What would you do?

[Gardinen]

Despite the Kronos being very complicated, there isn't much you can throw at it, that it wont do. It has some amazing routing capabilities with audio (either from analog, optical digital, or USB) and MIDI functions. The downside of the Kronos, is that most of the soundengines originates from the Oasys, which is more than 10 years old.

My ultimate setup would be a Nord Stage 3 88 on the botton, and a Kronos (or perhaps updated Kronos 3????) on the top, coupled with Mainstage. That way you'll have the simplicity of the Stage 3 on the bottom and the more advanced, weird stuff, on the Kronos/Mainstage.

[kbrkr]

I'd go with a Korg Kronos. Amazing Synth features, Great Pianos and Vintage Keys, bread and butter sounds, great keyboard action, Karma, program it till your heats content, easy Combi's and Layers/splits.

...and a terrible interface.

Please give me an example.

[totheatom]

Thanks, everyone, for the kind responses. Sage advice. Really appreciate it.

The appeal of the Stage 3 to me is primarily three things:

1 - The ability to blend piano, organ and synth sounds, etc. into the same patches for multimbral playing. This is huge to me (and also what attracts me to the A1, coincidentally, with the different synth layers). I love to blend sounds creatively. Now, yes, I could essentially do this in my DAW with different tracks loaded with VSTs and armed to record, but to be able to do this exclusively through one intuitive hardware interface is just a blissful idea to me, which brings me to my next point....

2 - Another thing that attracts to me to Nord are their simple, yet very well designed interfaces. As analogika alluded to, I find myself more and more stifled by the creative process of using software. No, I'm not afraid of it and genuinely see it's importance and usefulness for a lot of elements of music. However, when creating with VSTs, I find that there's fiddling with the the mouse, then demo, fiddle with menus, demo, fiddle with menus, demo, etc., etc. Yes, very much removed and less intuitive. I'm trying to eliminate that as much as possible. Honestly, I agree that I could likely get slightly better piano and keyboard tones out of something like Keyscape. However, having everything available in a hands-on way in one interface is more important to me.

3 - This might seem a little silly, but my dream has been to have a Nord as my master keyboard. Love their aura and love their modulation/pitch controls. Well, this is Nord's flagship board and best keybed. Just seems to make sense.

[analogika]

I'd go with a Korg Kronos. Amazing Synth features, Great Pianos and Vintage Keys, bread and butter sounds, great keyboard action, Karma, program it till your heats content, easy Combi's and Layers/splits.

...and a terrible interface.

Please give me an example.

Transpose a single layered/split patch.

The machine feels like a Linux computer running nine different VSTs, each with its own, completely disparate user interface, tied together into a mixer and a sequencer. Because, well...that's exactly what it is.

I downloaded the editor, thinking that it would use the advantage of multiple windows and the computer interface to make things a little less roundabout and annoying, aaaaand...it's the exact same interface, except without touch!!?

It seemed to me like, while there was very little it couldn't do, there was nothing you could do - even the littlest things - that didn't involve fighting layer upon layer of convolution.

I loved playing the thing, and there are absolutely highlights - the full orchestral layer patch is to die for - but when it came to replacing it when the Kronos left the backline of a band I was playing in, I replaced it with MainStage and never looked back.

[analogika]

In contrast, the Nord is much more limited, but everything I can do on the board takes about 45 seconds to get in the ballpark. Well within "hang on, lemme just try this" territory for rehearsals or even on-stage.

The difference between "I could do that" and "I want to do that", I guess.

[Mr_-G-]

I would spend some serious time at your nearest dealer trying out all these options in person before dropping major cash on anything - less chance of being disappointed.

^^ This! It is a lot of money, so you need to make sure that you are happy with the decision.

[fjzingo]

Nowadays I ask myself what sound am I after/do I need/do I like based on what do you want to use them for. If I didn't play live I would get something like a CP4 for piano and as an 88 controller and a keyboard with great synt action like the Montage 6 or DS OB6.

The Nord stage, regardless of version is the best compromise for me when it comes to live playing, at home it gets the most milage even though I prefer my acoustic piano, rhodes,...to many rehearsals I drag my nord electro 4.

[MartinJ2EX]

I have to say - Nord Stage 2 EX was the best decision for me... Everything has already been mentioned.. Pianos awesome, Synth nice, Samples nice/ok, Organ awesome (not comparable to Logic Pro X organ, but still insanely good)

And now with my self-made Master Keyboard (B3 style) more versatile than ever...
BUT: NS3 wouldn't be that great with MIDI keyboard... hopefully in the future per software update... But I don't consider to buy this board unless they re-add features from S2EX........

[analogika]

I have to say - Nord Stage 2 EX was the best decision for me... […] Organ awesome (not comparable to Logic Pro X organ, but still insanely good)

?

It's a lot better than the Logic organ...?

[maxpiano]

I have to say - Nord Stage 2 EX was the best decision for me... […] Organ awesome (not comparable to Logic Pro X organ, but still insanely good)

?

It's a lot better than the Logic organ...?

I think he means the opposite, which I tend to agree: Vintage B3 of Logic/Mainstage is overall a better clone than the (still very good one) in the NS and it is soo much more tweakable.