NORD STAGE 4 officially announced for February 16th 2023

[Hlaalu]

Having two organs (no pun intended) is not necessarily for layering, but for splitting, especially if you want to play bass with the left hand.

[cgrafx]

As is known, the DSPs of the Motorola/Freescale/NXP 56K family have been out of production for years and sooner or later even the Nord Keyboards will have to use an alternative generation of DSP/CPUs for synthesis (presumably ARM-based).
Will NORD STAGE 4 be the first of this new family? And if so, will the differences in sound generation be perceptible?

Nord already switched away from the NXP 56k family when they launched the NS3.

[Benis67]

As is known, the DSPs of the Motorola/Freescale/NXP 56K family have been out of production for years and sooner or later even the Nord Keyboards will have to use an alternative generation of DSP/CPUs for synthesis (presumably ARM-based).
Will NORD STAGE 4 be the first of this new family? And if so, will the differences in sound generation be perceptible?

Nord already switched away from the NXP 56k family when they launched the NS3.

And anyway a DSP executes algorithms which are deterministic (for a given input you have a given output) so, regardless the DSP used (performance aside) same algorithm = same result (identical audio data stream), different algorithm = different resulta. DAC and analog stages can instead introduce differences in the sound output, even when audio data stream is generated by the same algorithms.

[WannitBBBad]

Now I'm excited

[mozart999uk]

It would make sense that they would use the architecture of the NW2, as it is more intuitive than the Panel A/B approach. Perhaps it is not a Stage 4, but the first in a new line of instruments!

-dj

https://www.nordstage4.com site name makes no mystery...

[benlefoe]

I'm very happy to see the drawbars. Less happy to see that the piano, organ and synth may still have to share 2 stereo outputs. I would love to see a pair of outputs for each of the three instrument "groups".

[DJKeys]

It would make sense that they would use the architecture of the NW2, as it is more intuitive than the Panel A/B approach. Perhaps it is not a Stage 4, but the first in a new line of instruments!

-dj

https://www.nordstage4.com site name makes no mystery...

No doubt, just noticed the link. It does appear to be a new architecture, we'll know in 3 days-

-dj

[Gambold]

Hopefully the pricing won't be on the moon. I've wanted to buy a Stage for several years and have been waiting for this. Given that they are calling it the 4 (and not 3 EX) is an acknowledgement from Clavia that it's been a while and we need a new-generation instrument, not just a memory upgrade.

I personally would be looking for a 73 with hammer action, which before the recent sales was just under $5000 US. Hopefully the new one (if offered in this configuration) will stay under 5k!

Maybe they will REALLY surprise us and release a new Grand piano sample to go with this flagship board. It's that or putting the four-year old White Grand in their A11 slot (or whatever the first preset will be - it's also possible they've redesigned the preset structure, which would be very welcome).

[alex78]

I believe it's 2 synth layers and a separate one for samples. Do not forget it's the new sample format that may have different controls from the standard synth oscilators, so an indepented section for samples makes sense.

I hope they don't add this as I see it as an unnecessary limitation. Sample Synth player is much less flexible than a synth panel that can load samples, and the last updates hinted at support for v5 samples across the current line-

-dj

I agree, 3 synths that can be sample, subtractive synthesis, FM or wavetable is much more flexible. Who knows...The third slider could also be the external section.

[Benis67]

As is known, the DSPs of the Motorola/Freescale/NXP 56K family have been out of production for years and sooner or later even the Nord Keyboards will have to use an alternative generation of DSP/CPUs for synthesis (presumably ARM-based).
Will NORD STAGE 4 be the first of this new family? And if so, will the differences in sound generation be perceptible?

Nord already switched away from the NXP 56k family when they launched the NS3.

what is the source of this information? From the videos it is clearly seen that there are 5 DSPs of the Motorola 56K family