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Sometimes I love Nord


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There's plenty of conversation here about Nord's limitations when it comes to AP, EP, organ etc, and I happily complain that Nord hasn't yet nailed an acoustic piano with the "thickness" in the upper-mids that's required to cut through a mix without harshness. (Yamaha does this in its sleep).

 

Last night though, I was reminded about Nord's occasional brilliance. I'm working up UB40's "Red Red Wine" for a gig in a week, and there's a shimmering polysynth part that I thought would be tricky to program. Nope: FM, dial in modulation to taste on the shape dial. Medium decay, fastish attack. Arpeggiator on rapid, sync delay (giving the sound some "bloom" and swell) and I'm basically there in less than 3 minutes. The other monosynth line in there was also straightforward.

 

For dessert, I programmed a mega patch for Bryan Adams' "Run To You" in no time by simply layering a sampled modular oscillator with a DX7 EP sample. My daughter heard me messing around and asked "what's that from?". I replied "Everything".

 

Bear in mind this is an ageing NS2, not even the 3. It still delivers the goods well enough for everything I need of it.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Agreed. The Nord may not be the very best at any one sound, etc⦠but it"s the best knobby, easy to program all-in-one combination of sounds I"ve used. Wish this technology existed 40 or 50 years ago when I was schlepping a van full of boards and modules! Of course, that was during the prog era, and you needed a half stage full of boards for looks anyway.
I would like to apologize to anyone I have not yet offended. Please be patient and I will get to you shortly.
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I loved the performance-centric layout of my Electro. Nord is also one of the few or only manufacturers that can manage to make metal and wood keyboards without wall warts that are still light.

 

I only sold mine pre-covid because I had a good deal lined up on a Nord Stage 3 compact. Come back and year later and most places are out of stock, and certainly no good deals to be found, so I don't see a NS3 in my future. I could maybe swing it if I sold three keyboards but the thought of going through that ordeal just makes it a non-starter.

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I could maybe swing it if I sold three keyboards
A lot of threads here end up taking a left into "Nord Stage, but it's too expensive", and having to back up on to the highway of cheaper boards. I'm thinking of forumites who have an expensive rig already, and are looking for a lightweight adjunct for a rapid-setup festival gig or similar. My Nord Stage has done me proud in those kinds of situations.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Its fun but no one else besides us keys players cares (the audience, the soundman, the group fellows etc) if the Eps on the Nord a less convincing than the ones in Scarbee or the Hammond simulation in Bx3 is better than the internal sim of the Nord etc etc etc. When the time to set up/tear down comes, I praise my Nord 5D although I know that soundwiwe a MacBook with a well equiped ipad have potentially more sonic arsenal. I always search for better alternatives but I've found none in terms of playability and overall pros vs. cons.
Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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I've never had a problem with Nord EPs, but I'm not a purist in that regard. The Nefertiti Rhodes is my go-to - it lacks some of the tinkles and sparkles of more detailed samples, but I find it works in a mix. I have more of a problem with the APs - if the bandleader nods to me for a solo, I need the two octaves above Middle C to punch reliably without excessively cranking the volume and making ears bleed. As I mentioned, Yamaha have perfected this, Nord is lagging well behind.

 

It's not an EQ problem - if I boost (e.g.) 800Hz it brings out unwanted harmonics from the lower octaves.

 

I found that if I layer a little EP underneath the AP it helps with the punch - at the cost of having something that doesn't sound like an AP for a couple of octaves. Alternatively I use the CP80 - there was a recent thread about "I'm So Excited" which I'm doing for the first time this weekend - I'll use the CP80 for that.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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I've never had a problem with Nord EPs, but I'm not a purist in that regard. The Nefertiti Rhodes is my go-to - it lacks some of the tinkles and sparkles of more detailed samples, but I find it works in a mix. I have more of a problem with the APs - if the bandleader nods to me for a solo, I need the two octaves above Middle C to punch reliably without excessively cranking the volume and making ears bleed. As I mentioned, Yamaha have perfected this, Nord is lagging well behind.

 

It's not an EQ problem - if I boost (e.g.) 800Hz it brings out unwanted harmonics from the lower octaves.

 

I found that if I layer a little EP underneath the AP it helps with the punch - at the cost of having something that doesn't sound like an AP for a couple of octaves. Alternatively I use the CP80 - there was a recent thread about "I'm So Excited" which I'm doing for the first time this weekend - I'll use the CP80 for that.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

 

Well, the EPs were just a paradigm. For some users APs are bad, for others the organs don't bite too much through the mix. Lack of synth multitimbrality on the NE5d is another problem if you want to layer synth sounds. You can find more. But my overall idea is that the Nord is still the go-to keyboard,despite all the cons one can find.

 

bottom line: I ALWAYS love my Nord

Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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Sorry, folks, I can't resist jumping in here. I've been playing a Nord Stage now since the NS2 came out (10 yrs?) and I'll agree with the sentiment.

 

Although one can argue that individual ingredients aren't "the best" (piano samples, organ emulation, single layer sampler, limited synth section, etc.), Nord has figured out how to easily combine all the ingredients so that even a mediocre chef as myself can quickly whip up a tasty meal.

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

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Its fun but no one else besides us keys players cares (the audience, the soundman, the group fellows etc) if the Eps on the Nord a less convincing than the ones in Scarbee or the Hammond simulation in Bx3 is better than the internal sim of the Nord etc etc etc. When the time to set up/tear down comes, I praise my Nord 5D although I know that soundwiwe a MacBook with a well equiped ipad have potentially more sonic arsenal. I always search for better alternatives but I've found none in terms of playability and overall pros vs. cons.

 

 

You aren't wrong. In fact, I reckon I could easily bring buy back my old Motif (or gig with just my Modx) and not a single person would ever notice let alone complain that my organ and synths aren't quite as good as they are now. Basically my rig is more complex with two keyboards and ipad for one person--me. And while it's not a tough rig to set up, one keyboard (with maybe a backup in the car if I was worried) would be that much easier :)

 

The nord stage I now want is the big dog--ha 88--and while I don't mind paying a good bit for a keyboard...that's more than a good bit. Barring a sale, that's 4700 bucks.... I'd have to be doing more gigs with better pay to even think about justifying it. It would make a nice controller for my home setup but frankly so would other keyboards for a lot less.

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I'm a Nord guy, for sure. Bought the Electro 2 when it came out, upgraded to a Stage 88, sold that for a Stage Compact, bought the NS2 Compact in 2011, bought the NS2EX Compact, bought the NS3 Compact. Still have the last three. I've played thousands of gigs and sessions with the original NS2, it's fallen, been rained on and flown all around the US and Europe: I've personally cleaned the contacts probably 10 times, replaced said contacts, several pots and encoders, pitch stick and a drawbutton and it's still working well given all the abuse it's taken.

 

Haven't quite connected with the redesigned Stage 3 (why the hell did they remove "pending load" function?!), so that's why I keep the two 2's. Like many of you, I do this full-time, so I need backups. One thing to bear in mind is that a full keyboard arsenal cost about the price of a modest house 40 years ago. The firepower we get these days for the price is unbelievable.

 

I'll cop to the shortcomings listed above, but for my money it's the most versatile and quickest board around.

 

Edited to add:

I just thought of a quick Nord story from this weekend: I was subbing with a British Invasion band and had to play the recorder (ocarina?) solo from "Wild Thing" by The Troggs. Anyway, while playing along with a distorted Wurli patch, I quickly found the Mellotron recorder sample I had D/Led from the Nord site and added ring modulator in the effects section to get the growl at the end of the solo. The band looked over at me smiling.

 

I also am a frustrated guitarist and take lots of guitar leads using distorted Wurli with certain bands. I play faux pedal steel with a couple country bands, just using the Nord. Most of my gigs are done with just the NS2 Compact, and people always come up to me amazed at what I can extract from it.

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I'm a Nord guy, for sure. Bought the Electro 2 when it came out, upgraded to a Stage 88, sold that for a Stage Compact, bought the NS2 Compact in 2011, bought the NS2EX Compact, bought the NS3 Compact. Still have the last three. I've played thousands of gigs and sessions with the original NS2, it's fallen, been rained on and flown all around the US and Europe: I've personally cleaned the contacts probably 10 times, replaced said contacts, several pots and encoders, pitch stick and a drawbutton and it's still working well given all the abuse it's taken.

 

Haven't quite connected with the redesigned Stage 3 (why the hell did they remove "pending load" function?!), so that's why I keep the two 2's. Like many of you, I do this full-time, so I need backups. One thing to bear in mind is that a full keyboard arsenal cost about the price of a modest house 40 years ago. The firepower we get these days for the price is unbelievable.

 

I'll cop to the shortcomings listed above, but for my money it's the most versatile and quickest board around.

 

Edited to add:

I just thought of a quick Nord story from this weekend: I was subbing with a British Invasion band and had to play the recorder (ocarina?) solo from "Wild Thing" by The Troggs. Anyway, while playing along with a distorted Wurli patch, I quickly found the Mellotron recorder sample I had D/Led from the Nord site and added ring modulator in the effects section to get the growl at the end of the solo. The band looked over at me smiling.

 

I also am a frustrated guitarist and take lots of guitar leads using distorted Wurli with certain bands. I play faux pedal steel with a couple country bands, just using the Nord. Most of my gigs are done with just the NS2 Compact, and people always come up to me amazed at what I can extract from it.

 

Very cool to hear about how you use the Nord Sound libraries and dialing in patches on the fly. I love my Nord Stage 3 Compact, as others have said above it's not the best at any 1 sound ( except maybe APs, I LOVE the White Grand sample) but it's the best combo of gigging keyboard sounds IMO . I am curious as to why you miss the "pending loading" function so much. With Seamless Patch Changes in the Nord Stage 3 I can't think of a reason you would use a function to delay loading the next patch, unless you were getting the next sound pulled up, but then couldn't you just use the built in setlist feature to order your patches accordingly? What am I missing?

Live Rig: CP88, Nord Stage 3 Compact, Moog Sub Phatty
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I am curious as to why you miss the "pending loading" function so much. With Seamless Patch Changes in the Nord Stage 3 I can't think of a reason you would use a function to delay loading the next patch, unless you were getting the next sound pulled up, but then couldn't you just use the built in setlist feature to order your patches accordingly? What am I missing?

Setlist feature doesn't work for this for bands that either call songs on the fly rather than work from known lists in advance, or, even if they have set lists, don't necessarily stick to them, depending on things like audience requests, what kinds of songs are going over better, etc.

 

Extensive discussion of this at https://www.norduserforum.com/nord-stage-forum-f3/please-bring-back-pending-load-mode-on-the-ns3-t14129.html

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@anotherscott, you're right. I've played with impulsive band leaders. The best I can do is have 10 or so "bread and butter" patches ready to load and tweak. I don't miss "pending load" as it's usually a s**tshow when this is going on.

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

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Of course it can depend on the depth of the setlist and the specificity of programming, but I find that on my NS3, between five Live slots with A/B panels and the three sound engines, plus a quick flip back to presets for anything more programmed, I can get through most of my gigs. Sometimes a little hairy scrolling through the presets to find the right one before the downbeat, but no trainwrecks so far.
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Sometimes a little hairy scrolling through the presets to find the right one before the downbeat

Right, and because of the loss of the pending load feature, you can't call it up well in advance and just click the button when you want to engage it. You can't even begin to start scrolling to find it until you've played the last note of the previous song. The solution is to use an iPad or similar where you can store your named Program Changes in an app, and then scroll through your patches freely without changing sounds, and once the desired patch is on the screen, just leave it, and then tap it when you need it.

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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Sometimes a little hairy scrolling through the presets to find the right one before the downbeat

Right, and because of the loss of the pending load feature, you can't call it up well in advance and just click the button when you want to engage it. You can't even begin to start scrolling to find it until you've played the last note of the previous song. The solution is to use an iPad or similar where you can store your named Program Changes in an app, and then scroll through your patches freely without changing sounds, and once the desired patch is on the screen, just leave it, and then tap it when you need it.

 

Fair, but I also do often hold the sustain pedal on the last note and am at the next patch before the guitarist has hit the required combination of pedals/tuned. YMMV.

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"... at the next patch before the guitarist has hit the required combination of pedals/tuned" -- an excellent point. As long as people aren't waiting for me, it's good. Something something about not having to be faster than the bear ...

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

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I finally relented and bought my first Nord, a 5D 73, in early 2018. I bought it simply because at that time, it was the only board I could carry in a backpack, had 73 keys, and could hit the 80/20 on essential meat & potatoes sounds I use (e.g. AP, EP, B3, clav). I initially regretted the purchase because the action was too springy with too much push back, particularly for AP. As a result, I only used the NE5D sparingly for the first year I had it, usually Midi'ing it to a lower board with better action for AP. Regardless of the NE5D's advantages, I was considering replacing its springs or even simply selling it because its action was so difficult for playing AP.

 

After forcing myself to adjust my playing style to accommodate the NE5D's springy action, I started using it more and more by itself during 2019. I'm now used to the NE5D's action and can play AP on it without any significant problem, at least on up tempo songs in a loud band mix. I now just use the NE5D 73 alone on most of my band gigs unless it's a high-paying or high-profile gig.

Gigs: Nord 5D 73, Kurz PC4-7 & SP4-7, Hammond SK1, Yamaha MX88 & P121, Numa Compact 2x, Casio CGP700, QSC K12, Yamaha DBR10, JBL515xt(2). Alto TS310(2)

 

 

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I regret selling my Electro 6d. Granted, it was only to get a Stage (which didn't happen) but I really enjoyed it. I also didn't like playing piano on it, but I tended to use my other keyboard anyway. I found the strings and some other sample library patches quite useful.

 

Speaking of, I thought I'd *never* be able to play piano on the unweighted modx keybed--as light an action as there is--but I've adjusted, along with setting a velocity curve. Granted I'm not playing subtle classical or jazz pieces, but it's interesting how we are able to adapt. But man when I get back on a weighted keyboard it is quite the adjustment again!

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But man when I get back on a weighted keyboard it is quite the adjustment again!

 

The George Duke effect. To paraphrase, from an 80s interview... "I got used to playing all my keyboard parts, including piano, on synths like the Poly 6 and DX7, with the light synth-weighted action. As a result, when I got back to an acoustic piano, it was difficult and I had to re-practice to get used to it again."

Kurzweil PC3, Yamaha MOX8, Alesis Ion, Kawai K3M
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So on board with this. The Nord (started on an Electro 2, then Stage 2, now on Stage 3) is the only board I would dream of programming live, on the gig. I've done what AWKeys describes on a gig, as well, and had an extra layer ready for the second chorus by the time I got done with the verse.

 

Having used a Kronos for a year on a gig with fixed backline, the usability of the Stage is just insane by comparison.

 

A good many presets I've built for projects have been programmed directly at rehearsal, while playing, or during a smokers' break.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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Sometimes I love Nord.

 

Why only "sometimes"? Kinda sounds like a LACK of NORD ENTHUSIASM here in this thread. Let's step it up, folks. :)

 

Reminds me of that line from the song "Proud To Be An American" by Lee Greenwood: "Where AT LEAST I know I'm free".

Why "AT LEAST"? Kinda sounds like a LACK of PATRIOTISM there.

 

[insert image of Helicopter hovering over Kabul embassy]

Kurzweil PC3, Yamaha MOX8, Alesis Ion, Kawai K3M
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But man when I get back on a weighted keyboard it is quite the adjustment again!

 

The George Duke effect. To paraphrase, from an 80s interview... "I got used to playing all my keyboard parts, including piano, on synths like the Poly 6 and DX7, with the light synth-weighted action. As a result, when I got back to an acoustic piano, it was difficult and I had to re-practice to get used to it again."

 

That reminds my of a Chester Thompson Keyboard interview where he stated his preference to play all keyboard sounds- piano and otherwise- on the same light action, so he would not have to make the "mental adjustment" to a weighted action. I believe at the time he was using EMU samples for AP.

 

I realize the difference between CT and GD is the former being a more organ-centric player.

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My Electro 5D has never let me down...and I use it in a variety of situations...from Church gigs to Jazz/Rock/Pop gigs etc.

 

Nothing is perfect but I find it so easy to get around...I'd buy another as a spare if the used ones weren't so expensive!

Tom

Nord Electro 5D, Modal Cobalt 8, Yamaha upright piano, numerous plug-ins...

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You're Nord amateurs compared to brotha Tonysounds who has bought and sold the Nord Stage at least 5 times. :laugh:

 

I've laid hands on the various Nord KBs many times over the years. The Nord Stage has everything I could want in a KB underneath the hood.

 

Yet, every time I play the Stage, it sounds good but leaves me cold. I guess that's why it's still in the music store warehouse. :D:cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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My Nord stays heavy in the mix primarily because the Organ. It's the easiest to adjust on the fly.

 

If I have min time to prepare for a gig I can get twice as much done with the Nord and Mainstage as I can with anything else. Yes, it's limited, and I'm not in love with any of the effects, but it's dead easy to get something that the rest of the band will like.

You want me to start this song too slow or too fast?

 

Forte7, Nord Stage 3, XK3c, OB-6, Arturia Collection, Mainstage, MotionSound KBR3D. A bunch of MusicMan Guitars, Line6 stuff

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My Electro 5D has never let me down...and I use it in a variety of situations...

Nothing is perfect but I find it so easy to get around...I'd buy another as a spare if the used ones weren't so expensive!

I agree about my Nord 5D. I got a Casio S1 for fun (and cheap) and gigged it a couple of times. As much fun as it was to have a very light keyboard with some good sounds, I felt relief when I went back to the Nord. I'm in 3 bands. I got together with some guys about starting a 4th - kind of like an audition - and I could move around on the Nord, switch sounds, etc. so easily. It was automatic. I'm so used to it now I can't use another board. I also have a Casio S3000, and some other older boards. I even have a Nord Electro2 as a backup if the 5D ever fails. I was thinking of getting the 6D but I don't really need it and it doesn't do anything more than the 5D does that I want. I'm only using organ, AP, Wurly sounds anyway, maybe a little clav once in a while, other sounds like accordion or strings only for novelty effect.
These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise.
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I have an Electro 6D 73 under a MODX7 and I can't envisage needing anything else for my classic rock band. Organ speaks for itself but also the 'Bright Grand' piano cuts so much better than the Yammy's CFX and the sample synth section is highly useful too - the Prophet Brass pad patch is the most versatile polysynth pad I've ever used in a live situation, everything from the pads in 'Final Countdown' to the chorus of 'Everyone Wants to to Rule the World'.
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