Nord User Forum

Hi all!

I was lucky to pass by Stockholm resently and found out all the new Nords in local store (4Sound). While new Nord Drum2+pad sounded and felt great I must say was little disappointed with NL4. Its preset gave nice general view of it and it sounded great. But its keyboard touch was strangely light, in fact so light that it was difficult to play. I am a piano player mostly and I prefer little harder touch but still I am very much familiar with different synth action keyboards. To my fingers NL4 felt close to all those cheap midi-controllers. I might even call it "plastic". Strangely it felt even worse than NL2x...

I am sorry to say this cause I am a Nord fan too.

If touch isn't that important I am sure NL4 is great investment. To me it is and NL4 isn't real option for me now.

Do you have experience with other Nord 'synth action' style keyboards such as the Wave or the Lead 2X? Or maybe a Virus TI or Blofeld?

I'm just trying to get something I can compare it with; the NL4 also interests me, but if the keyboard feels too light, maybe I should be looking at the rack version in combination with something I already have (such as my Virus).

JacksonP wrote:Hi all!

I must say was little disappointed with NL4. Its preset gave nice general view of it and it sounded great. But its keyboard touch was strangely light, in fact so light that it was difficult to play. I am a piano player mostly and I prefer little harder touch but still I am very much familiar with different synth action keyboards. To my fingers NL4 felt close to all those cheap midi-controllers. I might even call it "plastic". Strangely it felt even worse than NL2x...

I am sorry to say this cause I am a Nord fan too.

Have to agree with the above.

I had a Nord Wave for about two years and felt the same way. I just sold the Wave recently, and it held 90% of it value. Although the keybed is one of the more expensive parts on a keyboard, I really think any board costing $2K + should have a good keybed. I was going to buy one of those Midi Controllers and when I played them, the keybeds were so cheap and flimsy that I just kept my old Kawai K5000S because of its fantastic keybed. My NS2 SW73 has a great keybed, just the right amount of resistance and throw for me.

The Access Virus TI2 Polar (About $2700) has a great keybed as well, same as my old Kawai, just shorter.

I have Virus Ti2 Polar too. As DJ said, it has great keyboard. NL4 is far far behind...

Something I don't like on the Virus TI2's keyboard (I think both the original TI and the TI2 have this) is the fact the black keys are textured, not smooth. I've also used a Virus TI Polar and that did have smooth black keys. Other than that small thing, they keyboard is indeed great.

My Kawai K5000S has the textured black keys as well, and that unit was made in 1999, I think. I guess they wanted to make it more "piano-like". The action itself is the best synth action ever. The TI2 Keyboard uses the identical Fatar A8 or A9 action, I believe.