And so, October…

[DJKeys]

Agree, many complain that Nords are too expensive already. It cannot be overstated that the Flash RAM they use is much more expensive than standard computer memory. That is why it does not take 3 minutes for a Nord keyboard to boot up.

-dj

[sonicblue]

We are talking here about silly 3-4 GBs, not 32-128 and the gear worth 4000 USD, so I don't think it costs a fortune like you would presume...

[Gambold]

>But we know Nord is more than the piano, it's also the organs it's a synth it's an arranger... It seems they completely ignore it and don't present these also reach functionalities and capabilities of the Nord instruments<

There have been a lot of reasoned and intelligent theories posted here on why Nord doesn't market differently and more aggressively, or why their product lines are as they are, or why any kind of real technological change is unlikely...or even why they play of lot soft jazz and little else at NAMM.

While those theories are all interesting and logical, my suspicion is that that actual situation is much simpler - the company is coasting, there are no significant employees other than those working in the factory, and the owners have already made their pile, and are happy to just bank the checks that continue to flow in. There is no large board of directors or group of public shareholders to advocate for anything different. If Nord goes under tomorrow, you've got about 30 shop employees out of work and on Swedish unemployment, and a couple of owners whose families are already set for life. That's it.

Which is why I think a sale to a Big Bad Music Company would be a good thing, because it would infuse some energy, personnel, and cash into what is fast looking like a boutique company that is turning its autumn colors and getting close to falling off the tree.

[maxpiano]

>But we know Nord is more than the piano, it's also the organs it's a synth it's an arranger... It seems they completely ignore it and don't present these also reach functionalities and capabilities of the Nord instruments<

There have been a lot of reasoned and intelligent theories posted here on why Nord doesn't market differently and more aggressively, or why their product lines are as they are, or why any kind of real technological change is unlikely...or even why they play of lot soft jazz and little else at NAMM.

While those theories are all interesting and logical, my suspicion is that that actual situation is much simpler - the company is coasting, there are no significant employees other than those working in the factory, and the owners have already made their pile, and are happy to just bank the checks that continue to flow in. There is no large board of directors or group of public shareholders to advocate for anything different. If Nord goes under tomorrow, you've got about 30 shop employees out of work and on Swedish unemployment, and a couple of owners whose families are already set for life. That's it.

Which is why I think a sale to a Big Bad Music Company would be a good thing, because it would infuse some energy, personnel, and cash into what is fast looking like a boutique company that is turning its autumn colors and getting close to falling off the tree.

Assuming for a moment you may be right, think about what happened when Sequential sold to Yamaha 1987 and then... Yamaha shut it down in 1989 without issuing any new instrument under that brand; look also at what Korg has done with Arp or vox brands... so are you sure that it is a good thing for a "boutique company" to be sold to a "big one"...? I am not, at all

[analogika]

We are talking here about silly 3-4 GBs, not 32-128 and the gear worth 4000 USD, so I don't think it costs a fortune like you would presume...

Check current prices for the Flash RAM they use. It is easily 100x more than your supermarket USB stick.
For an example, a 1GB Flash RAM expansion for the Motif XF is €250.

Add a couple silly gigabytes, and that already expensive $4000 machine is a $5000 machine…

[analogika]

>But we know Nord is more than the piano, it's also the organs it's a synth it's an arranger... It seems they completely ignore it and don't present these also reach functionalities and capabilities of the Nord instruments<

There have been a lot of reasoned and intelligent theories posted here on why Nord doesn't market differently and more aggressively, or why their product lines are as they are, or why any kind of real technological change is unlikely...or even why they play of lot soft jazz and little else at NAMM.

While those theories are all interesting and logical, my suspicion is that that actual situation is much simpler - the company is coasting, there are no significant employees other than those working in the factory, and the owners have already made their pile, and are happy to just bank the checks that continue to flow in. There is no large board of directors or group of public shareholders to advocate for anything different. If Nord goes under tomorrow, you've got about 30 shop employees out of work and on Swedish unemployment, and a couple of owners whose families are already set for life. That's it.

Which is why I think a sale to a Big Bad Music Company would be a good thing, because it would infuse some energy, personnel, and cash into what is fast looking like a boutique company that is turning its autumn colors and getting close to falling off the tree.

Assuming for a moment you may be right, think about what happened when Sequential sold to Yamaha 1987 and then... Yamaha shut it down in 1989 without issuing any new instrument under that brand; look also at what Korg has done with Arp or vox brands... so are you sure that it is a good thing for a "boutique company" to be sold to a "big one"...? I am not, at all

ARP and Korg is actually an example where they resurrected a brand after buying the rights and really, really did well.

But when they initially folded in 1981, they sold to CBS, who killed the brand immediately and unsuccessfully showhorned existing projects (notably the ARP Chroma) into the Rhodes badge, which they also owned and more or less drove into the ground.

[sonicblue]

Check current prices for the Flash RAM they use. It is easily 100x more than your supermarket USB stick.
For an example, a 1GB Flash RAM expansion for the Motif XF is €250.

Add a couple silly gigabytes, and that already expensive $4000 machine is a $5000 machine…

Yep, but we (at least I) are not talking about RAM but a storage memory for sound banks. The Electro 6 has 1GB of storage for piano library, not confuse with RAM !, and this is more than silly today in 2022...

[DJKeys]

Yep, but we (at least I) are not talking about RAM but a storage memory for sound banks. The Electro 6 has 1GB of storage for piano library, not confuse with RAM !, and this is more than silly today in 2022...[/quote]

That is not correct. The Piano Library Samples in all the Nord instruments are stored in Flash RAM, not computer memory. That is why they are all instantly available on boot-

-dj

[sonicblue]

Which is why I think a sale to a Big Bad Music Company would be a good thing, because it would infuse some energy, personnel, and cash into what is fast looking like a boutique company that is turning its autumn colors and getting close to falling off the tree.

But although the Nord brand seems to be very strong on the market don't you think there's a risk of hostile takeover? I share your criticism towards management style of Clavia, but I have some concerns if an acquisition would be the best option...

[sonicblue]

That is not correct. The Piano Library Samples in all the Nord instruments are stored in Flash RAM, not computer memory. That is why they are all instantly available on boot-

-dj

I'm affraid you're wrong because RAM memory is temporary and loaded each time the operating system is turned on. So the sounds must be saved somewhere permanently in a storage memory and that is this 1GB of flash memory in the Electro 6. Clavia doesn't publish information about RAM used in Nords... They only publish information about the storage flash memory (but this is not RAM!)