This 'unofficial' Forum is dedicated to the Clavia Nord Keyboards, including the Nord Stage, Nord Electro and Nord Piano. Discuss any issues around Nord's keyboards, share your favorite patches, samples, and music. We are not affiliated with Clavia!
Everything about Nord keyboards in general; which one to choose, the sound manager, sample editor, and general discussion about the sample and piano libraries.
Benis67 wrote:
According to the official End of Life (EOL) policy of NXP they provide supplies for 15 years from the original release date
I used to work sourcing silicon chips in the mobile industry.
Standard terms (like the one you quote) are for any random guy that walks up and want to buy a chip, and also want to know how long they will continue to be available.
For larger companies, specific terms are frequently agreed. Nord could have negotiated other terms including how long they might need chips too be available. The provider may want to ensure a sale or getting into a specific product range by offering longer stock ability, etc.
So EOL of a DSP family should not be a cause of concern when buying a keyboard.
Benis67 wrote:My intervention stems from the curiosity to understand Clavia's plans for the short and medium term future.
I don't buy that for a minute. You can't sate that curiosity here and you know it. Your aim was this:
FZiegler wrote:I wanted to buy my first Nord Stage... but now I'm not sure any more.
Thanks @Benis67 for mentioning!
I have no aim because, as an electronic engineer and musician, I love the technology that is linked to the world of keyboards and I like to deepen and see where the market is going. I am trying to understand what happens in the Yamaha “world” (you can find on the web my interventions on the future of the SWP70 chips, related to their architecture and the possibility of implementing syntheses other than AWM2 and FMX) and I am trying to understand the potential and architecture of the BMC chips of Roland, the heart of Fantom, AX Edge and Fantom. I would like to know something more about the world of Clavia and I think, I hope that within the forum there may be those who are interested in issues related to hardware architectures and perhaps have additional info (see teardown of the latest models). In my home studio I have many keyboards and synths from each vendor and probably my next purchase will be a Clavia keyboard. I don't want to discourage anyone from buying: I said it and I repeated that vendors accumulate stocks that can guarantee repairs and replacements. The technical question is linked to the fact that the historical era of dedicated DSPs is practically over. Thanks to the incredible increase in the computing power of the new chips, the future is FPGA and SOC / CPU general purpose of the Intel x86 and ARM families. ALL the vendors that in the past have used DSPs from the motorola family are migrating to these solutions, for the simple reason that for these DSPs they will no longer be produced, and just look at the roadmaps (they were born for DSP functionality of amplifiers, effects and audio decoders- videos, sectors where we are witnessing the same migration). In the field of synths there are vendors (see Roland and Yamaha) that produce SOC on their own: all the others are starting to use the alternatives I mentioned see Peak and Kyta with FPGA, or for example Quantum and Streichfett that use CPU arm Cortex-m. Same thing for Dexibell that uses a Cortex NXP IMX6 for all its pianos. The future generation of chips that Clavia will certainly use in the future I see it as a fantastic opportunity and certainly not as a problem. Computing powers and new architectures are increasingly performing and at lower cost and this means better quality, better polyphony and easier access to larger flashes (16-32 GByte). This is the future and I'm sure Clavia will be among the protagonists
I'm the one who opened a sub-level to your point - from the view of a prospective buyer. Of course, discussing things like that in the public (of a dedicated forum), will imply uncertainty. So I didn't hesitate to verbalize it, even if it's augmented that way.
I'm totally new to the scene, so a lot of things are open questions to me: How much potential is in the development department of Clavia, how reliable will the new platforms be, what will it change in terms of features and so forth. I don't have any idea of how big Clavia is - hadn't compared it to a mobile industry player in terms of stock/provisioning power.
As of now, I didn't have the impression that Clavia would discuss strategic things in the (semi) public. But maybe someone will have a look under the hood of the new gear that will be released at NAMM2020 - to see what chips are implemented. As far as I'm concerned: I just need to listen to a few Nord sounds or play a bit around on a Stage of a vendor to be reassured: I want that thingy. The realism, the dirt or lets say: liveliness are cool.
Last edited by FZiegler on 03 Jan 2020, 13:49, edited 1 time in total.
I'm coming from real hardware musical instruments. Meaning instruments playing without electrical supply. So, in my perception, a Nord is something far beyond: first of all beyond an electrical piano, as it's an electronical instrument. I already wondered if the nowadays Nords are still to be compared to a hardware SoC like my old CP33 or rather are red painted computers. And I wouldn't be very pleased to hear that the next generation would rely on a x86 architecture. Too many hardware bugs to deal with. At least in my feeling as a layperson.
Indeed, with a Nord Stage, I don't want just a fancy cover for a software instrument. Even if it's already very close. There are a few steps between. More sample polyphony for the Stage would be nice, multilayer and microtuning, too. But if I wanted a sequencer, I wouldn't look for a Nord.
Last edited by FZiegler on 03 Jan 2020, 14:12, edited 2 times in total.
FZiegler wrote:Once again.
And I wouldn't be very pleased to hear that the next generation would rely on a x86 architecture. Too many hardware bugs to deal with. At least in my feeling as a layperson.
Indeed, with a Nord Stage, I don't want just a fancy cover for a software instrument. Even if it's already very close. There are a few steps between. More sample polyphony for the Stage would be nice, multilayer and microtuning, too. But if I wanted a sequencer, I wouldn't look for a Nord.
Each digital synthesizer produces sounds by making mathematical calculations exactly like a virtual synth software on PC / Mac or iOS devices: the computing power a single new generation CPU is able to do what 5 or more 56k Motorola / freescale / NXP DSP do. there is no reason for an X86 CPU or ARM Cortex to produce worse sounds or create less stable systems. The important thing is to have a stable hardware platform, stable OS and quality converters.
FZiegler wrote:Once again.
And I wouldn't be very pleased to hear that the next generation would rely on a x86 architecture. Too many hardware bugs to deal with. At least in my feeling as a layperson.
Indeed, with a Nord Stage, I don't want just a fancy cover for a software instrument. Even if it's already very close. There are a few steps between. More sample polyphony for the Stage would be nice, multilayer and microtuning, too. But if I wanted a sequencer, I wouldn't look for a Nord.
Each digital synthesizer produces sounds by making mathematical calculations exactly like a virtual synth software on PC / Mac or iOS devices: the computing power a single new generation CPU is able to do what 5 or more 56k Motorola / freescale / NXP DSP do. there is no reason for an X86 CPU or ARM Cortex to produce worse sounds or create less stable systems. The important thing is to have a stable hardware platform, stable OS and quality converters.
+1, as far as the digital part of an electronic instrument produces the same numeric output for a given algorithm and combination of its parameters + control inputs (notes/keys, PB, MW etc..) it doesn't really matter if it is a DSP, a FPGA, an ARM-Cortex, a x86 or whatever else...
Last edited by maxpiano on 03 Jan 2020, 16:01, edited 1 time in total.
These users thanked the author maxpiano for the post:
Benis67 wrote:My intervention stems from the curiosity to understand Clavia's plans for the short and medium term future.
I don't buy that for a minute. You can't sate that curiosity here and you know it...
or should know it. This forum is not directly affiliated with Nord in any way. There is NO ONE here capable of providing meaningful insight into what Clavia's plans are for the future.
Benis67 wrote:My intervention stems from the curiosity to understand Clavia's plans for the short and medium term future.
I don't buy that for a minute. You can't sate that curiosity here and you know it...
or should know it. This forum is not directly affiliated with Nord in any way. There is NO ONE here capable of providing meaningful insight into what Clavia's plans are for the future.
At this point it is to be hoped that Clavia in the case of abandonment of the Motorola / Freescale / NXP 56K DSP decides to advertise the technology or technologies used, exactly as Dexibell did with the quad core Cortex (NXP IMX6 1GHz) or Roland with the 4 BMC of Fantom, or Yamaha with its SWP70 for Montage and Modx and SSP2 in the Reface CS and DX. The hardware architecture I believe that for a vendor it can be a pride to communicate and not a secret. After all, a Teardown or technical documentation is enough to understand what's inside ..
