Tier keyboard for NS3 88

[kondziorex]

Hi,
I currently have Nord Stage 3 88HA and I absolutely love it, however I find it difficult to play some synth parts and most importantly organs. I was thinking about getting either NS4 compact as tier, or Wave 2 and hooking it up via midi to make use of its waterfall keybed.
What are your thoughts on this?

[cphollis]

Here's what I think?

- Life is easier with a single controlling board vs having to control multiples.
- That controlling board should be on top for easy access
- Most people prefer weighted keybed below, unweighted on top
- The NS4C makes an excellent controller

So, if it was me, I'd put the NS4C on top, and figure out what you want to do for the bottom controller.

Mine is a NP573, but it's overkill. Yours could be a NS388, but that would be super overkill.

[Tasten-Bert]

Hi kondziorex

and first of all a very warm welcome to this great forum of nord enthusiasts.

Since you already own a weighted keyboard what about adding a nord electro 61 or 73 with waterfall keybed?

There are some advantages as you know the sounds and the architecture, you may even use more piano XL files as you can save in both boards different ones and nevertheless control i. e. play them from the one or the other board.

You may even find joy in taking only one board to smaller gigs or rehearsals, probably the lighter one.

Good luck and cheers from Germany

[ajstan]

Welcome to the forum! For my setup, I have an NS3-HA88 on the bottom and an NS3-Compact on the top. Initially, I purchased the Compact as a backup board, but now it's integrated throughout the songs my band plays.

I use the HA88 as my master board for programming sounds, and keep both boards synced via backup/restore with Sound Manager. I make heavy use of Song Mode to follow the setlist for each gig.

The Compact is great for soloing and for parts for which I want to adjust the overall volume of the board - usually the organ - without affecting the other sounds in the program. Having two of the same board is also great for switching between parts of a song and jumping from song to song for medleys. Also, for programming and learning new songs, I just need to program the sound once and don't get locked into having a specific sound on a specific board. I can move sounds around and decide at a later time what I want to play with my left hand and what I want to play with my right hand and what keybed I want to use.

Of course, if you're just looking for a MIDI controller, it's overkill, but having the benefit of a live backup keyboard and a lighter practice board with all of your sounds might make it worth it.