Nord User Forum

analogika wrote: ↑19 Jan 2025, 16:18 I paid 3000€ inkl. 19% VAT for my Stage 3 compact in 2017, and that was a hefty quasi-endorsement discount. I just pulled up the receipt.

ok, then my memory definitely failed me. Thanks for the correction, and sorry for the confusion!

As for the other comments, I agree that incremental upgrades are not a bad thing in themselves: it's the way most companies work. For existing owners it's great: it means that their old boards do not become obsolete quickly, and they are not forced to buy new expensive boards every 2-3 years. For new customers is even better: they can buy the latest and greatest (for a hefty price tag) or go on the used market and buy an older board which is still perfectly usable.
We usually say that with Clavia it's worth to upgrade every 2 generations, not one (from Electro 4 to 6, from Stage 2 to 4, etc), and I think that's still a sensible advice.

For me, Clavia is lagging behind not so much in sound and user interface, but in other aspects such as connectivity (give us XLR/balanced outs, bluetooth and built-in audio interface, please!), sometimes clumsy sound/patch/firware management... and I admit that when new models are so similar to the previous ones, it's infuriating not to have backwards compatibility and lose years of meticulously programmed patches.

As for the competition: of course the various Rolands and Yamahas (and don't forget Dexibell and, to a lesser degree Crumar, Viscount and Hammond) are not exact clones of the Electro and Stage. But they (finally, after some 20 years!) realized that sometimes the musician doesn't want a gazillion features hidden under 1000 layers of menus that you can only access via a single master knob. For most users, it's better to have just the few most used features, easily accessible with a neatly laid out knob-per-function interface.
That's always been Clavia's modus operandi, and the competition finally saw there was a market and are catching up. Roland and Yamaha are far superior to Clavia for non-piano/non-organ sounds, for many users that is already enough to prefer them to Nords. And don't forget that they are giant companies with a huge customer base, much bigger economies of scale (i.e. lower prices) and a much better recognized brand than Clavia.
Will they wipe out Nord? I don't think so, Clavia will always have its faithful customer base. But its competitive advantage is being diluted by a much bigger choice of alternatives, that's for sure.

Spider wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 11:05 For me, Clavia is lagging behind not so much in sound and user interface, but in other aspects such as connectivity (give us XLR/balanced outs, bluetooth and built-in audio interface, please!)

I get XLR outs, though I don't think I've ever, in thirty years, encountered a situation where DI wasn't readily available when necessary. This is a *super* minor issue, and pretty much just one of comfort.

But Bluetooth!? This keeps getting mentioned — what the hell do people want Bluetooth for? As an alternative to a wired patch change footswitch?

analogika wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 11:48

Spider wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 11:05 For me, Clavia is lagging behind not so much in sound and user interface, but in other aspects such as connectivity (give us XLR/balanced outs, bluetooth and built-in audio interface, please!)

I get XLR outs, though I don't think I've ever, in thirty years, encountered a situation where DI wasn't readily available when necessary. This is a *super* minor issue, and pretty much just one of comfort.

But Bluetooth!? This keeps getting mentioned — what the hell do people want Bluetooth for? As an alternative to a wired patch change footswitch?

Btw if BT MIDI is the point, nowadays you can buy the M-Vave chocolate BT footswitches + USB and MIDI DIN dongles for a few bucks, so is it really an issue to not have it built in?

If instead BT Audio is the point (but is it for a stage keyboard?) you can add a cheap BT transceiver connected to the Monitor IN as well.

Yes these are not major issues by any means, but they are becoming standard in high-end instruments, and Nords are starting to look a bit steam-age in comparison.

Spider wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 15:38 Yes these are not major issues by any means, but they are becoming standard in high-end instruments, and Nords are starting to look a bit steam-age in comparison.

If you're talking about Bluetooth for audio: Hell no. Get that s*** the f**** away from my stage gear. Never mind the shitty sound quality; the fact that there is no fixed latency, which can vary from around 100ms to over 300 ms depending on what pants you're wearing makes it useless.

If you're talking about Bluetooth for controllers or MIDI: Meh. Wired is ALWAYS more reliable in any situation — and especially so in a live environment, where consumer wireless connections may work fine during soundcheck, but conk out the moment you add 2,000 active cellphones to the mix for showtime. Yes, I speak from experience.

Hell, even professional wireless stuff is problematic, despite reserved frequency ranges and carefully planned channel assignments.

Ever play in a harbour town or near an airport? Those radios blow a lot of stuff away.

Another aspect is that Bluetooth is a moving target. Minijacks, 1/4" jacks, XLRs have been around for more than half a century.

My Nord electro has been with me for twenty years, and everything it did when I got it, it still does. Will whatever the current implementation of Bluetooth is work with accessories twenty years from now?

I doubt it.

Ok ok, no need to get all worked up I just mentioned BT passingly among other features, I didn't mean to start a war. I absolutely agree that while it can be useful for occasional non-professional situations (hooking up directly to a bluetooth speaker at a party, stuff like that), it's absolutely non reliable for professional use.
Honestly, of all "modern" features it's the one I care less about, while the one I'd really like to see in future Nords would be USB-to-device with a proper integrated audio interface (also, a real audio input instead of that flimsy 1/8" jack would be well received). That would simplify setup in countless situations, reducing the number of required submixers, adapters, cables, devices, power supplies etc.

Same for XLR outs (or at least balanced jacks, for god's sake!). Of course they're not indispensable, but again for medium-small stages or amateur users, they would save the hassle of using DIs with again additional cables, power supplies etc.

Again, nothing humanity can't live without, but if ones takes a look at the back panel connections of a Nord compared to any other high-end board, the difference is striking.

>What’s up with the fixation to color screens?<

I'll happily let that go if Nord dumps their uniquely bizarre "base 4" system of preset numbering.

Spider wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 16:44 Ok ok, no need to get all worked up I just mentioned BT passingly among other features, I didn't mean to start a war.

Spider wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 16:44Honestly, of all "modern" features it's the one I care less about, while the one I'd really like to see in future Nords would be USB-to-device with a proper integrated audio interface (also, a real audio input instead of that flimsy 1/8" jack would be well received). That would simplify setup in countless situations, reducing the number of required submixers, adapters, cables, devices, power supplies etc.

Ooo yes, that's complete agreement from me there.

f**** minijacks. Some asshole decided to make those flimsy pieces of s*** part of the "pro audio" standard, AND they're used for MIDI occasionally, to boot.

GTFO.

>USB-to-device with a proper integrated audio interface (also, a real audio input instead of that flimsy 1/8" jack would be well received). <

That would be a grand thing. And probably easier to engineer than putting Wi-Fi in, which is always dicey for these companies...Crumar has it in their boards and it's basically useless since you have to use the board's own SSID and IP set, meaning you have to pull your computer or iDevice off the Internet every time you want to patch in.

I'm probably the only one in the universe who preferred the digital "sliders," so I won't ask for those back. I know you can still get them on the hammer action unit, but I'm betting they go away on all Electro models for the next release.

A slightly bigger screen would be nice. I will concede that color isn't necessary, just trying to stay ahead...Roland's Fantom has it and it's only a matter of time before Yamaha's YC does. I've already commented on the looniness of the preset system and how it needs a complete normalization.

I know some people like the "Pages" but for me they aren't very helpful, since whenever I go to the next Page, it goes back to the most-left preset (the #1). If you're going to lock everything into a base 4 system, and set your factory programs up so that Pianos are on 1, EPs 2, Organs 3 and Samples 4, then you should be able to cursor through all the "3s" with ease.

What else - bring back the 9th drawbar option - losing that was weird and infuriating. OH - allow us to set our split ANYWHERE on the keyboard. This seems like a no-brainer but for some reason...you can't. You have to use one of Nord's arbitrary split points.

I wouldn't mess with the Effects section much - it's pretty solid. Obviously an effects wheel or joystick would be a wonderful thing but that will never happen.

Did I mention we need a new Grand Sample, and a "regular" one please....not a keyboard recorded while submerged in an aquarium

--Gambold

For me it was complete non sense release.. i believe it just happen for raise up the overall prices of nord lineup instruments..

As for electro 7 if they release it will take the piano 5 price spot

I believe Thats the plan of nord

Check the prices or try to remember which was the prices for nord grand nord stage 3 piano 5

And what are now.. they all gone up around 30-35%

I quit nord and sold all of my instruments thankfully in good price which made me not lose money..

But now with these prices and that now korg releasing kronos 3.. its more worthy to buy 2 kronos 3 a 61 one and 88 one.. will still be competitives as a rental company to have these too and better to rent my self for some times a nord stage 4 instead of buying it for renting it maximum 5 times per year..

The rent for a day for 1 gig in greece is around 100 euros per day.. so to invest 4500 euros and have around 5 or maximum 10 times per year renting it its better to buy 2 kronos 3 (61 and 88) worth 6000 maybe 6500 max (cause we will get business discount) and having it more renting and dual.. more people still asking for kronos 2 61 and 88..

Anyway about the electro in renting business i do for last 8-9 years no one at all ever asked for electro.. the most ones all around people demand in greece is kronos 61 and 88 montage 7 or 8 or the newer version m7 and m8 and nord stage 3 88 or 4 88

very rarely i see some roland rd and kurzweil pc3x