Nord User Forum

Hi All,

I purchased an Electro 6 HP and have been playing it all day. I actually played over several days at the store before I purchased it as well. I am playing through a pair of QSC K8.2 and it really sounds good.

One thing that I really like is a good Yamaha Grand sound for playing Jazz (things like "Don't get around much anymore"/Duke Ellington and "Someone to watch over me"/Gershwin. If I can't play a real Yamaha Grand (and those things are darn hard to fit in the trunk) then I actually like Apple's Logic Pro Yamaha Grand sound (as long as you dial back the reverb a bit on the default settings).

I've looked through all the default patches, but have not found exactly what I am looking for. Is there something similar to a Yamaha Grand in the Nord Piano Library.

Do people have other favorite piano patches for Jazz/Accompaniment work?

BTW, I find that a lot of keyboard vendors really overdo it on the reverb and other effects on their default patches. I don't know what they are trying to prove. But the Nord patches - a lot of them - seem to have no reverb at all (like the Royal 3D piano). Seems like the default patches a lot of them would need tweaking - is it just me - or do other people see it similarly

TIA

I may be a small minority here but when I got my Nord I immediately deleted all the factory patches. I like to build and save all my sounds from scratch. This is one of my favorite things about the Nord, how modular it is and its interface. So far there hasn't been a piano sound that I've not been able to create with just EQ and going through a few different piano samples. My favorite have been the Royal grand 3D, Studios 1 and 2 and Amber upright. The Royal grand 3D is a very good all-rounder and I believe it is recorded from a Yamaha.

I own an older instrument than yours, but the sample selection is the same. In a medium-to-large jazz/ballroom-dance ensemble, I've settled on the Silver. In select circumstances, I'll turn to the Bambino upgright, and at the other extreme, the Grand Imperial.

I played a real Yamaha C7 for a decade (purchased new on my watch), loved it dearly... and maybe because of that, I just haven't warmed up to any Yamaha grand samples, by any producer.

Try the Studio Grand 2, the Fazioli, and the Royal Grand 3D for such jazzy things. This will depend a lot on amplification, however. Dave Ferris, a former Nord user (for now turned to a Yamaha CP4), favored the Fazioli, if I remember correctly, with a fairly sophisticated amplification setup.

With headphones I keep returning to the Studio Grand 2 for jazzy stuff due to its varied timbre (dark in the bass, singing treble, including a few "organic" inaccuracies...), or to the Fazioli. Even then, precise EQ to neutralize the idiosyncrasies of the phones matters (IMHO).

HokieKev wrote: Is there something similar to a Yamaha Grand in the Nord Piano Library.

...

Do people have other favorite piano patches for Jazz/Accompaniment work?

...

Seems like the default patches a lot of them would need tweaking - is it just me - or do other people see it similarly

There are plenty of Yamahas in the Nord Piano library, and they all sound different -- depending on the model, intonation, how it's recorded, etc.

As far as I can tell:

• The Royal Grand 3D is a Yamaha S6.
• The Bright Grand is a Yamaha S4.
• The Studio Grand 1 and 2 are both Yamaha C7.

We all have our favourites, and for many it seems to change over time. In my view, for a bit more moody/darker work, the Velvet (Blüthner Model 1, I guess) is nice, also for some types of jazz especially when the piano takes a lot of sonic space -- like in the AGS demo. On the other end of the scale, the Silver (Kawai SK7) is a very modern and stringy piano "in your face" that takes a beating quite well, and is cool for e.g. Gospel or Big Band music where you need to cut through from time to time but also want to hold back. The Bright is even more biting, when you need that.

The Italian Grand (Fazioli) is liked by some for jazz lines, and for being quite even (I think this was also Dave Ferris' verdict -- but in my view, most of the newer ones are very even and takes a biting as well when needed, including the Royal Grand 3D and the Silver (as well as the Velvet)). A bit of EQ can help a lot on achieving what you like from each of the pianos; most of them take it well.

But experiment with all of them, and don't be shy using a bit of EQ when you feel it helps. Oh, and don't forget to try out some of the uprights; in some settings and especially with less-than-stellar amplification, e.g. the Amber can be extremely useful!

As for tweaking patches: I guess many do that -- even as you play. Maybe that's part of why you buy a Nord... As for reverb, then due to the string resonance, you normally don't need a lot of reverb (you can also tweak the (overall) level of string resonance).

Thanks for all the pointers to the various pianos. Also, just curious - do you find that you replaced the Medium Pianos with Large or XL when you are doing serious work - or you think the ones that come by default are "good enough". Since an XL takes almost 200M, you could not store many of those.

Also, if I replace the Royal 3D Medium with the XL will the various programs that also use Royal 3D be unaffected and continue to work?

Concerning your last question: If you select "Substitute" in the Nord Sound Manager for replacing a sound, not only will the sample be exchanged, but this sound will be replaced in all programs that use it. So simply "Substitute" the Med Size with the L or XL version....

The L and XL versions have string resonances over the entire range, the Med version has not. I find this relevant wherever sound details matter. In a loud band context you'll most probably not notice it. As for L or XL, this is a matter of taste and will often depend on your preferences. The two may have a slightly different character. I often find the L a little more even than the XL, but you could also say somewhat more 'lifeless'. But these differences are subtle and will be lost in many situations.

I started out using XL on just 1 or 2, and Medium on as many as possible.

But after a while I had found my favourites and changed the setup to having those in XL, and puzzling in a couple more in Small or Medium to fill the memory.
I wanted the full per-key sampling on the favourites, to get the full, organic sound that creates.