Will I be disappointed w/synth patch selection?

[Frantz]

Unless your heart beats for Nord sounds (and weight), the Kronos 2 seems to be better option.
I'd be glad you prove me wrong

[anotherscott]

Terry, sorry to say, I think the Nord Stage is the wrong board for you, if you want just one board.

It sounds like, other than light weight, you really want a kind of updated version of your old Roland, which isn't what the Nord is. Other than light weight, these are the main things a Nord would give you coming from your Roland...
... better pianos
... better organs
... better ability to create/tweak synth patches (through knobby interface)
... ability to work with your own samples (maybe your Roland can do that? not sure, but even if it can, it was a bear on older boards)
... wide range of sampled "vintage" keyboard sounds (mellotrons, string machines, fairlight, etc.)

none of which you expressed any real need for. Does anything there really tempt you?

Meanwhile, the things you talked about wanting are not really there...

... you like a wide range of synth presets that will get you close to sounds of popular songs, without having to tweak or program your own synth sounds... not a particular strength of the Nord
... strong acoustic instrument (sax, brass) emulations, also not a Nord strength. These kinds of sounds are in the Nord to cover the basics or fill in in a pinch, but they are not the quality of what you'll find in many other boards that employ multiple velocity samples or alternate articulations.

Every board has a balance between what it does really well and what it doesn't, but in this case, I don't think you care much about what it does well, and you care a lot about what it isn't the best at.

As LudovicVDP said, within limits, you could sample your favorite Roland sounds into the Nord, but that's a lot of work to still end up with something that will still generally be not as good... you'd be better off getting a board that does what you need in the first place.

Picking up from what Rusty Mike said, for the functions you want in a more modern and lightweight board, you're better off looking elsewhere. Assuming you want to stick with 7x keys, the forthcoming Roland FA-07 is an obvious choice, as it will probably even already have many of your current sounds in it. The Kurzweil Artis7 would be another contender, with good acoustic instrument sounds and lots of patches that are designed to emulate the sounds of popular songs (especially since you can also use their computer editor to load in all the sounds of the Kurzwei PC3 series). Kronos has been mentioned, it's also a very strong board and includes lots of patches for popular songs, but it has a bit more travel weight esp. if you want 7x keys (their 7x uses a weighted action; there's also a new 88 key LS model that has a lighter action, but the board is still a bit on the big and heavy side... worth considering, though). These are all designed to be able to do splits easily, which you subsequently mentioned as something else you're looking for. There are some other possibilities, but I think those are your three best choices.

Okay, now for something completely different... Whatever you get, if you get a non-Roland and find yourself missing some of the Roland sounds, but don't want to take two keyboards (or deal with the effort and limitations of sampling those douns), you can add a Roland Integra7 module to any of the other boards, and have access to a huge Roland library of sounds as well. So if there's something about the Nord that really appeals to you, you could get the Stage and add the Integra to pretty much have it all. Jasonbass32 just talked about doing this at http://www.norduserforum.com/post87280.html (and you could also add the Integra to any of the other boards mentioned here).

As for not wanting to try things out locally and end up buying over the internet, if you know you're going to buy over the internet anyway, my advice would be to try them out by buying over the internet from a place with a good return policy. Yeah, return shipping for anything you don't keep will cost you some, but it's usually not so bad, and you're also getting the benefit of having days and weeks to play with something to decide if it's right for you, rather than just minutes or hours. If your credit card can handle it, you could even order a few different boards, try them all for a while at home, go back and forth as much as you like, and then just return the ones you decided not to keep.

[analogika]

anotherscott speaks truth.

Regarding Frantz' suggestion: Worked with a Kronos for a year. LOVED the sound, HATED programming the f**** thing. Opted for MainStage on the MacBook Pro instead, when it came to rebuilding the setup.

Nord is like the complete antithesis of the Kronos — just total opposite.

Be aware that Nord Keyboards don't sound like the major Japanese brands. The samples are pretty acoustic sounding, and don't have the electronic articulations that Roland, Korg and Yamaha have built into their instruments. I strongly suggest you play different instruments to hear what appeals to you the most. You do not have to wait for a Stage 3 to show up at the dealer to hear how a Nord sounds - you can play the current Stage 2EX line to get a good idea.

Just my opinion - I'm not a fan of the highly processed emulations of the Roland, Korg and Yamaha products. I personally much prefer the more organic sounding Nord samples. But, I also understand that a lot of ears disagree with me.

The Nord architecture is also unlike the other brands. Some understand it and love it, others not so much. This is not intended as an insult in any way. I personally struggle with the workflow on many Yamaha instruments. They simply make no sense to me.

Boy, am I with you.

Yamahas *do* make sense; they just don't work the way *I* do.

The Yamaha piano sounds work great in a mix — bright and present, no matter what the level is. But by themselves, they sound pretty unnatural and characterless, IMHO.

The nords always feel like actual instruments. It takes actual effort to get them to sound generic.

[anotherscott]

Nord is like the complete antithesis of the Kronos — just total opposite.
...
Yamahas *do* make sense; they just don't work the way *I* do.

Yes, Kronos and Yamaha (Motif series and their derivatives) are more like each other than either is like a Nord. I like them all, for the things they each do best. In fact, in the last dozen years since I've gotten back into gigging, I don't know if I've done any gig where I haven't brought a Yamaha along. Even a cheap, light, little MX49 is a great board for filling in on just the kinds of sounds where Nord is weakest, and it's actually pretty straight-forward operationally. The MOXF is a lot more capable, but also more complicated. Though as you said, they DO (mostly) make sense, once you wrap your head around them and learn their "language." What I've discovered is that, generally, figuring out how to get them to do what you want is the toughest part. Once you figure that out, getting them to actually DO what you want isn't bad at all. For example, on the MOX/MOXF, I can very easily keep a left hand bass going, and use the 16 patch select buttons to instantly choose what right hand sound I want. Figuring out how to do that was not at all straight-forward, but having figured out, actual operation to do this thing during the gig is a cinch... and is something that would be basically impossible to do on a Nord!

[kbrkr]

Hold on, hold on, hold on, one minute. I don't own a Nord yet, but take a look at these videos on Youtube. Also, check out Matthew Cossey's site and sounds. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJ0EK ... Z72vJfgCMA

He has no problem programming the Nord Stage 2 to replicate songs?! I would imagine he samples sounds as well as programs them. You can sample your sounds by hooking your keyboard up to a computer and using the Nord Sample Editor to create the samples you need for your keyboard. I don't think this a big deal.

[anotherscott]

kbrkr, of course you can pretty much replicate the sounds of most songs on the Nord Stage. I don't think that's at issue. As I see it, the OP would have two issues from those videos:

One, you generally have to learn how to create the sounds, as opposed to picking a preset. Now, creating sounds is easier on a Nord than on a lot of other boards (because of its direct access to commonly used effects and synth controls plus the ability to easily load custom samples), but it still takes a different skill set and approach compared to scrolling through presets to find something close.

Two, the quality of some of the sounds. Nord has top quality for some sounds, less for others. Listen to the strings and brass in those examples. Good enough to get by? Sure. But as good as you'd get out of a lot of other boards? Nope. There are a smaller range of such sounds to work with, and they have less in the way of velocity-based changes or alternate articulations that can make them sound more real.

[LudovicVDP]

Now *that* would be great, except . . . I know nothing about how to sample, what equipment I need to do sampling, etc.

Very high level: a computer with a sound card. One software (e.g. Audacity is free). And the sample editor from Nord.

It's definitely an option to consider if you're not repulsed by computers. I personally use a lot of sounds that I sampled or created myself with VST and that I imported into my NS.

[Quai34]

+1 on the brass and strings or synth sounds for the Nord: Anytime I have to replicate a complete brass section, I always add some patches from the Roland XV5080 and/or the Proteus...They might be old Board but their sounds are still great...I've just used the Sus/Fall patch on Nord with the Baryton/Horn (Two samples that are considered very good for Nord in their samples library...) and, while the SusFall sound is good, the other one lack the more "Brassy" style of the XV5080...The XV580 was used in that song (Evil Ways/Santana by the way) for a Marimba sound on top of the D50 Roland but I think I will change it to get it to "Help" the Brass sounds on the Nord...
For the strings sounds, anytime, I think I miss a little bit of depth with the Nord, I add the Waldorf Streichfett or the Prophet 08...
Anyway, I know you want only one board, so, my point is that I'm always in need of "Backing up" the Nord anytime I need to sound "real" for a brass section or a more synth/Pop song...

[voodoo]

I play in a cover band, and use a Roland Fantom FA76, which debuted about 1999. It has 1024 patches to choose from, and I'm amazed that I can almost always find a patch that sounds amazingly close to the ones used on the "records." (Sorry, I'm an old guy)

I think that the Nord platform is perfect for piano, epiano and organ sounds, or lead synths.

But they are not perfect in the range of sample based sounds. For example, in the Electro, the "sample synth" does not allow velocity layers, no start or end samples, no fexible filter control, no modulation, no layering, no pitch bend, no everything. It is just sample playing, one sample per note. This is what PC soundcards could do in the 90s (remember the soundfont format?).

In contrast to this, the Super Articulation 2 voices of the Yamaha Tyros 5 use a large database of sample fragements, which are combined highly flexible, according to the playing style of the player. There are start samples, staccato and legato playing, end samples, ensemble voices (building accords from different voives), algorithm controlled glissando, 8 layers pers note, and much more. This perfect emulation of natural instruments in the arranger class is even more sophisticated than what the professiobnal synth workstations (Motif, Montage, Kronos) offer.

So due to this technical restrictions, we can expect, that Nord sample sounds cannot compete with specialied sample workstations.

Uli

[ACCORDIONMAN]

I haven't read every single post on this thread but just for my 2 cents (or 2 pence for those in the UK) worth. I did covers gigs for years using a Yamaha Motif which was amazing and could basically get any sound I wanted. I just got a bit bored and really just needed a change to refresh my musical inspiration. I got the Nord Electro 5d, I really like it. I can't get every single sound I used to, but I have adapted my playing style and use more of the natural sounds.

It sounds really great, and it's loads of fun to play. I'm sure if you get the NS3 you wont be disappointed. Just be prepared for a new way of working, a different approach. But it will seriously be better IMO. I ended up sampling a load of the best sounds from my Motif before I sold it. Got my nice brass/ strings and a few synths. See my other posts for a couple of sounds I put up on here.


Good luck! Let us know what you do!