Nord User Forum

agcohn wrote:

StrangeAeons wrote:I believe Gambold isn't worried about any "Gambold-conform timeframe", rather Nord's own timeframes: new releases have been progressively slowing down (e.g. new Electros used to be released every three years), sometimes almost grinding to a halt, whilst the competition keeps churning out new products. And that's what happens when a company starts to sink. It's as simple as that. I don't believe it to be the case since Nord's financially healthy and most of their products are still top-notch. Still, they definitely need to get back on track both with their hardware and software. For example, they don't offer anymore the best or one of the best clonewheels: they're just fine, and that's why they need to catch up and up their game. Can we all calm down and stop lashing out at people for their opinions?

When did the new releases actually start to slow down though? Before COVID? Before the global microchip shortage? I know that it was before the war in Ukraine and all of the associated global problems that have come along with that, but I doubt that is helping the situation.

All we can do is speculate, but I honestly don’t think a lot of people fully appreciate how much COVID effected small businesses like Nord around the world. Yes, the world has largely moved on from COVID at this point, but that doesn’t mean the economy and production has fully recovered. Yes, larger companies have started to return to their old form, but they have the resources to do so and some of that recovery is at the expense of smaller companies. Everything is more expensive now. I mean part of the reason I ended up with a Nord at the time I did (2021) was that I literally could not find a Yamaha P-515 or Roland 90x at the time, so my choice was practically just between a Nord and a Roland RD-2000. There was a time where you literally could not find a digital piano out there. It’s still hard to buy a new car due to supply-chain shortages.

To be completely honest, it is a miracle that a company of Nord’s size even survived the pandemic without going under or being bought out by larger corporation.

Spider wrote:I went to a car dealer this weekend.
Major dealer from a major brand, and I live in a fairly big city (for Italian standards at least).
They keep no stock anymore, and I was told that if I buy a car now, I will MAYBE receive it in Oct-Nov.

And this is for a huge industrial conglomerate that has probably the easiest possible access to components. Imagine what the situation must be for a small company that has much less leverage for bargaining with suppliers.

That's the reality of industrial production in 2023, gambold it or not.

Again, not saying that this is the only or main explanation, just that it's absolutely normal that companies, especially the small ones, have SIGNIFICANTLY slowed down product releases (and even regular production) in these last 3 years.
I'm more perplexed about the lack of updates to software and sound libraries, one would imagine that not being able to work on new hardware, companies would throw all their time on software. But apparently that hasn't been the case, and not only for Clavia (Moog for example has been very slow in providing long-awaited firmware updates).

maxpiano wrote:
PS: time to move this discussion to the Nord Stage section?