Nord User Forum

Hi,

While downloading new Astoria Grand sound and puzzling my head what to take out from my Nord I came up with an idea. (Maybe I am not the first one ...?)

How about if Nord would release a plugin version of their pianos (for a start ? I mean that you could hook up your Nord with usb to computer and play Nord piano sounds from your computer. This might be very helpful because it can be laborious to delete and download sounds to Nord to test. To develop this idea even further Nord might make a plugin so you could easily play and record Nord pianos to DAWs and check afterwards what sound you wanna actually use etc. Now, somebody would probably think this might compromise Nords brand crown jewel, piano library, to mass use. If this is problem then app/plugin might need to have hardware Nord connected it to work.

What do you think? Is this just nonsense?

If the plugin requires the hardware to be hooked up, there really isn’t any incentive to develop it, since you can already control and record your hardware in the DAW.

I don't think this will happen as it's always a risk if you give your code out of your hands. Using existing Nord gear as a copyright dongle would probably not mean to have a valuable security against copyright fraud: There aren't any password generators included inside our instruments, and recreating a fake standard answer of a Nord with a small app wouldn't be that wild of a task.

So, we probably will continue to decide ourselves which pianos we want to load. That's a problem most Yamaha, Roland etc. users don't have - as there isn't as much variation to choose from.

analogika wrote: 19 Dec 2025, 12:40 If the plugin requires the hardware to be hooked up, there really isn’t any incentive to develop it, since you can already control and record your hardware in the DAW.

To me there are are two reasons why this would make sense:
First, you could test drive the whole Nord Piano library with your own hands before you actully choose what to have in your hardware. Differences are subtle and it’s not easy to pick up the best for a special purpose.
In DAW environment this would be even more nice: think about MIDI recording a piano track with Nord and then have a chance to test and choose actual piano sound to play it. Not messing with audio interfaces and cables and everything (including using FXs to sound) is open to modify until finaly you bounce your project.

Of course it would be even more handy if you would not need Nord hooked up to system to make it work but I understand that all this is risky to Nord brand and very likely it’s not going to happen unless they find a way to reserve this just for Nord owners. In general I am just speculating about that. I also understand that users here are more on the gigging side vs. DAW producing so this might not be very desirable new direction to them. But this is in fact quite common nowadays in certain synths to have plugin version of hardware to make DAW usage more straightforward - take Arturia Minifreak as an example

Love this idea. I just wouldn’t want to use my Nord Grand as a dongle. I’d love to be able to load any Nord grand sound as a DAW plugin. I could see that as a really cool product line from Nord - just as I could see a physical MIDI module like the V3 Grand or the old Kurzweil MicroPiano module.

What really frosts my pumpkin is that I’ve still never heard better samples for grands than Nord - and I’ve got hundreds of them. Nord’s pianos (I think especially White and Amber) are just the most realistic, enjoyable samples I’ve used. Having to pay $4K or more to get the “Nord Dongle” (ie, their hardware) isn’t fun.

Convert just a few of their best Grands, Uprights, Rhodes, and Wurlis to a plug in bundle that sells for $99 bucks - that’s got to be an 8-figure injection of cash. The V3 midi module sells for about $500, pack a red MIDI box with the upgradable Nord library for $999 and there’s another multi-million dollar cash infusion.

Maybe Nord worries it will erode their hardware lines but honestly, there’s always going to be a market for their Rolls Royces of gear - they need to capture more markets with Toyotas, Hyundais, and Chevys before they boutique themselves out of existence.

One guy’s $0.02

If the goal is speeding up the time to audition sounds, then I would prefer that the USB be upgraded from 2.0 to 3.0. That way I could replace all 2.5GB of piano and synth samples in 5-10 minutes vs. 90-120 minutes. The added speed would also be helpful when renting a Nord and loading a complete backup.

Ecaroh wrote: 19 Dec 2025, 17:59

analogika wrote: 19 Dec 2025, 12:40 If the plugin requires the hardware to be hooked up, there really isn’t any incentive to develop it, since you can already control and record your hardware in the DAW.

To me there are are two reasons why this would make sense:
First, you could test drive the whole Nord Piano library with your own hands before you actully choose what to have in your hardware. Differences are subtle and it’s not easy to pick up the best for a special purpose.
In DAW environment this would be even more nice: think about MIDI recording a piano track with Nord and then have a chance to test and choose actual piano sound to play it. Not messing with audio interfaces and cables and everything (including using FXs to sound) is open to modify until finaly you bounce your project.

Again: there is no incentive to invest hundreds of man-hours into building, testing, and supporting this software, and then spend the rest of its product life trying to secure the hardware requirement against piracy (which might even require specialised hardware in the Nord itself, since anything else would probably be easily emulated eventually).

Literally the only thing it would eliminate is the discomfort of having to load new pianos onto the Nord. Like, once every few years? (I think I've replaced individual pianos twice since I bought the Nord in 2017.)

Everything else works exactly as you describe it: you plug in the Nord in your studio (if you're "messing with audio interfaces and cable and everything" when simply plugging in a single stereo line-level instrument, I suggest you reassess your setup), and "everything (including using FXs to sound) is open to modify until finally you bounce your project".

You'd rather mess with authorisation, serialisation, the software not working after your DAW or system was updated until Nord can set aside the manpower to adapt their software (or the updated DAW is fixed), higher hardware costs, and less frequent updates and firmware fixes to existing hardware — and possibly delayed product releases — just for a software Nord?

SteveNordP3 wrote: 22 Dec 2025, 15:31 Nord’s pianos (I think especially White and Amber) are just the most realistic, enjoyable samples I’ve used. Having to pay $4K or more to get the “Nord Dongle” (ie, their hardware)

Read that again, slowly. Now, say the coloured part out loud, slowly.

analogika wrote: 23 Dec 2025, 01:00

SteveNordP3 wrote: 22 Dec 2025, 15:31 Nord’s pianos (I think especially White and Amber) are just the most realistic, enjoyable samples I’ve used. Having to pay $4K or more to get the “Nord Dongle” (ie, their hardware)

Read that again, slowly. Now, say the coloured part out loud, slowly.

*Could* Nord do this? Sure. Look at the Roland Cloud, for example.

"Should* Nord do this? Definitely not -- in my opinion.

Apple came to dominate the personal computing landscape by recognizing that hardware and software should work together to deliver a better user experience.

Nord samples running on Nord hardware is a better user experience. As of now, they're pretty much dominant in the performance keyboard category. Why would they screw up a good thing?