Should I buy Nord Stage 3??

[ChillOnTheSun]

Try somewhere Kurzweil Forte. With layers, splits etc. you can make what you imagine..I used it for a few weeks. You have a 3GB memory to upload any sample you will find or make. Keyboard is lighter version of Nord Stage (Fatar TP40/L). Only reason I want to buy Nord Stage 3 is Mozart´s and Beethoven´s sampled pianos and effect tweeking for Farfisa organ.

[swarupm]

Try somewhere Kurzweil Forte. With layers, splits etc. you can make what you imagine..I used it for a few weeks. You have a 3GB memory to upload any sample you will find or make. Keyboard is lighter version of Nord Stage (Fatar TP40/L). Only reason I want to buy Nord Stage 3 is Mozart´s and Beethoven´s sampled pianos and effect tweeking for Farfisa organ.

Thanks!! But are the sounds better than Kronos? I had the kronos 2 for a year and I could not like the preset sounds. I am very poor at tweaking the samples myself. But I definitely liked the Layering, Setlist, Big touch screen and Sliders.

[ChillOnTheSun]

You need to try it for yourself. That is the best way for everything. I was bit scared of Kronos touchscreen... As for Kurzweil Forte, the acoustic and orchestral sounds are unbeatable, except Nords new piano samples and Nords Hammond. Kurzweil allows you to change tuning even to arabic or to Indian tuning...but once again, one try is better than hundred opinions.

[swarupm]

You need to try it for yourself. That is the best way for everything. I was bit scared of Kronos touchscreen... As for Kurzweil Forte, the acoustic and orchestral sounds are unbeatable, except Nords new piano samples and Nords Hammond. Kurzweil allows you to change tuning even to arabic or to Indian tuning...but once again, one try is better than hundred opinions.

+1. Will give it a shot. Thanks!!

[baekgaard]

In Indian Bollywood music, you will hear very rich Strings etc. And I am not a fan of carrying 2 keyboards. But seems like there are not much options.

You can also use the Unison effect (which has 3 levels) to enrich any synth sound (it adds more voices to your basic sound, slightly detuned and with some modulating phases, I think), plus you can add another oscillator (such as a saw wave) and mix that with the original sample even before it goes to the unison effect and gets doubled or quadrupled or whatever... and then you can add some chorus effect too. Take two of these sounds and stack them, and there would be a bit more strings/pad than I am able to digest Oh, and you could also use the organ as a soft tone in the background to blend in as a pad.

Now, I'm not familiar with the typical Bollywood soundtracks, so maybe you're after something else -- but I think you can get quite fat and rich sounds out of the Nord...

[anotherscott]

The only thing that holds me back is the lack of ability to layer more than 2 synths or samples. In Indian Bollywood music, you will hear very rich Strings etc.

The Nord is not the strongest at string sounds to begin with (just a relatively small collection of single-articulation, single-velocity samples), so layering more of them might not have gotten you what you wanted anyway.

I am not a fan of carrying 2 keyboards. But seems like there are not much options.

Remember that on the NS3 you can layer two internal synths/samples and you can also layer two more EXTernal synths or samples, which you can even get from an iPhone/iPad, so you don't have to carry around a lot of gear or a whole other keyboard to do get more layered sounds. (And if you want to get fancy, the external sound you layer could itself consist of multiple layers, as there are ways to layer sounds just using iOS apps.)

[baekgaard]

The Nord is not the strongest at string sounds to begin with (just a relatively small collection of single-articulation, single-velocity samples), so layering more of them might not have gotten you what you wanted anyway.

True -- I was probably more thinking in terms of "padded" strings above, which may not be what the OP is after. For real, orchestral sounds, your suggestion of using an app is probably the easiest thing to do.

[anotherscott]

Try somewhere Kurzweil Forte.

Thanks!! But are the sounds better than Kronos?

This kind of thing is subjective, so yeah, you have to try for yourself. But if you're looking for orchestral sounds, by reputation, Kurzweil and Yamaha probably lead the pack. Though Kronos isn't bad, esp. if you load up some of the optional sound libraries. Similar to how the Roland FA's orchestral sounds are weak, until you load the expansion pack.

[Quai34]

Do you have an Ipad? If yes, use it with Setlist maker which also gives you on tons of other features for sending program change, slow speed for listen and practicing....And a tons of Apps/Samples/Synths sounds for your extra sunthé/Strings layers....I know you don't want to use a second keyboard but I always use the strings or the pads in my D50 with the Nord....It gives me what I need like the very rich strings that you are found of....(Ok, Roland has always been very famous for their strings/Pads sounds as well....), so, do the same with the Ipad....
Ok, to be honest, even if I have looked at what an Ipad could give me, I have enough stuff to add to my stage 2 as hardware....It pisses my guitarist off because it takes me more time to set up but he's the first to sell us off when booking a gig in showing off my set up so...

[Quai34]

+1 on Roland expansions pack.... I Know my XV5080 could seem outdated but the Orchestral SRX cards are great....Ok, they might not be at all at the same level of the super huge samples lbraries for people who make musics for movies, but it's really good enough for me in a live setting (If they would have been "Crap", I'm pretty sure Roland would not have loaded all of them in the Integra 7)....And no computer, no crash, no HD issues, always available, will be sill there in 20 years....I'm pretty sure all the big libraries of today's will never run on the future OS of any computers in 20 years....
I never used Kurweil though, when they started years ago, they were too much expensive for me....And I'm not sure they have the same level of support/Users forum as Nord....