Wish the Piano 5 Was a Better MIDI Controller?

[GuiliClayder]

If you record MIDI, and you want to hear the performance played back, your Nord must be connected to the computer, because all the computer has recorded are the instructions for reproducing the performance (it has not recorded the audio performance itself). This means, for example, you could record with White Grand, and if you decide that maybe you'd like to hear how it would sound with Royal Grand, all you have to do is change the patch on your Nord, and now when you playback the recorded MIDI, you can hear it with Royal Grand instead of White Grand. (And you can then record the audio for that version, if you'd like.)

In fact, in that list of 5 steps, all you really need to do are steps 1 and 5. Steps 2 through 4 merely serve to assure that what you're recording, when played back later (still/again connected to the Nord), will definitely sound the same as how it sounded to you when you played it. By selecting the desired piano in step 4, you'll be hearing what you expect you'll want to hear when you play it back, but as I said, you can change your mind later (e.g. turn a performance recorded with the White Grand sound into something played back by the Royal Grand sound, or vice versa). Also, IIRC, depending on your settings, velocity response may be handled differently internally than externally, so these extra steps 2-4 would be a way to assure that the velocity response between your performance and the reproduction of that performance are identical. I am guessing that this might be the reason those extra steps are there.

I think I used the term 'sound' where I should have said 'performance'. From what I understand, I can record the Piano 5's performances as MIDI, as I would do with a VST, as long as the Nord is connected to the computer. That's what I needed to know. It's just that other people had claimed that you could ONLY record audio from the Piano 5, so not as easy to edit as MIDI, you will agree...

[GuiliClayder]

You can of course record MIDI, Nord Piano 5 has both MID DIN and USB MIDI (as you can read on its specifications and manual), on a DAW you can choose what to record (i.e. just MIDI or just audio or MIDI+Audio), you can work only on MIDI until you are satisfied with the result, but eventually if you need to save your performance as an audio file to share you need to record the audio too.

[GuiliClayder]

Thanks for all the feedback.
Noteworthy detail : there's also a Chris Maene Collection.
https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-lib ... hris-maene

Their 'flagship' store, and also where it all began for them, is about a 40 minute drive for me. Impressive location, amazing collection of grands, uprights and digitals, in all kinds of flavours (and prices, of course)