Nord User Forum

M1tsos wrote: Sorry to disappoint you but electro 7 will have 1-2gb and it will always be limited because of the price range. 3gb will probably be on the next stage 3ex or 4

I find it highly unlikely that the next iteration of the Stage (be it the 3EX or the 4) will have "only" 3 GB, considering that it doesn't take much to fill the current 2 GB with pianos from the library.

Hlaalu wrote:

M1tsos wrote: Sorry to disappoint you but electro 7 will have 1-2gb and it will always be limited because of the price range. 3gb will probably be on the next stage 3ex or 4

I find it highly unlikely that the next iteration of the Stage (be it the 3EX or the 4) will have "only" 3 GB, considering that it doesn't take much to fill the current 2 GB with pianos from the library.

Don't remember where, but I read that for the current 32bit architecture of the NS engine you can't really go beyond 3gb... but I might be wrong

It depends a bit on the specific architecture - the highest addressable memory size in a 32bit environment is 4GB in theory (2^32) but many 32bit systems are limited to less like 3GB or even 2GB. The only option therefore to go beyond 4GB is moving to a 64bit architecture

This matter pops up every now and then on this forum. The 4 GB limit pertains to RAM: no 32-bit OS can address more than 4 GB of RAM (although there are exceptions: see PAE on Windows). But there's no such limit for storage: Nord keyboards use the faster and much more expensive NOR memory, instead of an SSD (usually based on NAND cells) like, say, the Kronos. But it's still storage. Therefore, Nord could release a Stage featuring a total of more than 4 GB of storage (e.g. 5 GB for the Piano section and 2 GB for the Sample section) but that would kill their business model of small incremental updates. I expect the next Stage to feature 3 GB of memory for pianos and 1 GB at most for samples.

Ah yes, that’s correct - I also mixed up RAM and storage space. Storage is of course not limited as long as the controller support the size

My bad, I mixed up too

StrangeAeons wrote:This matter pops up every now and then on this forum. The 4 GB limit pertains to RAM: no 32-bit OS can address more than 4 GB of RAM (although there are exceptions: see PAE on Windows). But there's no such limit for storage: Nord keyboards use the faster and much more expensive NOR memory, instead of an SSD (usually based on NAND cells) like, say, the Kronos. But it's still storage. Therefore, Nord could release a Stage featuring a total of more than 4 GB of storage (e.g. 5 GB for the Piano section and 2 GB for the Sample section) but that would kill their business model of small incremental updates. I expect the next Stage to feature 3 GB of memory for pianos and 1 GB at most for samples.

I don't think it is only about business model but also related to the hardware platform used by Nord, point is that Nord keyboards are not like computers (like Kronos instead is) and the limitations on max "sample storage memory" addressable depend mainly on the DSP architecture in place (because the DSP has to read the sample data directly and at the required speed CPU does with its RAM, and in fact we talk about SRAM or Flash RAM storage); of course larger storage or secondary storage on a SSD can be integrated on a DPS-based platform, but it requires an important redesign.

On the subject of memory, I think we are all fairly certain that the next Nord iteration will have an incremental increase to the piano and sample memory for performance, but it would be great if Nord also moved to utilizing secondary SSD storage as well for quick and seamless loading of bundles into the performance memory without a laptop.

Guys with the technology level right now all the companys can make extreme machine - keyboards.. it will not be good for their economy to give the best they can.. for example i am sure nord can make it a lot bigger like 5gb for piano samples and 2gb for synth or even their whole librarys of samples to be in one instrument.. this will damage the whole business.. because then the korg or roland will play their full cards and they will give the full amount of their technical powers then the nord will need to invest more money on r&d technicians to improve more etc etc.. at the end for years of watching the evolution on sound equipment and keyboards i believe many of the companys made deals to not evolve fast because it will ruin their whole marketing and economy.. sorry for my bad english i hope you understand my point

Given the type of Flash RAM they use and the enormous spike in component prices in the past two years, it would be suicide to drastically increase capacity.

Rule of thumb used to be that an increase in any component’s raw price represents a final product increase of about ten times that. So if they spend 200€ more on Flash, that’s a four-figure price increase right there.