Nord User Forum

First post, I want to hear a quick sound off about what users have loaded for samples! I have an 4D on the way...from what I see the sample library is massive and auditioning sounds on the 4D is somewhat cumbersome. A sound-off of sorts.

Using the 4D for the vintage mechanical board sounds. I'm primarily a jazz/blues/soul player. What's a good piano sound for a group blues setting? Professor Longhair New Orleans style? A solo jazz setting? How do you feel the string resonance samples affect sounds? What do you prefer for the sm/m/l/xl on piano samples? A Rhodes sample for a group setting, George Duke style? That old school gritty B3 with green slime that electrocutes you every once in a while, Jimmy Smith?

I've been browsing the forums and sample libraries already and have a general idea, but what do YOU find yourself using on stage? What samples do you recommend I start with? Where do you recommend I start when I start auditioning samples to replace the factory patches? Which ones would you replace?

Just need a good jumping off point, completely new to Nord and their samples/sounds.

Thanks for your input!

Welcome to the forum!

However you may receive more responses by asking your question in the Electro forum.
The User Samples forum is largely for folks to post their own samples...not really to comment on the stock Clavia samples.

Best of luck!
James
x

Cute James wrote:However you may receive more responses by asking your question in the Electro forum.

Good point; I moved it to the Electro section.

Thanks for the help guys I'll play closer attention next time, also feel free to comment on user created sample preferences as well. Things I should not pass over, i.e. I caught the FunKey sample and love it.

It seems no one really answered your question, so here's my input. I play keyboards in a soul/pop cover band, and I use a NE4HP (which I simply love) and an old NL2. The sounds I use mostly on the NE are:
- EPiano 1 with stereo panning and some eq and compressor. This works well for tunes like Rock with you and I wish.
- EPiano 2 with twin amp. Works well for funky playing, like Brick house.
- EP5 Bright with panning and chorus. Slick tunes like Keep forgetting.
- CP80 with chorus and eq. Slick tunes like What a fool believes, Never too much.
- The new Upright Grand Piano is great for soul ballads like Let's get it on and Easy! I added a bit of eq to remove some bass and add some treble.
- Hammond split 888 lower and 888211225 upper. I use this as a starting point most of the time, and adjust the drawbars and overdrive during the songs to get more bite. Sometimes I add chorus or perc to the upper sound for solo playing.

Good luck with your Nord!
/Anders

Hi AgeOleSun,

well, it took me some time, too, to listen my way through the sample library and piano library.
If it helps, here are some hints from my side:

1. Look at the songs you wanna play throughout the next weeks. What instruments do you need? Especially look at these sections at the nord website or at your DVDs with the sound library (piano lib./sample lib.) I cannot tell you what you think sounds cool to you. (By the way, the best way to really differentiate between the many existing nord sounds is by using a good pair of headphones. I like the beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro very much, for example, but there possibly are thousands of opinions about that issue).

2. You might save time in finding some favourite sounds by just listening at the nord sound demos at the official nord website. Very often they tell you what they play in the sound demos so that you don't have to download sounds and then play etc. (time-consuming)
Then you pick some first sounds. Don't get lost in too many details.

3. Concerning the organ part, I found an Excel Chart about some famous B3 settings - I think even on this website here.
B3 Drawbar Settings

4. Acoustic Pianos often take out a lot of space. (And the NE4d memory space is so damn limited... )
I personally favour the biggest Grand Lady D and the biggest Yamaha Studio Grand 2. In my opinion you don't really need an upright piano then - but you can find out by just trying them. (The pianos you should try out on your machine, not via listening at the sound demos on the website, in my opinion.)

5. Just listen to you favourite E-Pianos - I downloaded E Piano 1 and 2 (and the not so great Wurli - but it's better having a Wurli than not having one...)

6. For this I had to make some space and so I got rid of the classical harpsicord and took the smallest existing one (I think it was the Italian...)

7. String sounds.... oh well, you must find out, but I favour the version 5 strings in the nord sample library directory
8. For the synths just pick 2 or the of the factory library in your sample memory. There might be much better ones for you personally, but you have to find them first

And please try to keep (written) track of your trials and errors of searching for -your- favourite sounds: Write it down. Roughly. By doing so you omit to look again and again through the same folders...

Good luck with your adventure

- Matt




I don't know

Forget the original Wurlis. They suck.

The new one ("Amped") is really nice, though.