Nord Stage 4 - Need a better grand piano patch!

[Hammerhead]

Hey all, when I play side by side with a grand piano with my NS4, I can't get anywhere near that full grand sound. I'm playing through a nice EV array with sub, but the sound just sounds like it's about 1/3 that of a true grand. Has anyone figured out how to get a truly realistic grand sound without it being so narrow, if you will, in terms of frequency? Thx!

[cphollis]

A real grand piano radiates sound in all directions, which reflect back to create that wonderful immersive experience. If you're playing through a single speaker you're missing a lot right there as all the AP samples on the Nord are stereo.

A decent pair of headphones will get you pretty close. A pair of the Nord monitors or similar will get you in the ball park. Two of your EV arrays would be better than one.

[Hammerhead]

thank you for that. Trying to stick with hauling around just one PA system. But I realized that I wasn't sending stereo out from Ch1 and Ch2, I was just using Ch1, and sending both to my mixer definitely strengthened and widened the sound...

[cphollis]

My guess is that you're doing acoustic APs at small venues? A single line array can work quite well -- if it is designed to disperse (not project) and not all are. Which EV model are you using?

[harmonizer]

You did not mention which Nord-provided acoustic piano sample you are using. The one I have found to work best with a single amplifier is the White Grand. At least one of the other well-known Nord acoustic piano samples gets wonky in the octave immediately below middle C when I use it with a single amplifier.

Despite my love for the White Grand sample, I do find its lowest notes to be unsatisfying (not enough spank for my taste), so I put a split in my go-to Acoustic Piano setup on my Stage 3, so that I use the Silver Grand for the lowest portion of the keyboard.

None of this will make it sound like a real grand (I think limitations of your amplification/speakers will be the biggest reason), but maybe this will help a little if you keep using a single array.

[cgrafx]

My guess is that you're doing acoustic APs at small venues? A single line array can work quite well -- if it is designed to disperse (not project) and not all are. Which EV model are you using?

Just a point of clarification.. there is no such thing as a single line array. A single speaker is not an array, its a point source.

[cphollis]

Take a look at the top of a EVOX or similar speaker, you'll find 3-6 very small drivers in, well, an arrayed configuration with many of the same sonic characteristics as a larger line array. The bottom is a point source sub.

I'm just using the language that the vendors use.

What would you call it?

[cgrafx]

Take a look at the top of a EVOX or similar speaker, you'll find 3-6 very small drivers in, well, an arrayed configuration with many of the same sonic characteristics as a larger line array. The bottom is a point source sub.

I'm just using the language that the vendors use.

What would you call it?

I'll amend my statement, the speakers you're referring to are Column Arrays. Line Arrays in todays market are multiple individual speakers stacked together to form an array of varying lengths. The fewer speakers stacked the less vertical pattern control you get, and a stack of one or two doesn't actually function as an array because it's too short (so it behaves more like a point source).

short column speakers suffer from the same 1 or 2 speaker line array arrays as the literal length of the column impacts the vertical pattern control.

here is a pretty good article for those that are interested.
https://www.prosoundweb.com/everything- ... then-some/

[Cincy-E]

I have experimented quite a bit and today my favourite piano sound is the Grand Imperial - I have it in XL version onboard - with settings as in the photo plus the following adjustments:

- main point is that I have set it 1 octave lower
- EQ: Bass +6.7, Freq 3.4 kHz, Gain +2.6, Treble +11.0
- Delay 2.6
- Reverb 5.3

When I want it a bit softer, I only need to reduce the KBD TOUCH to 1 or 0.

IMG_6491.jpeg (3.55 MiB) Viewed 1810 times

IMG_6492.jpeg (2.89 MiB) Viewed 1810 times

Cheers from sunny Germany