Nord User Forum

Hi Folks,

bear with me if this has already been answered - I looked around for quite some time on the Internet and this board, and couldn´t find a definitive answer to my specific question.

I play only at home, and kinda fell in Love with the Grand after having read a lot about it - played it the other day for an hour at my local shop, and now I really want one

The big question for people like me (playing only piano, only at home but still interested in a bit of "tinkering" with the sound) is of course - Nord Piano 5 or Nord Grand?

Untill yesterday I was convinced that they are identical in terms of the electronics, the only difference being the (imO) superior action/keybed and the size/design - but right now I am a bit confused..

tl;dr:

Is it possible to layer two Piano Samples together on the Nord Grand ? - I´d love to be able to do what Chuck Piano Man is doing here: (Hope the youtube link is ok, it is his "create your own unique piano sound" tutorial - he basically plays two piano sounds at once.)

If not possible, can the same effect be attained by loading a Piano sample into the synth section? If yes, what are the shortcomings? (except the synth memory being full quickly..)

Thanks for your help,

cheers from austria

I hear you about trying to find previous conversations about topics - they don't always come up in a search. I'm sure it's been talked about somewhere, but I'll weigh in here.

It's simply the case that the Piano 5 can do a lot more in terms of layering (and splitting), because there are two separate piano engines; with the Grand, because there's only one piano engine, you cannot layer two pianos (from the piano section) together, or split the keyboard into two different pianos (which I'd like to do, for example, on Elton John's "Honky Cat," which has both acoustic and electric). And you can't load a sample designed for the piano section into the sample synth section.

The best you can do is take pianos from the sample synth section for layering (or splitting) with the piano section; the Grand comes loaded with a few, but you can find them all here -https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-lib ... -30/pianos. I've done it and works well enough - depends, of course, on what you're after.

I love the Grand for the reasons you mention, and I think it's worth the trade-off for my needs.

I'm hoping someone can confirm what I say here - it's how I understand the situation, but I've been mistaken once or twice before in my life. Jimmy, Minneapolis

Thanks for your kind answer, much appreciated!
I am probably gonna go with the piano 5 - even though I'm far from being a professional player, I can still feel the action being inferior to the grand (or the kawaii mp11 of course, which is right next to it at my local store)

Despite this, I really fell in love with the possibility the piano 5 offers, it kinda feels like adding a second layer to my hobby of playing the piano, for the trade off of having an inferior keybed. (still, the NP5 is a substantial upgrade from my current setup, am using a roland fp10 which I play on since I learned my first few notes.)

Thanks again!

Hi i got the piano 5 and its a great tool to gig for mainly jazz gigs. Now yesterday my grand arrived and uts a beautiful instrument with a great Kawai keybed.. my question, having gone tru the Nirdkeyboard website and into the White piano page which is my fav sound there is a side note to update the OS, but my grand is already with the latest update, Was there a fine tuning on the White Grand pls?

Paulg wrote:Hi i got the piano 5 and its a great tool to gig for mainly jazz gigs. Now yesterday my grand arrived and uts a beautiful instrument with a great Kawai keybed.. my question, having gone tru the Nirdkeyboard website and into the White piano page which is my fav sound there is a side note to update the OS, but my grand is already with the latest update, Was there a fine tuning on the White Grand pls?

Hello, the White Grand was released on June 13, 2019, so "latest" OS updates were needed as of that time. The Piano 5 was shipped with a few newer piano samples that aren't shown in the Piano library however folks that have tried loading them on other keyboards have noted certain issues. Here's the related post: Nord Library.