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Nord Grand with Kawai Action


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For a stage piano, it would be great to have a button for local off, and another for MIDI transmit on/off.

Korg SV1 gets halfway there with a front panel Local Off button, but a companion MIDI transmit on/off button would have been great. But at least you can add it for $20, an extra MIDI cable, and a bit of velcro... https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/258510836/midi-kill-switch

 

I suppose even just a quick method to switch MIDI send on/off would go a long way in combination the existing split functionality in that case, and turning the internal synth engine down to zero...

Yup, that same box will do it. And I might create selectable Programs with silenced internal sounds, rather than deal with moving the volume controls up and down.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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On the subject of price, I would gladly pay more every time for a flat top keyboard capable of supporting a clone or synth. How much would I pay? How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? How much do I hate 2-tiered stands? Not sure where my limit is but I wouldn't blink at an extra $1K.

 

I've never found a 2-tiered stand I was happy with. The closest was the Invisible, which I foolishly sold (I had 2 of them, sold both!).

 

I thrill to a weighted bottom keyboard with a flat top and front-facing controls. And I have one, it's the Crumar Seven. The Seven isn't perfect (if it was, it'd be a "Ten"). But the physical configuration compensates for a lot of downside including it's price.

 

So, that said, am I interested in the new Nord? Given I already have the Seven, which has the additional advantages of being 73 keys and 33 lbs, probably not. Just saying that I'd love to see more flat top weighted action keyboards. Good on Nord for putting one out.

 

As I stated above, we don't know for sure whether the narrow top of the Nord will support another keyboard, but I'd bet it will, in a "functional overhang" mode.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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I've never found a 2-tiered stand I was happy with. The closest was the Invisible, which I foolishly sold (I had 2 of them, sold both!).

 

I have about six or seven different 2- and 3-tier stands... and my absolute favorite so far is definitely the K&M 18950, which is so easily reconfigurable in height, width (!) and also it is one of the few stands where you can get just about any two keyboards really close together. The Standtastic in my home studio is also great in that regard!

 

I thrill to a weighted bottom keyboard with a flat top and front-facing controls. And I have one, it's the Crumar Seven. The Seven isn't perfect (if it was, it'd be a "Ten"). But the physical configuration compensates for a lot of downside including it's price.

 

So, that said, am I interested in the new Nord? Given I already have the Seven, which has the additional advantages of being 73 keys and 33 lbs, probably not. Just saying that I'd love to see more flat top weighted action keyboards. Good on Nord for putting one out.

 

As I stated above, we don't know for sure whether the narrow top of the Nord will support another keyboard, but I'd bet it will, in a "functional overhang" mode.

 

I rehearsed with my Legend Live and Stage 3 compact yesterday. I put a rubber mat on the top of the Legend, and then a thin wooden board on top of that, and in turn the Stage 3 compact. So with the wooden board it really doesnt matter how the rubber feet of the Stage 3 is placed - it gets quite stable regardless of that. Without the rubber mat and board, the Stage 3 doesn't sit so good on top of the Legend...

Too much stuff, too little time, too few gigs, should spend more time practicing...!  🙄

main instruments: Nord Stage 3 compact, Yamaha CP88, Kurzweil PC4, Viscount KeyB Legend Live

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  • 1 month later...
i do have an M-Audio Keystation 49 which i can put on top of the Nord Grand surface and use it to control Omnisphere./quote]

 

This approach puzzles me. If you're running a software rig, why do you need a premium hardware instrument? The sounds you can get in software will far exceed the Nord capabilities. I get that:

1. You want a premium action. That's what the Kawai VPC1 is for. Plenty of other options.

2. You want backup sounds in case the software crashes. But they don't have to be top-flight sounds - just enough to get you through the gig.

 

I'm not knocking the decision, the Nord Grand looks like a great way to deliver a premium instrument. It's just that if you have to sell something else to get it, you may be trying to solve the wrong problem...

 

Just my £0.015

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Because i'm sick and tired of holding my left ear with my right hand when playing piano. Even with vsts and a controller, the connection is still lacking compared to a hardware machine with 88 keys and good piano sounds. It all goes back to a mistake i made back in 2011, when i bought a kronos 61 instead of an 88. Who knows, maybe if i did, i wouldn't be making this decision now.

 

But the biggest reason is that the Kronos doesn't inspire me as a pianist/composer anymore. After 8 years, i can hear the Kronos German Grand in my sleep because of how much i used it.

 

Gigs: Not much at the moment. Getting ready to release my solo piano album later this summer and hopefully doing a local tour promoting it. Some venues might have a grand piano and some maybe don't and i want one machine to use when promoting the album.

 

We all have our reasons.

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Got it.

 

Good luck in your quest. Nord's reputation for FTE connection is obviously subjective, but not the highest. Try a Yamaha CP4 (end-of-line or second hand) for comparison? You may not need to sell your Kronos.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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  • 3 months later...

I quite liked the White Grand in that video - it's got a slightly "upright-y" character, boxy and compact, rather than all-dominating like a grand. And I didn't hear any thinning out two octaves above middle C, which is the usual Nord problem.

 

Playing was indeed wonderful.

 

42lb is too heavy for me, but relatively competitive with CP88 at 41lb and others.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Enjoyed the playing, didn't pay attention what piano he was using.

 

Same here. The piano sound was good enough that I ended up focusing on what the musician was doing vs. trying to dissect the instrument with my ears. More than good enough for me, although I'm going to have to think carefully about the weight.

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His playing was indeed enjoyable in a way piano demo videos seldom are. That's why I watched the whole thing. Of course you can watch hundreds of videos like this but the only way to know if you'll like a digital piano is by playing it. I'd like to play the Nord Grand side by side with a CP88, that would probably qualify as a shootout of the best sub-45 lb DP slabs. The CP88 so stellar I'd have to label the Nord the underdog going into that fight, at least for me.

 

One thing I noted in the video is that he seems to be largely a middle-of-the-keyboard player, at least in this brief sample. And he values a light weight board, so he might be happy with a 73 or 76 that shaves off a few lbs. It would be great if every time a manufacturer issues a CP or a Nord Grand, they also make a 7x version. That's the world I want to live in someday.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Well, I gotta say, the combination of action, sound, and physical presence (like the Crumar Seven, it looks more like my Wurlitzer than like a typical digital keyboard, and I love me a flat-ish top and angled controls) is super enticing for me. It'd be a lot heavier than my Privia, but lighter than the VPC-1, and built-in sounds, too!

 

But even though it's less expensive than I anticipated, I just don't see myself upgrading to one at that price point. So it goes!

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, my Nord Grand arrived last week while I was overseas on business. So, I had a bit of a present waiting for me on my return! I got it out and have spent a few hours with it. My initial impressions follow. I purchased it to be the lower tier of a live rig. The flat top is specifically useful to me. The fact that I can load in my own synth samples is specifically useful. That it has a Kawai action and not Fatar was very important to me. The lower tier is about AC piano for me, so aftertouch and other things just didn't matter. The fact that it came with a triple pedal and triple sensor were both factors. If it is to be a piano, then be one! I do use the sostenuto pedal on my RX-7, so why not have it on the Nord? This is for a laptop rig, so all the splits and layers will be done in Gig Performer. So, I was not put off by the minimal MIDI implementation Nord seems to think is useful.

 

I purchased it without playing it. But, I have owned Yamaha P-series before, and played most of the boards on the market, including the Kawai MP7 and MP11. I have long appreciated both Yamaha and Kawai actions (and the Roland RD-2000). So I wasn't too concerned about feel. If it matched MP7, I'd be happy. I do not care for the Fatar weighted actions and avoid them for piano action. I do like the Fatar 8/S premium synth action, however (its on the Solaris, Quantum, etc). I played the CP88 recently, and found that in the CP88, the only sounds I really liked were the AP's - and not being able to change the other sounds was a limitation. The action on the CP88 was fine.

 

The weight others have mentioned is no bother to me. It is lightweight compared to something like a Kronos 88. I had no trouble maneuvering it. I do wish Nord had already released a new soft bag for it. I will wait for their bag, as I don't really want a 30lb case for it.

 

Presentation/Quality. The instrument is pleasingly solid and well built. On my custom Gibraltar stand, it is rock solid. It is as stable as my Kawai RX-7 - nothing moves except the keys. I didn't expect to think "this is nice" with an electronic instrument, but it is elegant for what it is. My 8 year old daughter said, "It looks good". So there you have it.

 

Keys/Action/Feel. It feels great. It is almost indistinguishable from my RX-7. The Nord Grand feels just a smidge lighter - I bet it would weigh off about the same, but there is just more friction in wood parts. Most importantly, it can play softly. So many inexpensive keyboards just can't play softly, and even light playing generates MIDI 50-60's. It's like throwing half the dynamic range away! This can play softly under control, and like anything else generate "127s" without strain. The keys themselves feel great. Whatever "ivory touch" they have is quite nice. The action is "fast" and is not in the way for runs and flourishes. There's plenty of room for anyone to prefer something different, but honestly, if you can't play expressively on this, it isn't the instrument's fault. The MP11SE or Kawai CA-98 might be nicer, but they are in different categories and not suitable for this portable purpose. I'll play a Yamaha P515 on Wed or Thursday this week and be able to compare, but I expect both to be fully adequate for my purpose. The Nord Grand is a better form factor than the P515 for my purposes.

 

Acoustic Piano Sounds. The new White Grand is a good sample for live playing. It is definitely a very close miked sound. I'd prefer a bit more space and maybe a tiny bit less brightness from close miking, but this is also what makes it a good sample for live playing. It will sound great in a mix. I was playing through my Fulcrum PA at about the same volume as my acoustic piano. My wife came downstairs and asked if I'd been playing the Nord yet. When I responded that's pretty much all I've been playing, she said, "From upstairs I couldn't tell the difference". There's decent variety in the Nord Piano library. None are "state-of-the-art". But if I need that, I can put the Ravenscroft or VSL Synchron Steinway on the laptop. The Synchron Steinway defines state of the art. The uprights have interesting and useful character.

 

I have a Kawai RX-7 a few feet from the Nord Grand. The sound character of the White Grand is definitely familiar. The big difference to recording my piano is that the Nord Grand is hyper clean. The "string resonance" is much less than what occurs on a real grand, or even a state-of-the-art large piano library like Vienna Synchron Steinway. So, this provides a "clarity" of sorts. This is probably better for live use in a band anyway. For pure solo piano, it's probably 25% of what my RX-7 does. Part of this is likely also tuning related. The Nord sample is, of course, completely perfectly tuned. My RX-y is tuned regularly , but is probably not as "in tune" at any given time as the Nord sampling session - perhaps right after it is tuned. So a bit of thickness from tuning and a real soundboard are the two differences that I hear. I've spent a lot of time recording and miking up my piano, so these were obvious to me, but might be a lot less so to someone else if you don't have experience sampling and recording pianos.

 

The other immediate difference to my RX-7 is the sample length. For normal live playing purposes the Nord Grand is fine. But if you take the G above middle C, my RX-7 will ring out for about 25 seconds with or without the sustain pedal. The Nord Grand is gone after 3 seconds or so played without sustain, and 6-7 sec with the sustain pedal. This is where a piano sample of a few hundred MB is just necessarily limited. In practical playing it is adequate, but it does show how they can fit so many pianos into 2GB- they aren't really very long samples. I suppose it helps with polyphony as well - if the note is done, the oscillator is free again.

 

The Nord "soft, mid, bright" control makes a definite difference. The soft is not quite a felted piano, but it takes off both attack and high end. The "bright" adds high and removes low. The "mid" puts in a mid bump. I'm not sure where I'd use it, but it puts a fairly narrow 1-2 octave boost around middle C. I can see using the "soft" as an effect.

 

E-piano sounds. Adequate, but not exceptional. My go to is the "Canterbury Rhodes" sample put out by Sonic Couture, and it is on my laptop. So the Nord e-pianos are fine for "take only one board" purposes. And that's all I'd ask them to be. If I was only playing e-piano and it was the core of my sound, I would personally have other samples in mind. But these are quite usable.

 

All other sounds. Uninteresting to me (except the basses - which are useful). I will probably remove almost all. My plan is to sample a few things from my OB-6 and Solaris and put my own default synth pads in place. The included synths are pretty close to "bad, flat ROMpler sounds", in my opinion. When playing with "one board", I'd prefer to load in my own. When playing with full rig, I'll use the OB-6 or other devices. I don't plan to play horns or orchestral parts on this keyboard, so the weakness here is not very important to me, but may be to you. I'm used to hearing professional orchestral sample libraries that are 100's of GB in size. No keyboard sounds are going to sound "good" to me at this point, so it isn't a decision making point for me.

 

UI. The overall Nord UI is easy and fast. No manual required, and it just works. They really do get the most important things immediately accessible. I don't understand having a synth section without a filter knob, but other than that, the desired things are easy to get to. The rear panel is simplicity itself. This is an instrument for playing, not tweaking or deep customization. It really is a piano, and for a piano it has a lot of features. But for a synth/rompler, it is devoid of many things. Horses for courses....

 

FX. Convenient. Not as good as a Blue Sky reverb, or an Eventide H9 pedal. But convenient and adequate. If I get picky, I have other things that are much better. But for emergency "one board" use? perfectly adequate.

 

So, I am happy with it. It will serve me very well for many years as a portable piano, and weighed controller in a laptop rig. The action is as good as I've played (its been a while since I played the MP-11...), and certainly won't stop me from doing anything I can do on my RX-7 at home. When playing the White Grand, the touch-to-sound is wonderful. The instrument is very responsive and dynamically interesting. This is an instrument that you quickly explore and then it is all about playing. this one isn't for tweaking and getting lost for hours making sounds. It is for playing. And playing piano at that.

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Wow, that was quite the review, thanks for taking the time to bring your personal experience and clarity to so many different aspects of the value of this board for you! I'd rather read a great review like yours that has a point of view (your points of comparison and what you're looking for), than a review that tries to be all things to all people.

 

I think by now there's enough people who would buy the Nord Grand who know that you get the ultimate sound quality from vsts, so the disfavorable comparison is not a real knock. I'll bet Clavia would actually promote a review like yours, 'cause, if nothing else, you said the weight wasn't bad, it looks rockin', you didn't need to read a manual, the piano was very responsive and dynamically interesting, a piano you could play quietly as needed, and it has a freakin flat top! High praise indeed!

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f you take the G above middle C, my RX-7 will ring out for about 25 seconds with or without the sustain pedal. The Nord Grand is gone after 3 seconds or so played without sustain, and 6-7 sec with the sustain pedal. This is where a piano sample of a few hundred MB is just necessarily limited. In practical playing it is adequate, but it does show how they can fit so many pianos into 2GB- they aren't really very long samples. I suppose it helps with polyphony as well - if the note is done, the oscillator is free again.

This is surprising, that the total decay length is different when holding a key without sustain pedal compared to how long it sustains with the sustain pedal. Not only is that not how a real piano works, but there would be no "savings of megabytes" by having a shorter and a longer version compared to just using the longer version (and in fact, even a 25 second version doesn't have to take any more megabytes than a 3 second or 7 second version, since they can employ looping). So that's a really interesting observation. My guess is that you're on the right track that they are manipulating the decay length in different circumstances to maximize available polyphony.

 

E-piano sounds. Adequate, but not exceptional. My go to is the "Canterbury Rhodes" sample put out by Sonic Couture, and it is on my laptop. So the Nord e-pianos are fine for "take only one board" purposes. And that's all I'd ask them to be. If I was only playing e-piano and it was the core of my sound, I would personally have other samples in mind. But these are quite usable.

I haven't yet used their newest EP sample sets, but based on the earlier ones, I found I could improve them quite a bit (to my taste) with the front panel EQ. Though I've wished I could combine the gentler strikes from one of their sample sets with the bark from one of the others!

 

 

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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I think by now there's enough people who would buy the Nord Grand who know that you get the ultimate sound quality from vsts, so the disfavorable comparison is not a real knock.

 

Exactly! The main thing is that the keys/action feel fantastic and offer a full range of expression. That's what I need the hardware to do. Software can't fix or upgrade hardware or sensor problems! I will happily pay for great haptics. I can make the sounds be whatever I desire in the laptop. And, it should also be said, that for many uses, the built-in sounds would work and cover a gig. I'm glad that you picked up on the comparative nature of my comments and didn't take them as an absolute.

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I haven't yet used their newest EP sample sets, but based on the earlier ones, I found I could improve them quite a bit (to my taste) with the front panel EQ. Though I've wished I could combine the gentler strikes from one of their sample sets with the bark from one of the others!

 

Good to know! I will be sure to explore that. I quickly turned the knobs to make sure everything was working, but I didn't go through individual sounds yet and see what I can pull out. Their samples are well done - they just aren't exhaustive like the big multi-GB libraries in the laptop. But Nord really does an amazing job in a compact space - they target a very specific part of the market and serve it well. I'm just thrilled that they paired up with Kawai to access a top shelf action.

 

With respect to the sample length - I am sure they sample pedal up/pedal down separately. It's the only way to get the pedal down samples to sound right. So they could sample them to different lengths. I'll look in the menus in case there is some option to extend the loops or sample playback...

 

 

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Watch this space. When I finally break down and buy a Nord Grand, this will be the signal for Clavia to immediately announce the newer version.

 

Great review, Nathanael.

 

Chuck,

 

If you think of it as a piano with some extra features, rather then as a weighted controller or all-in-one, it isn't really clear what they would upgrade any time soon. As much as I agree with some of the early comments about the things that would've been nice in the MIDI implementation, having wheels, etc; the truth is that as a piano, it isn't going to go obsolete anytime soon. As long as the action is still sending quality MIDI, it will likely be doing the job I paid for. Given how slowly Nord adds flash RAM to their products, that just won't become a reason to upgrade. I can put 4TB of SSD and 32GB of RAM into a new MBP with an 8 core processor... Now if they suddenly put in 16GB and let me use most of it for one really nice AP and one really nice EP? That would get attention. Or if they put the Kawai action in the Stage (which I can't see their product managers doing given how they segment their product line).

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FFor some reason, the Nord Pianos I have played all have avoided that numb feeling I get on my Stages.
I wonder how much of a factor the lack of aftertouch might be.

 

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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FFor some reason, the Nord Pianos I have played all have avoided that numb feeling I get on my Stages.
I wonder how much of a factor the lack of aftertouch might be.

I think you have this right. Also, on an acoustic piano, the keys bottom on the wooden keybed. In the Nord Grand, there is no damping material to make the keyboard quieter. So the keys bottom in a way that is very much like an acoustic piano. The Yamaha P-515, for instance, plays almost silently. But the key at the bottom feels "padded". It is. And that doesn't feel the same as an acoustic piano. So, I think aftertouch strips and attempts to quiet the acoustic noises of a hammer action all contribute to feeling less like an acoustic piano.

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As I continue to learn the instrument, I am very pleased with the action. The action is better than the Nord Piano Library samples can demonstrate. Using a MIDI monitor, it is quite possible to play MIDI values in the teens consistently and evenly. Playing my RX7 this softly has significant timbre implications. The tone softens as well as diminishing in volume. On the RX-7, pp is a distinctly different timbre than p. The Nord samples pretty much start at an mp timbre and go up. The lower timbral layers are just not in the sample, and the brightness is accentuated by the very close mic positions used. To get softer, the sostenuto pedal brings it down, and one can use the EQ to soften it more, but it still isn't quite the same as having sample data. The Nord samples seem optimized for modern genre's where the softest layers really aren't needed. The piano gets very bright and loud in the upper layers and it is clearly optimized with more detail in the upper end than the lower end of the velocity range. This is likely the right choice, but it does again point out where they've saved sample space by under-sampling the instrument.

 

So, I turned off the Nord piano section, and loaded up Keyscape and the Yamaha C7 sample it features. I turned off all the effects and EQ so it was just the raw sample and a little reverb. Now the lower layers were all present, and the timbral variations one expects from low velocity playing were all present. I switched over to Pianoteq, and the same thing - soft playing had all the color shifts expected. It's MIDI monitor confirmed that I was playing under 25 consistently, and able to make accents in the 30 range easily. Now, I don't practice to make a MIDI monitor behave - but having control at lower velocities is what you get out of a big grand AND an excellent digital piano action. Control at lower velocities is what I find missing on budget weighted actions. This is of no concern for banging out rock and roll, but for more acoustic work, there is a lot of nuance and expression down there.

 

So, that's why I say that the action is better than the Nord Piano library - the instrument is more expressive than its own samples can demonstrate. Changing to other grand piano samples on the Nord can also shift the timbre, but there's no one sample that covers the tonal range of my RX-7. The big software pianos fill this in, however. So in the context of a laptop rig, this Nord Grand is a wonderful controller keyboard for large libraries.

 

Interestingly, the Yamaha P-515 sample doesn't have this limitation - it has samples for the lower layers and gets softer as expected. It doesn't have as good an action feel in an absolute sense, but it is a more complete instrument where internal sounds are concerned. That CFX sample is definitely better than anything in the Nord library.

 

I haven't loaded the VSL Synchron Steinway onto my laptop, but I may connect the Nord Grand up to the composing rig just to play that sample. I suspect it is a delightful experience. That sample is amazingly realistic and expressive. (It is also massive).

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I think the number of samples on a given key is the same on XL as in smaller Nord sample sets. The difference from the smaller sets is that more (all?) of the keys have their own samples (as opposed to being stretched from adjacent keys), and that (unlike S and M) the pedal-down samples are employed over the full 88 keys.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Nathanael, great review!

 

You"re helping me understand why I can connect with the CP4 but couldn"t connect with the Stage 2 HA88 I had for years. Thank you.

 

I don"t think I"ll be getting a Nord Grand because I"m at an age where weight is becoming more and more important, but I"ll definitely check out the White Grand (on my Electro 4D triggered by the CP4) and the VSL Steinway.

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Are you seeing this lack of soft detail on the Nord even with the XL sample sets?

 

Yes. I think the L/M/S samples are solving a problem that I don't have, or at least don't want to have. The piano is a very complex instrument, and it is difficult to sample it well. From a sampling perspective, there is not really a way to make small instruments that capture what a grand piano can do. I've explored sampling my Kawai, and the samples become more and more alive the more detail is added. Skipping keys (say minor 3rds) really flattens the sound of the instrument. Recording ~20 velocity layers per note opens up the resulting instrument wonderfully, and allows one to capture the lightest touch that will produce a sound to thundering away. It isn't surprising, but my experience is that more sample data is better. The deeper the sampling, the more connected the playing experience feels. There is probably some upper limit, but this is a case that generally more data is more realism. I would prefer to have one truly excellent piano sample than a whole bunch of different ones at lower quality, but I can accept that this isn't Nord's market, and that there is usefulness in being able to change the sound.

 

But to consider what state-of-the-art brings, lets think about what the Vienna Symphonic Library accomplished last year. VSL took this to extremes with the Synchron Steinway D-274. They built a robotic finger that could generate over 100 different velocity levels, and they sampled the piano at .5dB increments, measured acousticaly. This is better than any human can play consistently. I can generate about 50dB of dynamic range sampling my piano. This is honestly more dynamic range than is useful. This involves making the smallest possible sound - just barely triggering the hammer, with the una corda pedal down, to the loudest possible sound I can make with the sustain pedal down. Even fussy classical recordings don't usually have more than 35dB of dynamic range. So VSL created a system that can FULLY sample the piano across its entire acoustic envelope. In practice, most playing doesn't need anywhere near 50dB of range to record on my RX-7. It is also true that no live playing situation including solo piano would need 50dB of dynamic range. But it does illustrate just how capable an acoustic grand piano is and why they are so difficult to sample with excellence. To really get at the lower shadings of an acoustic grand instrument, sampling the una corda pedal extensively is required. In addition to the extreme dynamic range in the samples themselves, VSL also recorded extreme dynamics for the release velocities and pedal noises. The dampers do sound different released fast or slow, and they put all this into the samples as well. So the fact that it feels natural to play is not an accident - the sample data contains as complete an envelope of what the instrument is acoustically capable of as has been done to date.

 

Whether one likes Steinway pianos or this particular one is a separate issue. I do believe that they have set the mark of technical excellence with this instrument. No one has sampled a piano this extensively before and released it as a product for sale.

 

This is a huge amount of data. It took VSL several years to do this project. I have no expectation that Nord would do this. That's not my point. My point is to illustrate just how much work and space it takes to truly capture the nuance of an acoustic concert grand piano and why hardware instruments often have such variable playing connection. They mostly just lack sample data, even if they have the best physical mechanisms. What the hardware manufacturers do to fool the hand and ear with vastly reduced data sets is impressive engineering. Figuring out what to leave out and how to compensate for it is their art.

 

We can't exactly know from what VSL publishes, but accounting for the various mic positions and pedal positions, I'm estimating that the finished instrument is around 60 velocity layers per key on average, with all pedals fully sampled at every dynamic. They say up to 100 per note, so they likely put more detail into the most played areas, which is an entirely sensible decision. The top keys just don't say as much as middle-C tonally or musically. The installed library is 266GB in size at 48khz with all the mic positions. With a more basic set of stereo mic positions, it is 118GB, so this is not going to fit in RAM easily. But streamed from SSD? This is not a lot of cost ($50-80 on Amazon for a 512GB SSD at retail price).

 

We may not see anyone put that kind of resources into a portable keyboard instrument. As long as the hardware manufacturers keep making better and better physical interfaces, thankfully we can sort the software side on our own. But we appear to live in a world that you can't have the best action and the best sample without some personal integration.

 

 

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