Nord User Forum

Hey hope everyone is doing well during these strange times.
Was hoping people around the world could provide me some info on whats going on in your home town ?

1. Where are you from ? ( me new york state)
2. Whats opened ? (Nothing but essentials food gas etc )
3. Playing gigs yet ? ( Nope just acoustic from homes )

and anything else you may want to add about state of things.

Thanks all

Hi.

1. I'm from Germany (obvously), and the situation is similar around the country.

2. We started gradually openings of shops up to 800 m^2. The rational behind this is to limit consumer traffic, which would lead to distance violations inevitably. School is up for those, who will finish soon, both off- and online. Masks, even self-made ones, are mandatory now for both shopping and public commuting. Some manufacturers resumed with a care concept in place. Depending on the change in infections in about 1 week there will be more or less openings.

(BTW, following the numbers in the USA is devastating ... also a kind of "first" ...)

3. No gigs, no band rehearsals. But still learning a lot ; -)

P.S.: I attached a graphics. Though our death-toll (black curve) is comparably low, we witnessed an explosive growth a month ago. Had it prevailed, we'd talk about a different order of magnitude. And this progress still is fragile: too many people not following recommendations, and things will be different again. Fortunately, most people do behave approriate in my place. // All curves are accumulated counts. Only the yellow one (remaining "ill") is a difference.

Hi,

from Germany as well

One thing to add regarding gigs: interestingly some bands do their gigs in drive-in movie theater now. People are sitting in their car, getting the sound from their VHF radio and applaud by using the headlight flashers and sounding the horns (the latter is not allowed everywhere because of noise disturbance ). Comedians also start doing this, seems to become more popular here now

Geetings from Finland

Things are peaceful here, of all the 5 million people in Finland, total registered infections are in the thousands, casualties at just over 200. At least smaller schools will open to some extent in a week. At a 50 km radius from where I live, under 10 infections are known. The closest city (more like village) holds under 4000 people, of which probably 3000 are over 60 years old...

Best wishes

Hello to everyone! Greece here. We have been isolated at home for one and a half month now. All schools, restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters etc are closed. You could go out only for work (if not possible via internet) supermarket and to take a walk with your dog or for personal training. And you had to send an sms first explaining the reason! if they caught you out without reason there was a 150 euro fine!
All transportation from Big cities to the country side and islands is prohibited. The infections in comparison with the general population is relatively low, and the deaths just a little more than 100 people in the whole country. Fortunately on Monday the small shops will start to open again, people will be free to go out without a permission and by the end of May everything will work again but with restrictions.
Regarding the concerts, shows etc, it seems that the government doesn't care much about this as they have made no anouncements. Some big festivals have been canceled but smallers venues, especially outdoors will probably have no problem. Overall, I thing the economic damage of all this situation is more serious than the virus itself. Greece's biggest income comes from tourism and this year will be harsh for those who depend on it.
Take care, stay safe, stay healthy, be creative!!!

Greetings from New Zealand!
We are going relatively well, with a pretty low death toll for our size...I think 20 deaths to a population of 4.7 million. We were locked down at level 4 for around 5 weeks, now at level 3, probably for a similar time. Most people have been very good at obeying the rules, and there are lots of people out walking (at distances) and biking. I think something like 70% of the workforce is operational. Tourism, hotels, and our national air line are pretty dead, like all countries are, and our unemployment has shot up quite a bit, from the 4% it was. I do feel for you guys in Europe and especially the USA, which are getting hit really hard; my thoughts and prayers are going out to you guys. I do hope India and Africa don't spiral out of control in the next few months.

Hello from Italy!
As you probably know we've been hit pretty hard by the pandemic. At first it looked like we were the worst-faring Western country, though it may have been only a momentary impression because we were the first EU country to be hit. By now, it looks like similarly sized and populated countries (Spain, France, UK) are all being affected in the same way, the notable exception being Germany.
Anyway, we had 2 months of complete lockdown, not allowed to go outside for any reason except: buying food and medicines, going to work (the few people who worked in companies which were allowed to remain open) and health emergencies. Even for those exceptions, we could only go alone, with face masks, and -if at all possible- on foot and no more than 500 mts from home.
From today the confinement rules have been relaxed, we're at least allowed to move by car and go to visit relatives, and many commercial and industrial activities are reopening.

Still, all aggregation activities remain banned for the foreseeable future: museums, theatres, cinemas, festivals and of course gigs. Bars and restaurants will reopen with strict distancing rules (sitting only, no patrons at the counter, at least 2 meters between tables, no people socializing outside, etc). Most gig venues in my town are small clubs, bars and restaurants which will have BIG problems in running their activities profitably with 1/3 or less of the patrons. I imagine the first cost they will cut will be live music, and I cannot blame them.
I haven't been gigging or rehearsing for 2 months now, and I don't think that it will happen again at least until autumn, or if/when a vaccine will be available.
Good thing I have a day job and my company is still in good financial health.

The UK is just coming out of lockdown now. It's been hit hard by deaths, perhaps because it was slow to lock down in the first place and this caught up with everyone. Non-essential shops are planned to open around 16 June, with other places following suit on 1 July. I don't know when pubs are going to be open for usual business. My day job is software development; working remotely is nothing particularly unusual so I haven't had any major shake-ups in terms of employment, for which I consider myself quite fortunate compared to friends.

I haven't done a gig since 14 March, everything since then has been cancelled and while I expect events later in the year to still go ahead, I don't currently know when's that's going to happen. I suspect pubs and clubs will be the last thing to re-open, and then they'll be done very cautiously. I've been trying to keep myself busy and have wired up my Electro to up to my Mac and started doing various random musical projects in Logic Pro X (example attached - I suppose this is "off topic" as it doesn't feature any Nord gear aside from MIDI events). I've also salvaged the remains of two dead Macs and got them working on PC hardware, which means I've now got four Macs in the house (two are real, two are "Hackintoshes") and I'm worried I'm turning into an Apple Fanboy.

• Won't Get Fooled Again.mp3

1. Where are you from ?
Sweden here. Outskirts of Stockholm to be exact.

2. Whats opened ?
We haven't had a "lockdown by law" but rather guidelines from health department to keep distance, work from home, avoid public transportation, avoid meeting people if it's not necessary, etc.
So all stores have been open, but non-essential stores haven't had that much business. Food stores have had regular business though.
Restaurants have regulation to maintain distance between visitors, so every other table is off-limits.

3. Playing gigs yet ?
All congregations of 50 people or more have been banned, so IRL gigs are totally out.
And as we're encouraged to not meet anyone if not necessary about 50/50 is not rehearsing either. Last time I played with any of my bands was in January.

As we haven't had any total lockdown we're also not opening things up more now, but everyone expect to keep doing "reasonable distancing" probably throughout the summer.
The strategy has been to stretch out the spread so to have medical resources for the ones that need them, and as it hasn't stopped yet we just keep going (which is possible when not doing total lockdown).

1. Where are you from?
Mierlo, the Netherlands (town near Eindhoven)

2. Whats opened?
Since the 1st of June, restaurants and pubs are opened. You have to make a reservation and the tables are placed minimal 1,5m from eachother.
Schools are opened but not all kids are going back to school.

3. Playing gigs yet?
Unfortunately not... our rehearsal room is just across the Belgium border (a 30 minute drive from here). Family is welcome again in Belgium so the "Blush Family" could go rehearse again, but I still have my doubts.
We can have the 1,5m distance in the rehearsal room, but the room isn't that big, so we are still breathing in the same room. Very hard decision because I would love to make music again and prepare for some upcoming gigs (if they are not cancelled).