Which Stage 3 to buy? Do Compacts strangle sound?

[FZiegler]

Most likely a psychological effect of playing weighted keys versus waterfall keys.

What do you mean by psychological?

I'm not able to control piano velocity with my NS3C in a satisfactory way. I'd say: It's not psychological, but it's a matter of my fingers meeting an unaccustomed mechanical resistance. That's a psychological effect in a veeeery wide sense.

I'm a piano player for a long time and still play acoustic pianos of different brands. What I would call psychological is that I don't like playing acoustic grands - I'm more comfortable with uprights. Grands make me nervous.

[Benjamin Golby]

Same here, that's why I use both BS3 Compact and NS3 88 in my setup

[stringtapper]

Most likely a psychological effect of playing weighted keys versus waterfall keys.

What do you mean by psychological?

I'm not able to control piano velocity with my NS3C in a satisfactory way. I'd say: It's not psychological, but it's a matter of my fingers meeting an unaccustomed mechanical resistance. That's a psychological effect in a veeeery wide sense.

I'm a piano player for a long time and still play acoustic pianos of different brands. What I would call psychological is that I don't like playing acoustic grands - I'm more comfortable with uprights. Grands make me nervous.

What I mean is that there are a lot of factors that contribute to us liking or disliking things we hear, many of them psychological and psychoacoustic in nature. External stimuli can affect our impression of sounds in ways that we’re not aware of. The old “producer’s fader” trick that sound engineers sometimes use is a prime example of this phenomenon.

So my point is that we can’t discount the very real possibility that playing the exact same sound engine with two different keybeds is contributing to one’s impression of there being an aural difference.

[AndyG1955]

Benjamin, probably the only true way of testing is to try the sounds of each keyboard side by side, but using MIDI play the sounds from one keybed, then alternate the process. Make sure you take off all effects to compare raw samples. After that you could try applying the panels they could be colouring the sound differently. You are not imagining it, but you need to find the reason. I’m sure I read somewhere of players preferring the sound of earlier model Nords despite the less memory etc The manufacturers only need to source some their components from a different supplier and who knows…… I would be keen to know your findings Good luck!

[Benjamin Golby]

Thank you so much all for your thoughts - what a welcoming community.vv

So I've taken on board:
- Compacts do not strangle sound (thank you, EricL)
- If I want to have a Compact with the option of weighted keys, buy a Compact and then a weighted keys controller (not the other way around)
- Have a look for discontinued Stage models that may still be in showrooms for cheap

stringtapper, absolutely, I appreciate your thoughts. The curious part is, I didn't notice the difference when I was playing the 2 different keyboards. I recorded the exact same piece of music, played the same way on both instruments (I'd been practicing the passage for several days) and was staggered when I heard the difference. I didn't expect there to be any.

I then blind-played it to a friend who said the exact same thing as me.

The only reason the comparison occurred was because my old Compact shut down (it got buggy), hence, I used my friend's old Stage 88 which was sitting idle. I downloaded the latest operating system and the exact same piano sound (the Silver Grand - Large) that I was using on the Compact. It was striking how much better the 88 key recording sounded when I played it back and then listened to one of the earlier Compact recordings.

I will test it again using a different sound and a different passage and see how it compares.

It may be that my Compact, which traveled a lot, is wearing out. A couple of knobs have busted, the low F key often sticks and I get the stray electrical issue with it (my friend's Stage 88, which I used for the comparison, has instead sat comfortably in a home studio the last 12 or 13 years).

I wonder, also, if maybe the weighted keys let the piano sound breathe more. Maybe that's what I'm hearing and to my ears the waterfall keys are strangled in comparison.

AndyG1955, you're suggestion is bang on. I'll see if I can get coordinated enough to run the test.

christianjwagner, your double-tiered Nord is great.
[hr]
Now I might go look through the forum and read up users' thoughts on the Compact v HP76 Stages.