Nord User Forum

I was reflecting that Nord has carved out its signature products and kept the same naming convention over the decades with pretty much all of their instruments, simply adding an incremental number for the newest iteration.

We have the Nord Lead that seemed to have stalled around Nord Lead 4, though along the way there was the NL2X, NLA1, and some rack variations.

We have the Nord Electro that is now up to its 7th generation and aptly named the Electro 7.

We have the Organ 3, the Piano 6, the Stage 4, the Drum 3 (I think that's where it left off). Perhaps a few I missed and some discontinued items like the Modular.

Unless I missed it, I think most other manufacturers will maybe do a sequel or an updated version like the Motif XS and Motif XF, though now it's the MODX or Montage taking over the name in lieu of Motif 4, Motif 5, etc. I guess there is some goodness from a fresh brand name along with fresh new features.

It just struck me that Nord is doing something rather intentional here with their product naming convention. Interesting? Boring? I'm not sure.

Funny the first thing I thought of was Korg, who just simply use the same name. Kronos has been used on 3 or 4 generations of the product.

Only similar example I can think of is Kurzweil, who used the SPx and PCx designations on a line of products.

But Yamaha and Roland seem to add new suffixes to the product name to delineate.

Rusty Mike wrote: 20 Jan 2026, 02:02 Funny the first thing I thought of was Korg, who just simply use the same name. Kronos has been used on 3 or 4 generations of the product.

Only similar example I can think of is Kurzweil, who used the SPx and PCx designations on a line of products.

But Yamaha and Roland seem to add new suffixes to the product name to delineate.

Good call out on Kurzweil. I think they had at least four versions of the PCx like PC2, PC3, PC4, if memory serves.

Korg went through a lot of interesting names back in the M1 era, which went to T1, then I think 01/W and a few variations in those numbers before they had the Triton, Triton Extreme, LE, and similar.

I still think Nord is the only company doing a simple increment of numbering to the new versions for basically all of their products. Regardless of the accuracy of my theory, is there any other keyboard product in the entire history of the wide wide world that has made it to *SEVEN*???

Funny it made me think of Apple and the iPhone. Some people like to quip that Nord is just like Apple.

As a consumer I love Nord’s simple and straightforward approach.

The only downside in my opinion is for resale, as a distant old model can be perceived as antiquated, even if it’s still quite capable.

Microsoft puts the year of release at the end of their Windows Server product versions, but has used (non-year) numbers for their Windows Client product versions (7, 8, 10, 11).