Nord’s piano actions

[Ecaroh]

Hi,

Nowadays it’s quite rare to have a chance to really test and compare hardware like digital pianos. That’s why I’d like to have comments on Nord current line piano action: Stage 4, Piano 6 and Grand 2. Is there significant difference? All of them have 3 sensor actions. I believe that Stage 4 and Piano 6 have quite similar touch but Grand is a bit more real piano like. Last time I had chance to play shortly Grand 2 it felt ok but perhaps not that much different compared to others. Of course this is highly subjective but still I’d like hear others (perhaps with more testing time spent) opinions about them.

[pianoharri]

I haven’t tested np6 but I had a chance to compare np5 and ns4 a while ago. Their difference was somewhat bigger than I expected. To me ns4 felt noticeably lighter. Being mainly a piano player I ended up buying np5, but I understand that the lighter action of ns4 may be a better compromise for mixed piano/organ/synth use. Also I haven’t tested ng2, but I tested ng1 and liked it a lot - it’s just a too heavy instrument for my use.

[ZeroZero]

Your right, testing the piano in a shop is almost, fruitless, and oftenv misleading. For me it takes at least a month to understand an action and get those tiny micro muscles in the fingers to adapt. Also the acoustics in shops is often appauling at best and like using a cheese sandwich to test whether you like a ham sandwich. The best way I found, is to get a long money-back period, Thomann do thirty days. Recently I bought a Roland Stage, this is a wonderful board and all round better than the Stage 4, if you like Roland's sounds, again it's ear. Harder to play organ though, so mine went back.

[Gambold]

User cphollis pointed out that selecting a piano action can be purpose-driven...if you are a live performance player using your board for three hours at a stretch, a lighter action can be preferable to a heavier "real" one that might be more suited for home playing and practice.

Plus of course heavier actions mean heavier keyboards, which can add to the load-in and load-out drudge of live work.