This 'unofficial' Forum is dedicated to the Clavia Nord Keyboards, including the Nord Stage, Nord Electro and Nord Piano. Discuss any issues around Nord's keyboards, share your favorite patches, samples, and music. We are not affiliated with Clavia!
mkastrup wrote:Nord Stage 3 Compact and that keybed is absolutely not for me. Its wayy to cumbersome to play for a guy used to synth action.
tsss27 wrote:What synth action keybeds are you comparing it to? This makes a big difference, because while a lot of people focus on piano-style actions and such, synth actions can be just as variable in their own ways. For example Arturia Keylab II feels quite different from the Prophet6, and both are different from the Wave2 again.
Interesting you mention the Keylab II action (I guess you mean the 49/61 SW). I have the 49 - for a semi weighted slash synthy diving board keyboard, I find it quite a gem. Creamy enough for EP and agile enough for synth, and a nicely solid feeling board. My NLA1 with its very light synth action is great for leads, but I find it a bit unnerving for playing pads and slow moving stuff. It comes down to what you're used to, but I bet some of the pure piano players here could not begin to fathom mkastrup's comment above.
Edit: @mkastrup Just spent some time on your youtube channel. Great stuff!
Last edited by CountFosco on 11 Mar 2021, 22:16, edited 1 time in total.
mkastrup wrote:Nord Stage 3 Compact and that keybed is absolutely not for me. Its wayy to cumbersome to play for a guy used to synth action.
tsss27 wrote:What synth action keybeds are you comparing it to? This makes a big difference, because while a lot of people focus on piano-style actions and such, synth actions can be just as variable in their own ways. For example Arturia Keylab II feels quite different from the Prophet6, and both are different from the Wave2 again.
Interesting you mention the Keylab II action (I guess you mean the 49/61 SW). I have the 49 - for a semi weighted slash synthy diving board keyboard, I find it quite a gem. Creamy enough for EP and agile enough for synth, and a nicely solid feeling board. My NLA1 with its very light synth action is great for leads, but I find it a bit unnerving for playing pads and slow moving stuff. It comes down to what you're used to, but I bet some of the pure piano players here could not begin to fathom mkastrup's comment above.
Edit: @mkastrup Just spent some time on your youtube channel. Great stuff!
The most light synth action keybed i got is on my Deepmind 12, after that its probably my Arturia Keylab Essential 61. These 2 are very light.
For light medium synth action its my Kurzweil PC361, then medium is Korg Pa4x and then the Yamaha series Motif/Montage and last in the medium range i guess my Novation Summit.
I tend to avoid half-weighted synth action keybeds. So when i compared keybed of Nord Wave 2 i was talking about Yamaha-Novation type keybeds.
CountFosco wrote:Interesting you mention the Keylab II action (I guess you mean the 49/61 SW). I have the 49 - for a semi weighted slash synthy diving board keyboard, I find it quite a gem. Creamy enough for EP and agile enough for synth, and a nicely solid feeling board. My NLA1 with its very light synth action is great for leads, but I find it a bit unnerving for playing pads and slow moving stuff. It comes down to what you're used to, but I bet some of the pure piano players here could not begin to fathom mkastrup's comment above.
Yep, that's the action I'm talking about. I also found it to be excellent, very easy to control with a great feel. If they made a waterfall version of that it would probably be my perfect action, as I didn't learn on a piano anyway so not used to heavily weighted keys but can easily control dynamics with a keybed like the KeyLab's. The Nord Wave2, from memory, has a little deeper key travel in comparison but I don't remember having much if any problem adjusting to the key feel. I do like a very shallow action for leads (Prophet6 is great for that) but it's a lot harder to control for anything else.
First post here on the forum. I am greatly considering the Wave 2, but had a few questions and concerns.
Is the keybed as heavy as some have said? I'm used to synth action keybeds. I have played an A1 and it had a really cheap and clackety feeling keybed. I've never played a Stage 3 compact, but have played an 88 and it was way too heavy for my playing. I love Yamaha and Sequential keybeds. As well as some Rolands.
Also, how would you those of you who have a Summit compare it to the Wave 2. I'm anti-menu diving which is why I'm drawn to the Wave 2. I'm usually an analog guy, but am needing something that can cover a lot of bases with an excellent effects section as I don't want to use external boxes or plugins. Does the Wave 2 come close enough to analog with its VA section? Thanks in advance!
Welcome, you will find this a great place for information on Nord instruments.
I had an A1 and the keyboard was very light, but felt cheap and noisy. It didn't really bother me playing live, though. The NW2 has a 61-key waterfall bed with AT, so it is heavier than the A1 for sure, but the keys are also longer. It does have a short travel to the AT strip, though, and I do not understand all of the comments about it being too heavy for a synth. I do not find hard to play, and I have owned a lot of keyboards.
As far as the sound goes, I think the VA oscillators sound great. When I had my A1 before I sold it, I programmed about 50 patches from scratch and it was super easy to dial in the sounds I needed, many of them analog synth sounds from the 80s.
I have attached a number of sounds I programmed so you can get an idea of the sonic palette.
If by Yamaha you are talking about the FSX keyboard on the 61-key Motif and Montage, the Wave 2 feels lighter than that to me. Not as light as the Sequential keys like Prophet6...in the middle. I am used to light actions and didn't have a problem adjusting.
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Thanks for the sound demos!
That’s funny that the Montage has a slightly heavier key feel than the Wave 2. I always thought the Montage had a fairly medium synth action to it just like you say tsss27. If it’s actually heavier than the Wave 2 I don’t understand what people are talking about when they say the Wave 2 is a heavy action. I was worried that it would be too close to a weighted piano action like the Stage 3 88 key has. That one is just too heavy for me since I’m not a piano player.
I own Motif XS, Motif XF, Montage, Summit and NS3 Compact. I will still place the keybeds in this order:
Motif XS, XF, Montage (Medium)
Summit (a tad more toward heavy) still feels like in medium range.
NW2 ( a bigger tad toward heavy) feels like begining of heavy range.
NS3 Compact (Heavy)
That said, i'm mostly used to light keybed but NW2 is doable but i cant play as fast as light or medium keybeds.
The NS3 Compact is completely useless to me because it's wayyyyy to heavy.
NW2 compared to Summit:
I prefer NW2 because i like its filters and much much better stereo spread. Summit only got a medicore chorus to make up for spreading the mono signal.
However there is much much more synthesis to be done in Summit and its Reverb is crazy good.
NW2 plays samples, Summit plays Wavetables.
NW2 MIDI sync is much more stable than Summit Midi sync.
mkastrup wrote:I own Motif XS, Motif XF, Montage, Summit and NS3 Compact. I will still place the keybeds in this order:
Motif XS, XF, Montage (Medium)
Summit (a tad more toward heavy) still feels like in medium range.
NW2 ( a bigger tad toward heavy) feels like begining of heavy range.
NS3 Compact (Heavy)
That said, i'm mostly used to light keybed but NW2 is doable but i cant play as fast as light or medium keybeds.
The NS3 Compact is completely useless to me because it's wayyyyy to heavy.
NW2 compared to Summit:
I prefer NW2 because i like its filters and much much better stereo spread. Summit only got a medicore chorus to make up for spreading the mono signal.
However there is much much more synthesis to be done in Summit and its Reverb is crazy good.
NW2 plays samples, Summit plays Wavetables.
NW2 MIDI sync is much more stable than Summit Midi sync.
Thanks for the reply! I actually went and played a Stage 3 88 at the shop and it's not as heavy as I remember it. I think I will be fine with the Wave 2's keybed if it is just marginally heavier than the Montage.
Regarding the Summit comparison, it was my number one choice other than the Wave 2, well with the OB6 thrown in there somewhere. I love vintage analog synths, but want something a bit more versatile, hence the Summit and Wave 2. Is the Wave 2 capable of getting close to the Summit in terms of "vintage analog" feel? Also, how does the new cathedral reverb on the Wave 2 compare to the Summit's reverb?
