Nord Electro 2 - Acoustic Grand (bad or broken?)

[itsJoel59]

There's definitely something wrong with that piano sound. Although not amazing by today's standards the Electro 2 pianos are a lot better than your video.

My memory is a bit hazy but I believe at one point the piano sample format was changed which required an OS update. Perhaps you have an piano sample incompatible with your OS.

As you say, updating the OS doesn't require an old computer just a DIN MIDI interface.

The USB tool for changing piano samples can be run on a 64 bit PC using Virtual PC / XP mode.

Heck yeah, I'll try Virtual PC then! Hopefully it all goes smoothly And yeah, I knew beforehand that the piano sound wasn't that amazing, but not THIS bad, so thanks for confirming and for the tip!

[itsJoel59]

**UPDATE**

Sadly the USB driver doesn't seem to work in VirtualBox, Windows 7 32-bit... Clavia seems to have updated the latest version of the driver, so now it doesn't support 32-bit systems anymore, which is funny cos the ElectroTool still only works on 32-bit. So I literally cannot access it.
I managed to find an older driver that made no difference (computer still cannot identify the electro).
What's worse is that while I managed to update the OS just fine (progress!), however that wiped ALL of the internal samples, which I currently cannot load back in. So I'm left with an updated OS, but with just the organ engine working... aaaaand it's almost 4 AM
Anyway, hopefully there is a solution somewhere, putting the whole 'joining a band' thingie on hold for now.

[Mighty Motif Max]

**UPDATE**

Sadly the USB driver doesn't seem to work in VirtualBox, Windows 7 32-bit... Clavia seems to have updated the latest version of the driver, so now it doesn't support 32-bit systems anymore, which is funny cos the ElectroTool still only works on 32-bit. So I literally cannot access it.
I managed to find an older driver that made no difference (computer still cannot identify the electro).
What's worse is that while I managed to update the OS just fine (progress!), however that wiped ALL of the internal samples, which I currently cannot load back in. So I'm left with an updated OS, but with just the organ engine working... aaaaand it's almost 4 AM
Anyway, hopefully there is a solution somewhere, putting the whole 'joining a band' thingie on hold for now.

Give this a shot - the Wayback Machine has an archived page from 2017 and the old website that lists a USB driver for the Electro 2 with the following description:

"This USB driver is only compatible with 32-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Connect the Electro 2 to the computer and use the Add Hardware Wizard to install the driver. You can also install the driver in the Windows Device Manager."

https://web.archive.org/web/20170508164 ... -electro-2

I might recommend downloading all the software that's there and seeing if that works together, being of the same vintage.

[changearound]

**UPDATE**

Sadly the USB driver doesn't seem to work in VirtualBox, Windows 7 32-bit... Clavia seems to have updated the latest version of the driver, so now it doesn't support 32-bit systems anymore, which is funny cos the ElectroTool still only works on 32-bit. So I literally cannot access it.
I managed to find an older driver that made no difference (computer still cannot identify the electro).
What's worse is that while I managed to update the OS just fine (progress!), however that wiped ALL of the internal samples, which I currently cannot load back in. So I'm left with an updated OS, but with just the organ engine working... aaaaand it's almost 4 AM
Anyway, hopefully there is a solution somewhere, putting the whole 'joining a band' thingie on hold for now.

I have an earlier version of the driver you can try.. Unfortunately I can't attach it to this post as the file type is unsupported. If you pm me your email address I can send it that way.

Edit: try this link - https://www.driverscape.com/download/cl ... usb-driver

[itsJoel59]

Thanks @changearound @Mighty Motif Max

I'll give these a try later tonight and get back to you. Fingers crossed

[itsJoel59]

Sadly, nothing is working. I have tried on both 32-bit Win7 and WinXP, none can detect the Nord in the USB port (Other USB-devices are detected). Sometimes it comes up as "Unknown device", but then it disappears after a bit. I managed to try installing the USB drivers you provided (before the nord disappeared from device manager), however they didn't work.
I will probably just try to find an actual older computer and try. Anywho, thanks for your help guys

**EDIT**

IT WORKS
I have now managed to load all sounds back into the unit! HECK YES
The piano sounds "good" now, as in still not great, but not as bad as in the original video clip.

The problem was related to the host (my computer) "stealing" the connection to the Nord from my virtual machine (I used Windows XP as virtual machine), making it undetectable on the XP.
I managed to solve it with some help from this thread: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=59303 by creating a s.c. USB-filter for the Electro using its VendorID and ProductID. This is all VirtualBox mumbo jumbo, but maybe some other guy from the future with a similar problem can get some clue about how to go about solving this without an actual older computer, it is possible!!

Thanks again for your time, guys

[changearound]

Congratulations.

[Mighty Motif Max]

Great to hear it! Did you load in the most recent OS for the newer acoustic pianos that were added later on? Should be better than the initial stock pianos if that's what you have.


https://www.norduserforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=22185

[Mighty Motif Max]

Looks like those samples are missing from the newer Nord site. Here's all the content that used to be on the Electro 2 Sound Library page:

Acoustic Pianos: https://web.archive.org/web/20180822123 ... and-pianos
Electric Grands: https://web.archive.org/web/20180824092 ... and-pianos
EP's/Clavs: https://web.archive.org/web/20180822112 ... ric-pianos
OS V 3.0: https://web.archive.org/web/20180903060 ... ory-sounds

[itsJoel59]

Great to hear it! Did you load in the most recent OS for the newer acoustic pianos that were added later on? Should be better than the initial stock pianos if that's what you have.


https://www.norduserforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=22185

I got them all, thanks! Although I think maybe I ended up loading the same AcGrand anyway lol. I'll probably swap it out later. I loaded the latest OS, 3.04 I believe.