Nord User Forum

Hi kram21
I agree with what SSM says. My needs may be different from yours regarding the sound your looking for at home. Getting an acceptable sound out of a digital piano at home can be a trick, and expensive. I do not know if the HS 8's would serve your purpose, having not had a set. I use 2 good quality stereo speakers, with a subwoofer on the left hand side to approximate a real grand, using a sampled piano. My AKG 240 headphones sound better, but I accept that. I would like a pair of Focal studio monitors and sub, but cannot afford it. As far as the powered cabinet goes, my use is live, and I rarely set my stage rig up at home. I also run in mono live. Part of the difficulty I find in getting a good piano sound is the fact that it's not really a piano, but an approximation. Mike

Wait, wait, I just heard a Hammond organ joke! They are rare, and should be preserved! Okay here goes:

Once upon a time there was an Emperor who wanted to play Hammond organ. He took lessons, he practiced, and he was doing great, got a trio, and decided he would play for the people. But he was a little nuts, so when the day came for his debut, he decided to play naked!
And so he did! He brought out the trio, he played, his LH bass was impeccable, he squabbled, he sputtered, he glissed, he put lots a grit in it and made it good and greazy, he played be-bop, he played the blues, he played ballads. He had a license to overdrive!
But because he was the Emperor, nobody would notice he was stark naked, indeed, everybody pretended he had clothes on, beautiful robes.
Finally, one young child, to whom that kind of hypocrisy was still years away, could stand it no longer! He burst out, and said: "Why is everybody afraid to speak the truth? It's really just a bunch of buzzes!"

I normally use a pair of db technologies 8" active speakers as satellites and a db technologies 12" sub. I set up my Roland piano in a church tonight for a classical concert and it sounded lovely - smooth through the range, plenty of bass but not boomy and a good blend of rich and detailed sound overall. I run my C2D through this as well and the baroque organ especially is great. I have a solid-state non-Leslie rotary for Hammond sounds but the sim sounds fine through the above rig. The sub's a one-man carry for reasonable distances, and you can walk miles with a top in each hand. I much prefer this setup to a pair of 12" or 15" active speakers (which I do also have).

That said, if rich is the sort of piano sound you want, the Rolands seem to be more that way, or at least were some years ago when I bought my RD150 (yes, that long ago!). I never use the default grand piano sound for pop or rock as it just muddies up the whole sound; the pop pianos sound much better in the mix though terrible on their own.

You can see why Hammond organ jokes died out, can't you?

Because he didn't tell it through the right amp?...

Well, because Don Leslie was telling him what goes around comes around, anyway ...

I think it was a good joke, But I didn't want to start any squabbling. It's probably my delivery. Maybe I shouldn't try to do it in dialect.
Look, this is what I'll do. Tomorrow, I'm fortunate enough to start lessons-by-Skype with Tony Monaco. I won't tell him this joke.

Not telling it through the right amp? I'm using a 3300. I can't afford a 122xb, they're $4G now!

No squabbling intended, I'm sorry.

I guess my english is not that good... I read "died out" as "the sound of it just vanished" rather than "have disappeared over the years". That's why I dropped the amp related line.
Et voilà: I'm ending explaining the joke. Explaining the joke kills the joke and ends most of the time in a social suicide. I'm dying (not out though )

The Leslie one is good too BTW

Well, I did tell the joke at my lesson. I'll see if Mr. Monaco will come back tomorrow and hear some more Hammond jokes. Bwtn the jokes and my playing, he is earning his fee the hard way!