my 35 years as a musician I now tinker with most all instruments - guitar, keys, drums, horns, harp, mandolin, banjo mainly. But the older I get - the last 10 years for sure have been devoted (maybe 80%) towards keys. It's my go to instrument anymore.

Anyhow, my long quest has been the right keyboard. I love to play piano at home. Live I play a good bit more EP's then some piano, organ and strings.

My quest mainly started with a Korg O1W Pro X. Yikes heavy. I went to a roland fp model I forget that I liked the piano and nothing else. I moved to a small roland rd weighted 64 key that again was fine on piano and mot much else. I tried a roland organ but still no love for the piano. I went to yamaha and LOVED the sound of the cp4 which I still have. But nothing else was so hot. Tried the Kork Krome (all but piano again) and then the kronos (all but piano again). Ack! OK, I tried the montage... hmm, I expected a lot more.

Am I asking to much? A board that gives pianos that are inspiring and some decent meat and potato ep's, organs, strings and a little brass.
Oh yes, I need it to be light because in my 50's I want it light. I'll even consider 70 some keys if need be. When I gig I'm also taking out my guitar rig and often doing sound for myself or a band I'm in so yes, I really don't want a big keyboard rig also.

Enter the Nord Electro 5 HP 73. (cue drum roll and cymbals, mucho clapping at the end)

I've had this about a week and every day I like it more. Usually it's the other way around.

It's small. 73 keys and very compact and very light. It's red!?!?! OK, I'll get over that. But the piano sounds are acceptable. they're not OMG but they are not uninspiring as so many are. The downloaded pianos are good and the italian one grows on me daily. The ep
s organs etc. are all more than fine.

Could it be? That I've gotten about all I wanted in one keyboard? Well I do miss some of those far notes at times from the cp4's 88 keys possibly may keep it) but for gigs and what I'm drawn to anytime I'm at home (and last night at 2am when I couldn't sleep) is this nord.

It seems pretty easy to figure out, it seems well made, I like that the sounds are always interchangeable. I wish the hd were larger. I like that it doesn't take 2 days to turn on. (I'm pointing at you korg) This keyboard rocks!

Anyhow, I just can't say what a stinking relief it is to have checked off about all my issues for a keyboard with this piece.

I look forward to learning more about it and continuing my love affair with the keyboard. Sorry guitars, you're just gonna have to keep that jealous look on your face.

[Lee Batchelor]

Great post, Dave! (I assume "Dave" is correct - from your moniker.)

I too went through about eight keyboards - Korg, Roland, Yamaha - all excellent boards in one way or another. I only had my Korg Trinity a short time after I discovered the CPU in my Commodore Pet was three times faster than the CPU they put in the Trinity - but I digress.

It took me a long time to realize I only needed great pianos, EPs, and B3 organs for the live stage. All the other stuff on synths such as, envelope generators, filters, sequencers (that are never easy to edit from) and other developer tools, are of no interest to me. Especially appealing about my 5D is the ability to free up memory by deleting voices like banjo, (ya, every good keyboardist needs that voice!!), harpsichord, etc..... The 5D is a true gigging musician's dream machine. I play it in stereo through a pair of Bose L1 Compact speakers and a subwoofer of my own design, since Bose saw fit not to offer one with the Compact series! I also own a Tyros 5, which has dime store piano voices but excellent solo voices - probably the best on any live machine, Montage included.

The only thing I'm having trouble with is the move from 88 keys to 73. I need the transposer for a lot of my work, and I find it tough to find the correct placement of my hands for certain songs. Other than that, I love the 5D!

- Lee

[iadjazzman_54]

Dave: I have been on the wrestling mat with m new 5 HP 73 and I am having a hell of a time understanding the you tube tutorials (GrayWill and NORD tutorials), never mind the NORD manual.
I am confused about the relationship between set list and programs. All I want to do is program each song in my band's repertoire. I run into a major problem when I program a different sound on Sound Live 1 for a specific song. What happens is that the last program (Live Song 1 sound I selected and save for that particular song) now is the same Sound Live 1 for all of the songs I have programmed that has a Live 1 sound. It's me that is the problem understanding the sequencing of the programming. Can you suggest any other documentation to help me get going with this incredible keyboard? Al from Florida.

[iadjazzman_54]

Somebody might post a more comprehensive reply (I do not own a NE5, so I will be missing the detail), but to get you going:
1. Set List is just a list that points to Programs that you have stored in your instrument in a given order.
2. You should not use the Live entries to program sounds that you want to retrieve later in the Set List, because the Live programs keep the modifications that you do "live". What you probably want is to modify some existing programs, store them, then create a Set List with those programs.
Hope it helps a bit!

[Lee Batchelor]

Hi Al...let me see if I can help you with Set List mode.

Set List mode is nothing more than a utility that points to Programs. Let's say your band repertoire has 5 songs (I know, you guys likely know a heck of a lot more !) First, you must set up 5 Programs - 1 for each song. In Set List mode, the first song points to Program 1, the second song points to Program 2, and so on. However, Set List mode has 4 variations per song- buttons labeled A, B, C, and D. Let's say song 1 is played half with piano and half with brass (full keyboard range for each one). You must set up a suitable piano Program and store it as "Song 1 - piano voice". (You can name it anything you want.) Next, set up a brass Program for the same song. Name it "Song 1 - brass voice". You now have 6 programs but still five songs in your Set List. Here's what it looks like inside the Nord. (Note the "---------->" means "points to":

Song 1,Button A -----------> Program 1, piano
Song 1 Button B -----------> Program 2, brass
Song 2 Button A -----------> Program 3, whatever voice you assigned to Program 3
Song 3 Button A -----------> Program 4, whatever voice you assigned to Program 4
Song 4 Button A -----------> Program 5, whatever voice you assigned to Program 5
Song 5 Button A -----------> Program 6, whatever voice you assigned to Program 6

As you can see, you have 6 programs for 5 songs because Song 1 needs 2 programs (Buttons A and B). That's the structure.

It gets more interesting when you want to edit (for example) the brass in Program 2. You can do that from Set List mode, however, when you save the changes, Program 2 is overwritten with the new changes.

Another really nice feature is, while you're in Set List mode on stage, suppose you like the brass voice, but it needs more reverb. You add reverb while still playing live, using the dedicated effect button. If you go to the piano voice (Button A), play some bars, and then go back to the brass voice (Button B), your added reverb is still there. When you switch to another song though, the new reverb setting is lost.

You can also add Song 6 (for example) to your Set List and have Song 6 point to Program 2, brass. Now you have 2 songs in your set list that use the same voice. Just beware that if you change the brass voice in Song 1, you'll hear the same changes in Song 6! Also, you can assign Program 2, brass to Button A in Song 6 instead of Button B, like it is in Song 1.

Hope this helps. I welcome anyone else to chime in for extra clarification or to correct any errors on my part .

- Lee