Nord User Forum

this tune charted with me...Clav / Piano / Organ / Stgs and one kickin groove...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30lVYOuvg-g

maybe didn't chart with anyone else...it was all thru the club / remix scene

Gambold wrote:Well, if anyone cares to list anything that has charted in the past 20 years with a clavichord on it, here's the place. I was referring to current artists...not aging Nordies playing covers of 70s soul tunes...

A Clavinet and a clavichord are completely different instruments. I honestly have no idea if a clavichord was used on even a single song that charted within the past 100 years.

Now, putting aside the fact that Nord keyboards got their start with digital recreations of instruments that hadn't been made since the early 80s at the latest (Nord Lead: virtual analogue, Nord Electro: Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, and Hammond) and are thus very much "of the time", as you put it. And also putting aside that there's rather a lot of people out there playing music that was written more than twenty years ago (the vast majority of working musicians, in fact):

Clavinet is all over Dance stuff, as well as contemporary Black music, including Bruno Mars'/Anderson.Paak's Silk Sonic. Not sure whether any of the songs that got awards prominently featured Clav, but the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and was ranked Billboard's #7 Best album of 2021, Rolling Stone's 35, NME's #22, and Spin's #30. It was nominated for four Grammies.


Also:

Beyoncé "Cuff It" (2022)

Billboard The 100 Best Songs of 2022 #15
Consequence The 100 Best Songs of 2022 #4
NME Top 50 Best Songs of 2022 #1
Rolling Stone The 100 Best Songs of 2022 #2
The Fader The 100 best songs of 2022 #6

2023 Awards
Grammy Awards Best R&B Song Won
ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Most Performed R&B/Hip-Hop & Rap Songs Won
NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Soul/R&B Song Won
iHeartRadio Music Awards TikTok Bop of the Year Nominated
BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards Most Performed Songs of the Year Won
MTV Video Music Awards Song of Summer Nominated

Clavinet is an EXTREMELY relevant, timeless sound.

I'd be stoked if Nord released some new samples, though I'm not holding my breath, and what's currently available gets the job done. This is about the only category that has received limited attention over the years. I'll have to double check my NS2 and NS3 instruments to see which version I'm currently running, as the latest V6 may be newer.

As at least one other poster has mentioned, there was something extra special about the Clav capabilities in the NE2 circa 2002. I still have my NE2 and love playing both Clav and Wurly on it...it has a more organic and dirty sound than anything I've used after it, including NE3, NE5, NS2, NS3.

There are great things that come from running the Clav with lots of effects onboard and also layering with synth tones that are similar to Clav.

It's one of my favorite sounds and I use it in multiple ways for different genres old and new.

also...listen to Beck. That dude loves his harpsichords and clavinets in his production work.

ericL wrote:As at least one other poster has mentioned, there was something extra special about the Clav capabilities in the NE2 circa 2002. I still have my NE2 and love playing both Clav and Wurly on it...it has a more organic and dirty sound than anything I've used after it, including NE3, NE5, NS2, NS3.

The Clav is the reason I kept the NE2. It's the distortion that works completely differently from all later Nords. It breaks up beautifully and gives the Clav an edge that later versions can't approach. With an FC7 controlling the built-in wah, it's just perfect.

I've owned two D6 and one E7 (all destroyed in a fire or stolen) and now have a Clavinet I, but I've still used the NE2 on productions instead of the real thing…

>Clavinet is an EXTREMELY relevant, timeless sound<

Well that's a bold statement. I admire and appreciate the stout defenses and examples I'm seeing of the lowly Clavinet, but a gauntlet too large may have been thrown with the word EXTREMELY (all caps are not mine).

It's timeless to be sure. So is the basset horn, the glockenspiel, and the lyre - especially if you play the latter in a Grecian frock (per below: he's even got Nord colors!)

All joking aside - if the Clavinet is still such a hot item, and being used by Beyonce and such (which I don't doubt), why is Nord making it the absolute LEAST important of all their keyboard samples? I mean they offer ten different Harpischords! Who the hell is playing all those? Please, don't respond to that

They have a raft of "layered" digital pianos, Mozart recreations, and dumb stuff like Rubba Rhodes and yet - all they can manage is ONE tiny (5.7mb), 14-year old sample of a D6 Clavinet? So while my bear-poking may be partially in fun, it appears that Nord management agrees with the premise. No-one is using the Clavinet anymore. At least not in Sweden.

Fondly, Gambold

Gambold wrote:They have a raft of "layered" digital pianos, Mozart recreations, and dumb stuff like Rubba Rhodes and yet - all they can manage is ONE tiny (5.7mb), 14-year old sample of a D6 Clavinet? So while my bear-poking may be partially in fun, it appears that Nord management agrees with the premise. No-one is using the Clavinet anymore. At least not in Sweden.

Very well put

Gambold wrote:All joking aside - if the Clavinet is still such a hot item, and being used by Beyonce and such (which I don't doubt), why is Nord making it the absolute LEAST important of all their keyboard samples? I mean they offer ten different Harpischords! Who the hell is playing all those? Please, don't respond to that

The current Clavinet is actually really good IMHO.

>The current Clavinet is actually really good IMHO.<

I can't speak to that, since like most keyboardists on the planet, I have little to no use for it. BUT - it would seem to me that if I was an enthusiast, I would like to see by now some updates from our good buddies at Nord. Created with the new sampling technology that has made their acoustic piano samples almost double in size over the years.

How about individual samples for the four main Clav settings? How about the Hohner E7, which apparently was an interesting and often-used follow-up model to the D6?

Even I would get excited about trying one of those out - a lot more than I was about the Soft or Felt or Squishy or whatever piano was recently released...