NORD STAGE 4 officially announced for February 16th 2023

[analogika]

Anyone have insight on the pricing approach for Nord?

How are instruments like the Fantom 8 and Montage priced $1,700 below the Stage 4 while appearing to have significantly more capability? Does it come down to physical parts (more knobs/switches etc.) on the Nord?

Very intrigued by the Stage 4, but I’m puzzled.

Mass produced in low-wage Asian factories by huge corporations that buy components in the hundreds of thousands, used across dozens of products, vs. a 40-employee private company situated in a country with a high cost of living, building a couple hundred products a month in-house, across five or six models.

[westharp]

Regarding the fixed split points: did anyone notice that the SPLIT button on the NS4 says "SET KEY" below the button? It was "SPLIT SELECT" on the NS3.

Maybe the split points aren't fixed after all and the LED-indicators are optional...

[Spider]

I think the grey fields in the synth panel give you the soft knobs.

Yes, but in the grey fields there are button circled in red with generic names like "Menu", "Type", "Waveform", "Envelope": I think they are the buttons that call up the pertinent page on the screen, assigning the specific funtion to the 3 encoders.
There are 9 such buttons, which would mean that we have the equivalent of 9x3=27 knobs, more controls than many full-fledged synths.

I'm thinking it works like this:
PANELS: 6 sounds total, and you could switch between one set of three, or another set of three, or play all six at once.
LAYERS: 7 sounds total, and you can switch between one set of 1-to-7 sounds, and any other combination of those 1-7 sounds.

I didn't check further comments or videos over the weekend, but from Steffen's comments in the Andertons video, I understood that the "Scenes" are two alternate configurations of the panel, much like the old A-B slots. So, we should have 14 totally indipendent sounds per program, which would be awesome!
It would essentially work like the Instant Morph: press one button and have a totally new configuration instantly available.

[Spider]

Regarding the fixed split points: did anyone notice that the SPLIT button on the NS4 says "SET KEY" below the button?

VERY interesting find, you have sharp eyes!
This could be a really bad thing: there are people who over the decades have developed a whole profession of whining about Nord's fixed split points, what will they do now if Clavia suddenly takes away their main occupation?

[st2ex]

Regarding the fixed split points: did anyone notice that the SPLIT button on the NS4 says "SET KEY" below the button? It was "SPLIT SELECT" on the NS3.

Maybe the split points aren't fixed after all and the LED-indicators are optional...

Could be and as long as there is no manual, we can't say that choosing a variable split point in between two LED indicators would not make both of them lit in a defined way.

[Spider]

Edit: Separate question, but how do you guys like playing out with a shorter keyboard?

If you're not doing a lot of splits, the 73 keys are just fine as a single board and is highly preferable to transport.

Again, the size difference is significant as the HA88 is over 50% larger and weighs nearly twice as much.

Exactly this. I had always used 88s and didn't think I could live with less... until finally I took a leap of faith and exchanged my NS2 88 for the Compact version.
I was absolutely SHOCKED at how much smaller and lighter the 73 is, it looked like a toy keyboard next to the 88. It really deserves the Compact name!
I also use lots of splits and layers, but in all honesty I almost never miss the additional 15 keys. There are maybe 3 or 4 songs where I cannot accomodate everything in 73 keys, and in those instances I just split the song among 2 programs, switching between them mid-song. It's not ideal, but it's MUCH less inconvenient than always lugging around a much bigger and heavier keyboard that I actually need only 5% of the time.

Of course, you lose the pianistic feel of the keys, but I use another weighted keyboard for solo piano gigs...incidentally, a Yamaha P-121 which is also a nice and portable 73-key piano. I hope to never have to lug around an 88er again!

[Ritchie333]

Is there any mention about external MIDI control of NS4's parts? I think this is quite important to many users myself included. Hopefully Clavia made it possible and easy to play some parts with MIDI controller. One or two synths for example. More options better.

There's an Aux KB LED underneath each fader which I'm assuming means any combination of individual instruments can be controlled by an external keyboard. A bit like Dual KB but much more flexible.

No idea about individual Midi channels per instrument. We'll have to wait for the manual.

I've been trying to find information about this feature, and though I assume you're right, I can't find any official documentation or a demonstration of the feature. However, my usual rig is Nord Stage 2 semi-weighted + Fatar Studiologic weighted, so I absolutely need to know I can play piano with the external keyboard and organ with the internal one at the same time. Does nobody else use the Stage this way?

[neomad]

Really? 14 totally independent sounds per program? Huge improvement vs the 6 in the NS3

[anotherscott]

from Steffen's comments in the Andertons video, I understood that the "Scenes" are two alternate configurations of the panel, much like the old A-B slots. So, we should have 14 totally indipendent sounds per program, which would be awesome!

I haven't checked the video, but my thought was that they are indeed "two alternate configurations of the panel," but the panel still contains a maximum of 7 sounds, from which you can create those two alternate configurations. But if it's more than that, I won't complain.

Could be and as long as there is no manual, we can't say that choosing a variable split point in between two LED indicators would not make both of them lit in a defined way.

I've talked in the past about how, if an LED only indicates an "approximate" location, it could blink, and maybe at a faster rate if it's farther away and more slowly if it's closer (the way oscillator tuning often works).

[Hlaalu]

Also, I would prefer the 1‘ cancel, but since the percussion won’t trigger anyway when engaged on a held note, the fact that it won’t cancel the drawbar is really the smaller issue IMO…

Just for curiousity: in which kind of setting would you need the percussion to trigger when you switch it on on a note already being pressed?

I get your band's music is not "traditional" but I'd think the 1' drawbar cancel thing would be much more relevant...