Nord User Forum

Hi,

well - another piano. Ok, better than nothing, but for my needs I already have all "shades" of Grand Pianos I need. What is really outdated and weaker than the competitor's is the Clavinet. BUT: It is not yet Christmas

Cheers

Eumel

Eumel wrote: 18 Dec 2025, 14:34 Hi,

well - another piano. Ok, better than nothing, but for my needs I already have all "shades" of Grand Pianos I need. What is really outdated and weaker than the competitor's is the Clavinet. BUT: It is not yet Christmas

Cheers

Eumel

Agreed, Nord already has many Grand Pianos that I will never use. They are interesting if you are playing solo piano or doing film scoring. They came through with the Stockholm EP which is very useful, but the Clavinet is the one they need to update.

-dj

I definitely want a new clavinet, but this piano sounds great and does seem different from anything else they have. I'm looking forward to loading it later today.

I might use the "Astor Grand" for my "latin piano" sounds.

But indeed, I prefer playing the Wurly from my Viscount Legend 70s. Or sometimes use their Clavinet. Which will remain a wide field of desires, even if those sounds aren't that complex by nature.

If anyone is wondering why this piano is named the “Astoria” Grand-

the Steinway factory in NYC is located in Astoria, Queens. If you’re in town they give tours. I took one as a kid and they let me play some 7’ grands in the display/audition room at the end. Made an impression!

Looking forward to trying this one out.

Well, we can be thankful we finally got another Grand, esp since the last one, the Soft, was something nobody wanted.

Interesting that Clavia seems to have abandoned the attempt to release any more "flagship" Grand piano samples, after the White. With the Soft and now the Astoria, the Grand releases have become eclectic and more single-purpose, not a sample you would use as your general acoustic piano. The Astoria also competes with the Uprights, since those have traditionally been the place to find sound-specific pianos for a particular mood or genre.

The big question will be what is the A11 piano on the next Nord keyboard release (hopefully an Electro 7). I'm going to bet it will be the White Grand.

It is such an old instrument that it sounds like an old instrument.
At a certain point while playing I searched for the effects panel to make sure the chorus was swithced off... Ahmmm.. no no, it's in the sample.. damn
I would say it's like 'how would the pearl be if it was a grand'? Not a question I was waiting for a answer.

And yes, it has an objective flaw:
Notes from A6b to E7b are clearly weak in punch and volume compared to upper and lower ones.
How can possibly Nord repeat itself in these mistakes? this is not a problem while you comp, but it is frustrating when you need to solo in trio. I'm sure the real counterpart does not have this problem.
Like I'm sure it could have been prepared to be more precisely tuned.

Thus it is soulfull. Thus let's wait again fo the next A11. Almost 9 years has passed. And I'm really scared to have it come out with flaws like the above.

>How can possibly Nord repeat itself in these mistakes? <

I don't think they see it as a mistake. They call it "character," since it's no doubt authentic to the actual piano they used, which was probably some 100-year old beater from New York they were able to sample. Any fixes would be digital ones, a modification of the actual sample that would probably end up sounding fake.

Which brings us to the eternal debate - do we WANT the flaws of vintage instruments replicated on our digital keyboards? Is it that pleasing to our ears to hear sampled bum notes, pedal noise, creaky mechanicals, or overloud treble strings?

There's also the likelihood that Clavia has reached the limits of their sampling technology with Nord's current infrastructure, so finding and recording a more "perfect" piano that what we have with the White, Royal, or even Velvet is probably not possible. The last two "all-around" or reasonably modern pianos were the White Grand (2019) and the Amber Upright (2017). The five pianos since those two (Baby, Felt, Pearl, Soft, Astoria) have been special-purpose or vintage models.

ziozeus wrote: 20 Dec 2025, 11:21 It is such an old instrument that it sounds like an old instrument.
At a certain point while playing I searched for the effects panel to make sure the chorus was swithced off... Ahmmm.. no no, it's in the sample.. damn
I would say it's like 'how would the pearl be if it was a grand'? Not a question I was waiting for a answer.

And yes, it has an objective flaw:
Notes from A6b to E7b are clearly weak in punch and volume compared to upper and lower ones.
How can possibly Nord repeat itself in these mistakes? this is not a problem while you comp, but it is frustrating when you need to solo in trio. I'm sure the real counterpart does not have this problem.

I'm sure the real counterpart has exactly this "problem".

Nord famously samples instruments, vs. the approach of other companies who grind their sample material into a polished abstraction of what the idealised instrument might sound like.

I'm still pissed that they corrected the slightly-out-of-tune C# on the Nefertiti, though I suppose tuning is fair game. But they left the uneven hammertips and slightly worn action: That's a legendary club Rhodes, and everyone who ever got to play it loved it. You don't fix that.

Gambold wrote: 21 Dec 2025, 00:49 Which brings us to the eternal debate - do we WANT the flaws of vintage instruments replicated on our digital keyboards? Is it that pleasing to our ears to hear sampled bum notes, pedal noise, creaky mechanicals, or overloud treble strings?

Being a Great Instrument™ is not a flaw. And who can say which of the particular characteristics of an instrument do not contribute to its being a Great Instrument™ and can thus be safely eliminated?

My friend's suitcase Rhodes has less-than-ideal tine adjustment and worn-out key action and hammers with maladjusted escapement, but it doesn't matter who plays it, or on what — it's goosebumps every time. Can't pin it down to any one factor.

Nobody touches the internals, except for tuning.

There are plenty of options on the market for perfect, flawless, idealised versions of whatever "instrument" function you want.