Nord User Forum

@anotherscott: Agreed on the method -- which was exactly what I did (although I recorded stereo and compared both left and right channel). I also played a string of repeating notes at increasing velocities, but didn't test the entire keyboard range. Hopefully others can also reproduce the finding?

Just got a message from Nord that they acknowledge the discussion on this forum and they consider to implement extra velocity curve in an OS update. Meanwhile, I will do some testing on this perceived difference with MIDI loopback cable. try to eliminate the human-factor

Just received my NS3, loving it so far. Definitely lots more clarity and presence in the sound in the highs and high mids. Less mud in the lows and the bass eq is definitely centred around a lower frequency. Will report back once I have seen how it records alongside other instruments and how it sounds live.

A very interesting comparison. But the difference is not so huge that I will throw away my Nord Stage 2.

baekgaard wrote:I just made a recording of a few single notes at different velocities on the NS3 88HA.

Audio and MIDI was initially recorded at the same time, using local mode On and with no MIDI routed back to the NS3 from my sequencer, so the first audio track was from me playing on the internal keyboard.

Then the MIDI track was played back to the keyboard, and I recorded the audio on the second track.

Comparing the two tracks, they were virtually identical (almost down to the sample level). Analyzing corresponding parts of the two tracks showed that they were within 0.1 dB for all measurements I could do (L/R, Peak Levels, RMS levels, different sections, etc).

So apparently on my board, there is NO difference between 1) playing locally and 2) routing MIDI out and back again to the board -- at least with the settings I used, which were KBD TOUCH 0 and a MIDI "channel global" mode (which would correspond to using the Hard settings if one would record MIDI using the External Section routing instead).

Oh good. This seems like a general tweak to how the engine responds, and not something they are going to want to „fix“ at any time.

That’s great, because it plays and sounds wonderfully.

I will take my NS3 to the dealer and have it checked. Sound output is just not what you would expect and simply not as good as my NS2. Must be a problem of the unit itself, as almost all of you find the NS3 sound quality better than NS2 (or at least the same). Will keep you posted!

To me NS2 sound so more expressive! the difference between pp and ff are clear to me.

Streef wrote:I will take my NS3 to the dealer and have it checked. Sound output is just not what you would expect and simply not as good as my NS2. Must be a problem of the unit itself, as almost all of you find the NS3 sound quality better than NS2 (or at least the same). Will keep you posted!

I totally feel the same here!

Keep us update pls.

Hi Aureliopenna,

I did quite some checking on this subject. Pls. note that I only looked at the 88 key versions. The Stage 3 has a different velocity curve that makes it IMHO unplayable (that is for piano sounds). It doesn't matter how I play it, most of it sounds ff, it is extremely difficult to play with expression. It all sounds 'flat'.

I have no idea why Clavia made this change, but I believe it is likely that this setting makes it easier to play the Compact or HP76?

When you compare the Stage 3 side-by-side to the Stage 2 (or to the Nord Piano for that matter), the difference is very obvious. I got a second hand Stage 2 EX88 last week, and I finally have enjoyed playing since months(!)

For people that have a Stage 2 88 and are curious on how the Stage 3 plays, you can set the keyboard touch function on the Stage 2 to '2'. It is then comparable with how the Stage 3 plays in normal keyboard mode: basically impossible to play soft notes. increasing the keyboard touch function on the Stage 3 only makes it worse.

As I have hope that Clavia will implement a better velocity curve in the future, I haven't start selling my NS3 yet. But this topic is already under Clavia's attention for months now...