NAMM 2012 - What is your wish for a NEW NORD? Booth #6464

[jazzystu]

As I've said 100x before. Nord run along the Apple business model lines.

1. Design the ultimate product.
2. Remove lots of the features/memory but not enough so people won't buy it.
3. Add a removed feature every year.
4. Reach the original product.

This is all well and good. You don't want to give everyone a 2 manual Stage6EX as everyone will just keep it like an old Rhodes and patch it up and drag it around until it is barely functioning and has about 6 pints of beer sloshing around in the bottom.

I can see this most in the C2 and the Stage2. There is plenty of discussion on here about the detail.

They could have kept the X or added some more Y. Why not?

This is all well and good if you're talking about iPhones and 16 year olds, but we're not.

You have to meter out the improvements to keep 'em paying, but when they get "enough" sales drop off.

Already the Stage2 prices are dropping. Soon, they'll be back at EX levels and it will be time for the 2EX, possibly available in blue!

Rather than being metered the stuff out year upon year, I'd rather pay more for it now. IMO it would have been better for them to offer options for ££££

[Siriosys]

I'm gonna take a wild guess, but I'm thinking that the Nord Drum will have it's point of difference from the competitors, not so much in the hardware, but more from where it sources it's sounds.

If you look at a lot of Nord products, the backbone of them is the usage of the Nord Sample/Sound libraries.

So, I'm predicting that the Nord Drum will end up being supplied with sounds from a new section of the Nord Library specifically catering to it - and hopefully they'll be compatible with us Stage2 and Electro3owners too!

This would enable Nord to then "enhance" the Nord Drum over time with additional content, just as they've done with their Stage/Electro lines of instruments.

....just my 2cents worth.

[whitenoise]

As I've said 100x before. Nord run along the Apple business model lines.

This is all well and good. You don't want to give everyone a 2 manual Stage6EX as everyone will just keep it like an old Rhodes and patch it up and drag it around until it is barely functioning and has about 6 pints of beer sloshing around in the bottom. IMO it would have been better for them to offer options for ££££

That's the way any producing companies do business these days. These are the rules of the game. Companies need to sell products to keep the factories busy. There are 2 ways to accomplish that goal: either develop new products or make your products of weak quality to make people buy a new one once their current stuff gets broken and repair costs you almost the same money as a new one. People try to change cars every few years and possibly buy a new car. It's no secret that Mercedes was producing more reliable cars 20 years ago.

I'm not saying that Clavia couldn't do a better product for the same money but it would be less profitable. They still produce equipment in Sweden and it's hand-made. I'm sure the manpower in Sweden is much more expensive then in China. But that's the way they keep excellent quality of their products. It could be an option to move the factory to China and sell better in terms of features Nords for the same money. If they would make all-in-one products still made in Sweden it would cost you 7 or 8000 USD. I doubt many people would buy it. Korg already tried that approach. Oasys was not really high demanded product. Now they sell almost the same instrument for half Oasys price - Korg Kronos. It's extremely popular.

In the end of the day I was very happy with NS Classic. I'm Happy with NS2 SW73. Fortunately synthesizers are not dropping in price as much as cell phones. So if you keep your instrument in good condition and you are not bad in selling you could sell the 2 years old Nord for 90% of what you paid originally. That means you pay about 150$ per year for playing great instrument. Not too much

[Ecaroh]

They still produce equipment in Sweden and it's hand-made. I'm sure the manpower in Sweden is much more expensive then in China. But that's the way they keep excellent quality of their products. It could be an option to move the factory to China and sell better in terms of features Nords for the same money.

Here's a little story: I bought Nord Piano maybe a year ago. I had owned it for a week and it was my second gig with when my triple pedal went broken. When I picked it up, I saw "made in China" printed in the bottom. So this manufactured in Sweden is not the whole truth. And speaking about the quality, I fear to think how many percent of the components are made in China or in other "low production cost country". So this "Manufactured in Sweden" is a relative term for sure.

[jazzystu]

A lot of components are probably made in China. They can do a very good job indeed. I've had experience with plastic injection moulding and EU prices for tooling/manufacture are utterly mental.

They do need to make money.

Retro Legs are from China. They seem fine.

Soft case is from China, seems well made from good material.

Pedal is Chinese. Looks like a low grade plastic.

I'd bet my eyebrows that the circuitry was chinese.

As long as it works, I don't care. I understand they need to put food on the table.

[Hanon_CTS]

So this "Manufactured in Sweden" is a relative term for sure.

Funny OT story:
My wife had been raving about a "new" store coming to the area called IKEA and how it had all of this great Swedish furniture and stuff.
When the store opened, we went.
We walked around there for 2 hours and didn't see anything made in Sweden.
Lots of stuff made in China, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, but not Sweden.
....and that's how we invented the telegraph......


Sure, there's a lot of junk that comes from China.
Just because it's made in China doesn't automatically make it inferior.
It's nearly impossible to purchase anything electronic that doesn't have at least some components that were manufactured in China.
Cheers, Hanon

[whitenoise]

Ikea vs Clavia comparison is not really fair. Ikea make cheap and mean quality products. Ikea is huge comparing to Clavia. Ikea don't care about quality. It wont be possible to sell anything at such low price if they would not produce it in China. They have completely different business approach. Clavia makes top quality (some people even say luxury) products. There are many other examples of the other companies having factories outside of HQ location. For e.g. Levis is well known American company. Their shops in Europe sell products produced in Pakistan You pay 120 Euro for jeans made in Pakistan But you still get jeans of very high quality. There are many more examples. It just proofs that it doesn't matter where the product was made. It is important that the company producing the product has strict quality control. Some companies do; some not. Clavia and Levis still produce high quality products but Ikea never did.

The manpower is very cheap in China but still there are different levels of quality there. You get what you paid for. But in China you would pay few times less for the same level of quality comparing to Europe. I'm 100% sure that 80% of IC found in today's devises are produced in China. No doubt that Clavia does that as well. They assemble and test the units in Sweden but don't make motherboards, buttons, ... etc The important points are kind/quality of components they use, the assembly quality and proper testing.

[Ecaroh]

And list goes on and on: I drive "swedish" bikecycle, Crescent, which is made in Taiwan (if I remember correct).

This is how it is nowadays. And there's no company which still can keep their business completely in old western world. IMO it's kind of funny that Clavia keeps this "Manufatured in Sweden" as their main slogan. "Manufacturing" means "putting together" here, I suppose.

I think companies like Behringer are at least partly guilty of this process: they started to make things cheaper in non-western way and this forced "good old" proud European and American companies to follow. Is Allen&Heath still British or König&Meyer still German? I doubt that. On the other hand, customers want more and more and they don't wanna pay anything. Then they are angry - like I was with my broken pedal - when a cheap and low quality metal won't last more than a week (it was pedals spring which went broken).

P.s: to be fair with Clavia I must say that my second pedal has lasted now for a year and I have no complaints

Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

[jazzystu]

Allen and Heath are within a stones throw of my industrial unit. Still very much put together here.

[Hanon_CTS]

Ikea vs Clavia comparison is not really fair.

Agreed!
This why I didn't make the comparison.
I just shared an anecdote about expecting one thing, and finding something completely different.
Old guy's do that from time to time.
Generally those stories conclude with: "And that's how we invented the telegraph"
Cheers, Hanon