Nord User Forum

Hi! I'm a pianist and I currently have a Roland FP-10 and I was looking for the best portable keyboard I could find. I tried out the roland fp-90x and liked it a lot. I know that the Nord stage and Nord piano, have a lot more settings / capabilities, so I was wondering how the action compares between them. I could mainly only find comparisons between Nord products and synthesizers. Thanks!

I'd suggest: Forget about "the best portable keyboard". If you mean 'best piano-like keybed' by that, you'd run into a small selection of quite different stuff (Lachnit MK23, Kawai VPC-1, MP-7SE or MP-11SE, Roland FP-90 or Nord Grand; some recommend Yamaha P515 or CP88). Just compare the weight and sound capabilities.

Besides portability and playability (as you suggested), I recommend to consider usability in the sense of a matching user interface. For that, you'd need to know what and how you want to play (easy setup, versatility, computer sound etc.), what pedals you need etc.

There is no such thing as a Nord action: You get the Stage 3 with 3 totally different actions while the more realistic actions are certainly on a Grand or a Piano 5 (both with 3 sensors instead of 2 on the Stages). I didn't fall in love with any digital action yet - neither a Roland nor a Nord; so I kept my old Yamaha CP33 to play my Nord Stage from external. To me, the Kawai actions are the closest to what I like - but there seem to be quality issues, too - as much as you can read on the Net.

Thanks! That was very helpful. So does the Nord piano 5 have the same action as the Nord grand? I'm slightly confused.

No, the Grand has a Kawai action.

Hello, and welcome to the Forum! Not necessarily what everyone is looking for when buying a "piano" like the Nord Grand or Piano 5, however both keyboards not only give you access to the vast Nord Sample Library but also the capability to make your own samples to play through the Sample section of the keyboard. Good luck to you!

FZiegler wrote:I'd suggest: Forget about "the best portable keyboard". If you mean 'best piano-like keybed' by that, you'd run into a small selection of quite different stuff (Lachnit MK23, Kawai VPC-1, MP-7SE or MP-11SE, Roland FP-90 or Nord Grand; some recommend Yamaha P515 or CP88). Just compare the weight and sound capabilities.

Besides portability and playability (as you suggested), I recommend to consider usability in the sense of a matching user interface. For that, you'd need to know what and how you want to play (easy setup, versatility, computer sound etc.), what pedals you need etc.

There is no such thing as a Nord action: You get the Stage 3 with 3 totally different actions while the more realistic actions are certainly on a Grand or a Piano 5 (both with 3 sensors instead of 2 on the Stages). I didn't fall in love with any digital action yet - neither a Roland nor a Nord; so I kept my old Yamaha CP33 to play my Nord Stage from external. To me, the Kawai actions are the closest to what I like - but there seem to be quality issues, too - as much as you can read on the Net.

This

Some students will like the Nord piano 5 action better:
I have sold my Roland RD2000 with the PHA-50 keybed and I recently replaced it with a Nord Piano 5 73. For me it was a great and necessary swap, for size and weight only. I loved the RD and I still like them very much. If the piano 5 73 had a Fatar TP action, I would not have bought it. I find those perfectly playable, but not my favorite, because the bottom is "Spongy" and I like "Firm." Maybe it's an aftertouch issue, but I use 2 keyboards and the one with the synth/organ action has aftertouch. Good enough for me!

Regarding the action, the Roland action was fine with me, and I am a picky and technical kind of pianist, but I had 2 students who did NOT like the PHA-50 because the weight required to depress the key was too low for them. Each of them far preferred just about any of the Yamaha hammer-actions simply because they offered more counterweight. The three of us looked up a comparison test online (I am sure you can find it) and truly, the Yamaha Hammer-action keys at middle C all required not only the heaviest weight to depress, but it was also the closest (I have forgotten how many grams) to Steinway, Yamaha and Renner actions on acoustic pianos.

Both of the students like my Nord Piano 5. I did not measure its weight and the new piano 5 action wasn't on the comparison chart.
I recommend you use weights and measure, also consult the internet for comparisons. Go to a dealer and play a Nord Piano 5, a Nord Grand, an FP or RD (the RD88 is different from the RD2000) and try to decide which one enables you to play at your most expressive dynamics. really, it is all about an individual having control of velocity without having to think about it. At some point, this is not a clear "better or worse" choice. Many who play acoustic piano only will go to great lengths to have the action that makes them play like they want.

It is all very personal. In the 1990's I had a Roland Rhodes MK80 that I used on gigs for 5 years literally 6 nights a week. I adapted to it very nicely. When I got a job selling pianos, I used to stay late just so I could play the Yamaha C5. It was not only the most responsive piano I had ever played from "hammerless" pianissimo to "bark and bite" sffz... the key dip was SO much shorter than my digital Roland that I could play lightning fast runs without any feeling of "working hard for speed." With all that playing every week it was as if I had been doing weight training. Recently I have been doing work on a vintage Rhodes MK V. Even when I get it to the very best possible responsiveness, It is not "a pleasure to play," except in the sense that an old-fashioned British 2-seater MG might be "a pleasure to drive." Novelty, authenticity, romance... whatever. But it is never going to be a "high performance" machine. It's a lovely collector's instrument, with its own merits. And a super-cheap, ultra-simple 1980's action that was refined and modified a dozen times over 3 decades.

engroove wrote:(...)I did not measure its weight and the new piano 5 action wasn't on the comparison chart.
I recommend you use weights and measure, also consult the internet for comparisons. Go to a dealer and play a Nord Piano 5, a Nord Grand, an FP or RD (the RD88 is different from the RD2000) and try to decide which one enables you to play at your most expressive dynamics. really, it is all about an individual having control of velocity without having to think about it. At some point, this is not a clear "better or worse" choice. Many who play acoustic piano only will go to great lengths to have the action that makes them play like they want.

It is all very personal. In the 1990's I had a Roland Rhodes MK80 that I used on gigs for 5 years literally 6 nights a week. I adapted to it very nicely. When I got a job selling pianos, I used to stay late just so I could play the Yamaha C5. It was not only the most responsive piano I had ever played from "hammerless" pianissimo to "bark and bite" sffz... the key dip was SO much shorter than my digital Roland that I could play lightning fast runs without any feeling of "working hard for speed." With all that playing every week it was as if I had been doing weight training. Recently I have been doing work on a vintage Rhodes MK V. Even when I get it to the very best possible responsiveness, It is not "a pleasure to play," except in the sense that an old-fashioned British 2-seater MG might be "a pleasure to drive." Novelty, authenticity, romance... whatever. But it is never going to be a "high performance" machine. It's a lovely collector's instrument, with its own merits. And a super-cheap, ultra-simple 1980's action that was refined and modified a dozen times over 3 decades.

great points (and a great first post on NUF!), with concepts I share 100%. It is mainly about personal feeling of how much an instrument as a whole (keyboard/keybed + sound generation and how they interact) enables you to play with the expressiveness you want.