Nord User Forum

I've thought of this myself...

OK, let's set up two arguments here, but within these arguments, let's add a bit of nord flavouring to it...

Before I present the arguments, let's remind ourselves of Yamaha's ESP offering which is for the montage range, but only available by registering the product's serial number, you can't just openly purchase it. In one respect it's a downside because you're looking at an m8x if I remember this rightly where this particular software is offered, unless it's changed, and bear also in mind that Yamaha owns Steinberg, so it's software division has a hand in this.


Argument 1: Producing a Nord Plugin would be a great solution...

1: You're an owner of a Nord product, such as the piano, stage, electro, wave, etc and you want to get more from your setup such as expanding the library by running some of the pianos or other instruments from a host computer, or even better, an ipad or something like that.
2: You want to control certain parameters from your host computer / DAW (standalone / VST,Au,RTAS, etc) and undertake a few other functions that the software could offer which aren't easy to achieve from the main instrument.
3: Blind users like myself and others here would be able to use through the app / plugin, a way to take better control, or have processes spoken from the instrument (doable).
4: Merging tools like the sound manager and sample editor as part of the system could make this a workstation toolkit.
5: Using this as a plugin, even if you're away from your trusted nord, you can load your backup in to the plugin and use the same settings and sample data in cases such as touring if an instrument fails, you have a fail safe alternative, what if you're touring and want some inspiration, you can access the instrument as software and save the data, export it to your nord rig or to a hired nord rig.
6: concentrating on Nord's own business model, if the software was made available to be PURCHASED, then Nord would have further funding available to work on further R&D work to produce new products, sound libraries, etc and expand further on their business.


Argument 2: Producing this plugin would be a bad idea...

1: Nord is a hardware manufacturer, why should it diversify in to producing software instruments when it's main goal is selling their hardware, it could affect their product sales.
2: Nord does not focus it's priority on software, it's priority is in production of it's hardware and required firmware, occasionally producing some amazing sound libraries in the process to market the products successfully.
3: To produce this kind of software instrument would mean recruiting software developers or contracting the resource out, this will cost and cause nord to increase product pricing to initially reflect upon this investment.
4: It could in certain directions that it would be seen as developer / manufacturer suicide, producing software which works like the hardware to be purchased, reducing the sales of hardware for software at a fraction of the price.

I'm sure there's some other arguments to inject in both sides of the spectrum.

Here's how I personally see it, coming from a software development sector and speciality development arena...

I'm all for development of a nord plugin / standalone software environment, but here's where I'd put some caviats in to it.
1: Product would be for registered nord product owners with VALID hardware serial numbers.
2: the product would be for sale at a FAIR price, not free, because this would be counted as funding in to Nord's R&D funding, considering Nord is only a small company, it's a baby of a company compared to Roland, Korg, Yamaha, etc, so you'd have to look at it in that regard.
3: The software needs to be screen reader friendly between Windows and Mac platforms, to provide a better integration method for those with sight impairment / sight loss (I'm available to consult on this).
4: The software would work as an open engine, so rather than depending on a solid state storage limit of the physical instrument, it's reliant on the host computer. It would need to work in a similar way to the nord hardware but permit further expansion.
5: The software could be treated as an independent software instrument based on the processing power of the host computer, or work in conjunction with the nord instrument to merge instruments between the software plugin and hardware.

As I see it, it would be a good idea to develop it, but here's where the issues kick in. Nord is a small manufacturer with overheads, producing instruments to volume order by hand and shipping out, it's only a team of something like 30 staff to the company if I'm right, that's what I heard from a UK nord rep. so their priorities are stretched, this is why we suffer stock shortages of certain instruments. Getting Nord to develop such a plugin or software toolkit like this would be costly in development, adding further staff to manage the software end of the business, etc, so wages costs and other costs come in. there's a lot more to this than I can put here, but as much as I'd love to see something like this happen, it's very doubtful.

As an aside here, one thing I'd love to see is this. Anyone here remember a product called SampleRobot? I'd love to see them add support for the NSMP and even piano library format. If between Nord and the devs for Sample Robot, this could be done, there's a product which can help produce libraries for your own use much easier.

lew

Matt-new wrote: 03 Jan 2026, 00:30 Is NS5 on the way for this year?

My crystal ball is broken … Perhaps someone else with clairvoyant abilities can say more about this

lalexander2025 wrote: 09 Jan 2026, 16:46 As an aside here, one thing I'd love to see is this. Anyone here remember a product called SampleRobot? I'd love to see them add support for the NSMP and even piano library format. If between Nord and the devs for Sample Robot, this could be done, there's a product which can help produce libraries for your own use much easier.

I think you make some excellent points and sum up the situation pretty well.

On Clavia opening up their sample formats for access by Sample Robot, MainStage's Autosampler or similar products: You can already use those tools to sample the hardware. Opening up the sample format just means that anybody — literally anybody — can access the entire Nord sample and piano libraries, the crown jewels, as it were, for free, without access to any hardware.

>Convert just a few of their best Grands, Uprights, Rhodes, and Wurlis to a plug in bundle that sells for $99 bucks - that’s got to be an 8-figure injection of cash.<

I think you over-estimate the market for this "bundle." To get an 8-figure injection of cash with a $100 product, you'd need to sell at least 100,000 copies. That's going to take an awful lot of advertising to the world outside of this forum, something that Clavia almost never does. Indeed, more like never does, period. When was the last time you saw an advertisement for a Nord product? An announcement on a Facebook page doesn't count.

Also, aside from the Grands and Uprights, there's not much else anyone is going to want. There are already tons of Rhodes or Wurli samples out there that easily rival Clavia's. As for the acoustic pianos themselves - we've discussed many times how some of their potentially very best samples from world-class pianos, like the Bosendorfer, Bluthner, or Fazioli, have significant flaws.

I would rather see Clavia work to improve on those and release updated samples of those great old keyboards. I agree we don't need yet another Grand. But we could really use a newer and better Grand Lady D, Imperial, or Italian.

Gambold wrote: 12 Jan 2026, 20:24 I agree we don't need yet another Grand. But we could really use a newer and better Grand Lady D, Imperial, or Italian.

“We don’t need another Piaaa-nooo, we don’need another Graa-nd, all we want is way beyooo-nd… a new Clavinet(?)”
(to be sung a-la Tina Turner of “you know which song” )

I'm not a Clavinet player, but I do appreciate the frustration of those who are, since the Nord clavinet sample was released in May, 2010 and never updated, now 16 years later.

But it begs a question...CAN it be updated? What is missing that could be there? Is it the quality of the sound reproductions? What other brands have a better Clav sample now?

Gambold wrote: 14 Jan 2026, 01:33 I'm not a Clavinet player, but I do appreciate the frustration of those who are, since the Nord clavinet sample was released in May, 2010 and never updated, now 16 years later.

But it begs a question...CAN it be updated? What is missing that could be there? Is it the quality of the sound reproductions? What other brands have a better Clav sample now?

Key-off and mute, for two. Brands that have better samples in their current lineup? Korg, Yamaha, and Kurzweil. All are good stock but even better with third-party Purgatory Creek samples.

>Apple came to dominate the personal computing landscape by recognizing that hardware and software should work together to deliver a better user experience.<

This is a very good observation, and mostly because it points out something that has proven to be true, despite predictions to the contrary - computers and software are not going to replace digital keyboards like Nords, Yamahas, Korgs and the like. They've had their chance, and the jury is back in - the majority of professional and amateur keyboard players are not satisfied with using a laptop stuffed with expensive software, a DAW and a midi keyboard as their go-to performance or practice model.

Granted, the studio recording environment is where something like that would thrive. But most of us spend most of our time playing, not recording studio tracks. It's a lot more satisfying to select sounds and make changes on the keyboard itself, rather than leaning over and clacking away on a keyboard. It's a lot more fun to bag your board up and bring it to a gig, rather than lug a computer workstation to your neighborhood sports bar or steakhouse lounge, just to bang out American Girl or Piano Man.

And computers are finally a pain in the ass. We all use them enough now to know that. There's nothing romantic or fascinating about them anymore. They remain fussy, over-cabled (even with wifi and bluetooth), dependent upon regular updates to run at their best, and prone to obsolescence faster than you'd expect (while plenty here still use their Electro 3 with no problem, anyone happily working with a 2008 laptop?) They can still crash unexpectedly, and taking one to a gig and depending on it that night -- no thank you.

That makes the point the for at least a plugin for Nord hardware owners to be able to open in their DAW for recording without having to use the Nord machine as a dongle.