Nord User Forum

afroskully wrote: ↑05 Mar 2025, 20:25 I'm also curious about the old profile pic...who was that??

So am I both who was the old one and who is the current one?

Gambold, you are a beloved member of this forum and I wish you all the best as you segue to new gear and no more red things in your arsenal. Keep in touch and let us know how things are going! Share some links for your performances, if you're down with that. CHEERS!

... and who says, that not suddenly a NE5or6D61 appears as upper Key at Gambolds Houshold...

Guys, thanks for all the nice thoughts. And I'll still be popping in. I'm too annoying not to...

The original profile pic was of Billy Taylor, an American jazz pianist and teacher, from his 1956 album Billy Taylor at the London House, now very much out of print. As is Evergreens, which was the first jazz record I ever listened to, since it was in my Mom's collection and he looked so cool on the cover I had to put it on. I was probably about 8 years old then. I recommend them - Taylor was not a giant like Jamal or Evans but he was a fine musician and a great educator.

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/80167/ ... ndon-House

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/38568/ ... Evergreens

The new profile picture is ME. Yep, I thought I'd drop the curtain and give you the real face.

A quick update on my Yamaha adventure...there have been some changes, both good and not-so-much. The good is the sheer immensity of the board...88 keys! Hammer action! The dual keyboards feature is huge - it allows you to individually load a voice (that's what Yamaha calls them) for each one and configure it, and then run them together or apart, with these keen little toggle switches that you flip on and off. The organ has different color tonebar lights depending on what organ model you pick, which just looks boss. There are all sorts of inputs and outputs and XLR and it's totally stage-worthy.

The preset system (called Live Sets) is logical and easy to use, and not crazy as a soup sandwich like Nord's base 4 nuttiness. And yes - the page button moves you to the same point in the next group...NOT to the first point, which I hated about Nord's. What I mean is on Nord if you are on A-13 and hit page you go to A-21, not A-23. On Yamaha if you are on 1-3 and hit page, you go to 2-3. This allows you to organize and scroll through sounds vertically, not just horizontally. Yamaha has 20 pages with 8 presets each - so not as many as Nord's 416.

The pianos and the EPs are all fine - no, they don't have the charm of some of the Nord classics, but they just added a Steinway and it's pretty nice. The organs are fabulous, the Electro is smoked there.

The not-so-good: two things. You are stuck with what you got, there is no library like what Nord has. I knew that was coming and I can live with it, although I'm not so pleased with their synth selection...which is surprise, you'd think I wouldn't care. But I was a big user of the A1 Prophet and one or two others and I'm not quite finding them here.

BUT - the real surprise was NO SOFTWARE TO MANAGE PRESETS AND UPDATES. This is huge. And it's Yamaha! If little old Clavia can manage to provide a Sound Manager, can't one of the biggest companies in the world? NOPE. What this means of course is if you want to manage your presets and organize them for a live show, or by instrument, or whatever floats your boat...you're in for a long evening of dinking and dorking on the built-in screen. And for updates (and yes, I'm behind one so I'll have to do it eventually) you have to format a USB drive on the board, load the update on it, restart with a special key combination blah blah 1990s Ensoniq style klutz and kludge...

But it's fun to have a new board to learn! And I'm sure I'm not finished with Nord. I bought this YC88 because I also wanted a piano "at home," like the acoustic pianos I used to have. I'll be interested to see what Nord comes up with next. I'm predicting a new model, something entry-level and fun. Well, only after someone buys them out...

Gambold

See you soon Gambold, we'll miss your humor and you playing the devil's advocate, sometimes dedicated forums can become a bit too much like fan clubs, a healthy share of constructive criticism is always needed!

Good luck to you! I look forward to your updates, cheers!

Gambold wrote: ↑10 Mar 2025, 06:03 The original profile pic was of Billy Taylor, an American jazz pianist and teacher . .

The pianos and the EPs are all fine . . .

The not-so-good: two things. You are stuck with what you got, there is no library like what Nord has . . .

BUT - the real surprise was NO SOFTWARE TO MANAGE PRESETS AND UPDATES.

Thanks for the info on Billy Taylor. I have something new to discover now.

I'm still trying to get used to the APs and EPs. Aside from the Steinway and S700 samples, I find the pianos useless for my needs. I know a lot of people rave about Yamaha's EP library, but they are very cold and unnatural to me. And yea, the organ engine is really good.

New sounds are usually introduced with OS updates, when (and if) they happen. The synth part is something I never use aside from a very rare walking bass line.

There is a third party product by John Melas. The librarian is quite handy for exactly what you are describing. There is an editor part as well, but it's less valuable to me since I prefer tweaking right on the instrument. It is a few dollars, but a relatively small amount compared to your investment in the instrument.

Be aware also that if you shuffle around your presets, any Yamaha OS update will obliterate your setup, so performing a backup prior to an OS update is advised.

John Melas YC Tools

I was about to say the same like Mike - can recommend the John Melas tools a lot which I was using with my Yamaha Motifs prior to my move to Nord. John added support for the CP/YC/CK boards so that's for sure an option I think

I too am sorry you won't be posting as much. Now that you've gone over to the dark side, there is always General Synth/Keyboard forum you could chime in on.

>I'm still trying to get used to the APs and EPs. Aside from the Steinway and S700 samples, I find the pianos useless for my needs. I know a lot of people rave about Yamaha's EP library, but they are very cold and unnatural to me. <

The pianos - I agree, Nord ruins us for anything else. And it didn't take long for me to realize their flagship CFX kinda sucks. I guess they think it will cut through a band mix better...maybe that's the case...but I've already yanked it and popped the C7 in there (just like the Studio Grand 2!). The Steinway and the Upright are also in my presets...the Nashville was not honky enough, and I will listen to the S700..I don't even think I noticed it in the blend.

The EPs - I wasn't impressed much by the Rhodes/Wurlis, but they weren't worse than Nords - they felt kind of the same. My guess is these need a lot of tinkering. I still think the Korg SV had the best ones. People are probably raving about the FM suite, which is fairly extensive and what you'd expect since DX7 was of course Yamaha. There's a lot of different ones to try, although you've got to lock into an era of music which has not yet been able to dethrone classic rock. You see efforts every now and then to bump it back in to our gestalt - the I Ran scene in La La Land, for instance - but people are still listening to Tom Petty way more than Duran Duran.


<There is a third party product by John Melas. The librarian is quite handy for exactly what you are describing.<

I will check that out, thanks!