Nord User Forum

Pretty much sums up the title. NE3 has been really solid for me. I really love the piano and organ samples on this thing, but as this year has passed by, I'm really looking for something that's got more capability on the synth side without sacrificing much on the piano, wurly and organ sounds.

I've read that the Nord wave can use piano, wurly and organ samples in the samples library or custom samples imported. So I am willing to compromise on those. I also just need a keyboard that's really portable (49 keys) and has the pitch bend capability.

I just need some opinion if anyone has ever been in the same situation as I do. Or better, have both products.

Please understand that the Wave has Sample memory, but it does not have a Piano partition, so it cannot load the piano samples from the Nord Site. You can always sample a piano and load it, but there is no place in the Wave for the large Piano samples as there is in the Electro. Essentially, the Wave will never have the same quality piano sounds as the Electro.

You might consider trading for a Stage 2, as that would have everything you want.

-dj

I was wondering if I there are decent custom piano, wurly and organ samples out there that ready to download import to the wave and if there is, where can I find them? I just wanna make sure that I have the resources and compromise before trading in my NE3.

I'd love to have the stage 2 but it wouldn't be as portable as the 61 keys NE3 nor the Wave.

Well, there is a forum with user samples by the users here, but there is not a lot of development for the Wave as far as I can tell:

http://www.norduserforum.com/nord-user- ... mples-f14/

You can check and see what might work for you. You can download them into your Electro and see if they will suffice in another board going forward.
I sampled the B3 from my Stage 2, so you will find that sample there.

The Wave has been discontinued and may not be easy to find, new or used.

The NS2 SW73 is a little longer, but only weighs 21 lbs. With a gig bag, it is easier to carry than most other boards.

Good luck!

-dj

Ok Thanks.
Actually, I just spoke to the keyboards section at my local music store. He made a pretty good case that it is much better to add to the arsenal than to replace the NE3. It also costs as if I'm buying another NE3 if I traded mine for a Wave.

Yes, that will open up a number of possibilities, then you will have different characters of sound.

-dj

If you're replacing your NE3 with a Wave, yet still expect a similar quality of piano sounds, then I think you're setting yourself up for a major disappointment. The Wave is a great synthesizer and it is pretty good at 'impersonating' other instruments, but it can't create a convincing piano sound like the Nord Electro, Stage and Piano keyboards can - it is simply not made for that.

Adding a Wave to your NE3 or maybe trying to exchange your NE3 for a used Stage 2 would be a much better idea (not cheap though).

I'd get a stage ex. They are 1/2 of the price secondhand and a lot more than 1/2 of the Stage2.

I may be wrong, but I believe that the Wave samples do not allow multiple velocities to switch the sample set, whereas the Nord Piano samples do? This is of course a vital part of a sampled piano.

Cornopean wrote:I may be wrong, but I believe that the Wave samples do not allow multiple velocities to switch the sample set, whereas the Nord Piano samples do? This is of course a vital part of a sampled piano.

You're absolutely right. You can have a maximum of one sample per key, not four like on the Yamaha Motif or Roland Fantom. On the other hand, the piano sounds on the Nord products with a piano section (Stage, Electro and Piano) are more sophisticated than simply using (up to) four samples per key. From what I understood, they're using up to seven samples per key and do some clever mixing between those, so you can't hear the transition from one sample to another (based on velocity).

On pianoworld.com they did in in-depth analysis of the piano sounds on different products (including the Nord Piano, or maybe it was a Stage 2) and I'm in the paragraph above pretty much just coughing some things I read in their DPBSD project pages.

With a few small exceptions, the Wave is like the synth section of the Stage 2, but on steroids (the synth section of the Stage 2 seems to be a slimmed-down version of the Wave). If you get a Wave, don't do it for sounds that are traditionally sampled. Instead, get it for awesome lead sounds, the virtual-analog functionality and strange combinations (i.e. a sampled instrument like the awesome Mellotron sounds in combination with the use of filters and envelopes).