Nord Piano 5 [RELEASED]

[CountFosco]

All good points Spider and Scott. I forgot about the 73 option for the NP5, that is something new. But my point that it's a strange product is not limited to who, of existing Nord owners, is likely to upgrade to it. My point is, who, anywhere, is going to buy it? The E6 was a similar product evolution, in that it was a relatively small incremental upgrade (not in all respects) to the E5. But the release of the E6 brought a wave (npi) of new members to this forum. There are a lot of E6 users here, whether new to Nord or upgraders. It was a product released with the right pricing and timing. I will be surprised if that happens with the NP5, for all the reasons I stated above - pricing and timing just don't seem to fit the market.

Oops, just saw your post mangepange. I stand completely and utterly corrected!

[kirsty]

I was interested until I saw the pricing.

When I bought the Piano 2 HP73 in 2015, it was £1349, At the same time the Electro with added organ function was £1799 and Stage 76 with piano organ synth was around the £2499 mark. Just before the release of the Stage 3 my local music shop discounted the Stage 2EX HP76 to £1999 which I snapped up at the time.

Wasnt expecting a new Piano 5 73 to be priced at £2479.

Love the idea of a proper HA keybed + 2 sound engines but to me I can get that functionality by buying a Korg Grandstage or CP73 and keep my NE5 for the 'Nord sound'. Still confused!

Hopefully this is over hyped release pricing and it will settle to something more realistic after a while and I might consider it

[Bjosko]

Hopefully the pricing will settle soon. I think it is the national distributor or reseller that set the somewhat pricing, probably out from a expected price from Nord + some margin.
Here in Denmark, I see the 73 at £2148.
Compared to something like a Viscount Legends 70’s 73 at £1873 it’s up in a tough competition.

[Gambold]

Someone here once said...it might have been cphollis...that if you can, you try to upgrade on the second new model after yours. In other words, if you have an Electro 4, when the Electro 6 comes out that's the time to think about it.

Nord is pricey so that's not always easy to do. I did upgrade my 4 to a 6 but only after the 6 had been on the market a long time and I was able to get one "discounted." I use quotes because no-one ever really discounts Nords until they are over ten years old, and even then not by much. Oddly I find myself missing the digital drawbars and the ease at which they revealed the current draw setting. With the sliders it might be them or more likely a completely-unrelated preset.

I'm not a Nord Piano buyer but I suppose the P5 will be a welcome consideration for P3 players (using that metric of the second new model). Besides - they have to keep coming out with new products, until someone buys the company.

I still want a new Grand. Yeah, it's me. All your arguments can't be countered - there's logic to all of them - but I personally just have not liked the past few Grand offerings:

White - an XL Steinway! It's finally here! Then...hmm, it's...ok.

Royal Grand 3 D - it's a new approach! Sounds great in headphones! Well, I don't live in an apartment and I don't like headphones.

Velvet - the coffin piano! All muted and cushy and...it has a committed, small following. I'm not one of them. I did try.

Silver - when this came out a lot of people hated it. Too shrill! Yet another Japanese icepick piano! The Silver may have had one of the biggest turnarounds on the rankings - it's now frequently mentioned as a favorite. I've even started using it as a replacement for my beloved Bright.

Italian - people LOVED this piano when it came out. it was THE ONE.
Now everyone hates it.

[nordolino]

My reflection on the Nord Piano line. What I don't like is that they haven't made new piano, rhodes and wurli samples for several years. Nord machines have a very high price also because buying a Nord gives you access to their sound library. If the library doesn't evolve then it doesn't make much sense.

To clarify, I like the NP4 very much. I've tried a little bit of everything. I wouldn't change it with any other digital piano (ok, maybe with the NP5, just because of the desire for "new") but I think that the initial philosophy is being lost a little.

[be lee vit]

I play Hammond organ (an XK-5 system with Leslie) and piano in Rock and Blues groups. I have a Piano 5 73 on order. Before this instrument was released I hadn't found another stage piano that met my particular needs: Decent triple sensor hammer action, light weight, 73 to 76 keys (all I need for rock and blues and fits without overlap on top of my organ), high quality acoustic and electric piano sounds, and sufficient strings/brass/reeds/synth sounds to cover those parts when needed. Note that I'll always use it with a Hammond, so I don't have any need for organ sounds in this instrument. The hard-to-find specs were weight and keyboard scale length. For example, the Korg Grand Stage was close, but it's too heavy and the sounds, while pretty good, didn't quite satisfy me. I have a Stage 3 Compact that I bought to use by itself for special shows that have either very short setup/teardown times or extremely small stage areas where the Hammond and its Leslie aren't practical. I also use it as a stage piano with my Hammond rig. It is easier for me to play piano on an organ-like keyboard that to play organ on a piano keyboard; however, both of those approaches are compromises. The Piano 5 73 is the best no-compromise stage piano for me, especially since I'm already familiar with its operating system and sounds, and it will fit in the Pelican im3200 hard case I use for the NS3. I'm looking forward to its delivery, hopefully in August.

[cphollis]

Yes, I did mention the "skip one generation" a while back, and then have since ignored my own advice more than once.

The shorter NP5 has an appeal in that it's -- well -- shorter, and I end up on some small stages that you'd think we're playing Tetris. I do admit, you can put out a pretty deep, lush sound with two piano engines and two sample engines, as I do on the Stage. If I ever go back to doing small acoustic gigs, I'd probably get one as a single-board solution.

The pricing is the pricing. AFAIK, the NP4 is still on the market -- for the time being. There's a big gap upwards to the Stage 3. And, of course, very strong resale value.

[Wolfgang T]

For example, the Korg Grand Stage was close, but it's too heavy and the sounds, while pretty good, didn't quite satisfy me.

The weight should not actually be a purchase argument when choosing between the Korg Grandstage (73) and the Nord Piano 5 (73), as the difference is only 1.5 kg.

[wtibbit]

The weight of the Korg Grandstage 73 was an argument against it for me. That extra 3.5 pounds makes the keyboard and pelican case I'm using weigh about 2 pounds over the 50 limit for avoiding excess baggage fees on aircraft. It's not a huge thing, but it is a factor I have to *weigh*! Everyone makes their buying decision based on some set of criteria, from "Hey! There's a keyboard that costs less than the my available credit card limit!" to a complex set of multi-dimensional requirements in a formal decision matrix. My criteria set was pretty simple; and the fact that I already have a NS3 and know how to operate it and the Nord Sound Manager application was plus over any non-Nord product. I did seriously consider that Korg. Here in the US it costs about $1,300 less than the NP5 73 and looks pretty simple to use on stage. I can see where it would be very attractive to a lot of buyers.

[Steinway]

Surely speakers are a very personal choice. They all sound so different and have different power capabilities.