Hi everyone.
I've been close to replying in this thread several times, but I never really knew how to respond. As mentioned the thread-title was very provocative, and the post seemed a little trollish to me.
Now everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Negative or positive thoughts are both welcome on this forum. But the way you express yourself and how you come about this, is what counts. We try to make this forum a positive place for all, where people help and learn from each other, and have constuctive discussions. So far this has gone really well imo and there are so many nice and talented people here.
I respect your opinion ZeroZero. Not everyone needs to like Nord. And we all have different taste and preference. And I am glad that you as your first words of your post state that "Now this is all my opinion, only". But the title was not to my liking. You should never try and tell people what to do, you should only express your own opinion and let people decide for themselves. Seems a bit extreme to directly WARN people not to buy the NS2.
Your post is more sympathetic then the title thankfully. I do disagree with most of what you said though (which is my opinion
). You criticize the piano sound on the NE2 firstly, which is understandable comparing it to today's standards. But you need to know, that at first it was not meant to be implemented in the NE. The NE was only meant to be used for the Electromechanical instruments, but Clavia decided to throw in a Grand piano as a bonus. I thought it was decent back when I owned my NE2, and the rest of the sounds were pretty damn well compared to other keyboards back then imo (of course I mean in organ/rhodes/clav etc.).
You now tried to upgrade to a NS2 which you expected to be a huge improvement, but was disapointed. I upgraded from my NE2 to the NS Classic about 4-5 years ago and thought that was a huge improvement. I've recently sold my NS classic for a NS2 because I really wanted the new improvements, and I was not disapointed this time again. Going directly from a NE2 to a NS2 would have blown my mind.
The pianos now are sooooo incredibly much better. They are by far the best I have tried on any hardware keyboard. I haven't dived much into software pianos, but much of what I have heard is still beaten by the NS2, even the truepiano you like so much.
The organ can keep up with the best of the best clones out there, and they are organ only, while the NS2 has so much more in the same package.
The Rhodes/wurlitzer/Clavinet sounds have not been changed much the last few years, but they were miles ahead of the competition (hardware) back then, and only now are people catching up to the Nord standard. I hope/expect Nord to refresh these samples soon to show the competition, who is boss in this area once again.
It is not fair of you to criticize the synth section too much, and also not the Nord Sample Library imo. The NS2 is not a workstation. It is kind of it's own category somewhere in between a Stage piano and a workstation leaning mostly towards the stage piano. Other stage pianos only have good piano sounds and maybe good Epianos. But none of them has a killer organ and decent synth. Think again of the synth section and Samples as a bonus. The synth section has got me a long way though. I have always been able to closely recreate sounds I needed to play on the synth and people are usually impressed by it.
I agree that some samples from the Nord Sample Library are not really up to par. The mellotron stuff is very good, and I like some of the strings and of course the synth sounds alot. Nord has also anounced (a while back though) that they were making new brass/woodwind sounds. It was at first only meant to be for the mellotron sounds, but Clavia are listening to their customers constantly improving, which most other companies do only by releasing newer keyboard models to buy.
The Nords are quite pricey, but it is also an investment of a sort, since you know Clavia will constantly improve their sounds and software available for free download.
Also the Nords are build like tanks and have hands down the best interface for fast tweaking out there. Also they look cool
It's funny that you start to analyze that the sounds from Nord must be inferior, because the samples are smaller than some others. My impression is that actually many people didn't think the Kronos's pianos sounded particulary good (of course there are people on both sides). I would descripe the Kronos's Grand pianos exactly the way you describe the NS2's: "Lifeless". The Nord's pianos have so much character, that you are not playing just a grand/upright piano, but playing one particular piano. That's how it feels to me. While other brands can "sound" good, they lack character and life imo. Of course the Nords are not perfect, but they are the best I have heard/played. I don't know how Clavia achieves this with so little memory, but don't get fooled. Many people seem to make that mistake, even before trying/hearing it. Also i agree with some people, that if you like it through headphones, and not you amp/speakers then maybe you should try some other amp/speakers that fits better.
I guess I'm just lucky in a way. The NS2 SW73 is the perfect keyboard for me. The pianos are great, the E.pianos are awesome (but could use new better samples), the organ is killer(not completely satisfied with the leslie on fast though), the synth does what I need it to, and all this I can carry to rehersals and gigs on my own back (9,7 kg), with no car. And the interface is maybe the best thing about this board.
All this is my own opinion of course.
I hope you find something you can be satisfied with
Please be considerate of others here. Imo Hanon has dealt with this in a very professional way only guiding you how to act here. I didn't see any warnings or bans in what he wrote to you. Calling him out like you did is pretty bad. I hope you have just misunderstood him. Either that or you are a troll.
We try to do things the proper way here. Civilized discussion is always welcome.
Just my 2 cents.
Have fun all. And sorry for the wall of text.
