Nord Stage 3 vs. the rest

[mdenriet]

]What Kawais use the same action - MP7SE? Would that be an alternative?

Yes thats the same RH3 action.

[AnotherScott]

]What Kawais use the same action - MP7SE? Would that be an alternative?

Yes thats the same RH3 action.

The Nord Grand action is similar-but-not-identical to the action of the MP7SE, it is a modified version of Kawai's RH3 action. It's an interesting question as to how close you get to a Nord Grand playing experience pairing the MP7SE--or the much lighter (and slightly cheaper) ES920--with a Nord Electro 6D or Nord Stage 3 Compact.

[CyberGene]

I"ve never been impressed with Nord Piano, Nord Stage and Nord Electro HP when used with piano samples. Something is severely lacking in terms of touch to sound connection and changing velocity curves doesn"t help. I"m not sure the guys are really into acoustic pianos and know how to recreate one well, which has not been their goal anyway. And I doubt with using a regular Kawai digital piano action they would suddenly improve upon that considerably. That being said, I appreciate the appeal of their instruments as gigging boards for live music since their immediacy and ease of use is unparalleled so far.

[jeffincltnc]

Stoken and Another Scott - I use a pairing of the ES920 with the Nord Stage 3 Compact and it's a very good action to use for this purpose as a lower board with the Kawai RHIII action that the Nord Grand uses.

 

Obiviously it doesn't have the matching red wood and the layout of the Nord Grand. The MIDI capabilities are also pretty basic. But if you can live with a plastic chassis and line lump power cable, it is a great gigging option at only 37 pounds as a bottom weighted action keyboard. I recommend giving it a go, but right now ES920 is not in production until at least July due to chips and supply chain shortage, and they will not be coming back into stock until later into the fall of 2022.

 

I also like that the ES920 is so basic that it has one button operation if you ever bring it to a jam session or open stage where other people are using it. I find that my Nord Stage 3 is the type of keyboard that is totally set up for what I want it to do and if someone is sitting in or people are playing it, they have no idea how to operate it and it becomes my responsibility to make it usable for everyone else. I know that isn't an everyday thing for most of us, but there's a lot of convenience to that kind of digital piano if you are just providing it as the house instrument for others to play on. I do remember I was playing a Nord Stage at an album release party for an artist I recorded with and when some well known cat was asked to sit in he just spent the entire tune not getting any sound out of the organ and being annoyed with me about it.

[AnotherScott]

I also like that the ES920 is so basic that it has one button operation if you ever bring it to a jam session or open stage where other people are using it. I find that my Nord Stage 3 is the type of keyboard that is totally set up for what I want it to do and if someone is sitting in or people are playing it, they have no idea how to operate it and it becomes my responsibility to make it usable for everyone else.

Yup. While Nords are famously easy for many things, they can actually be among the most complicated if you've never seen one before. The Stage series in particular can be baffling until you at least understand two things... that a Program is a layer of two panels/slots you need to switch between to alter, and that you have to hold the Shift button to get to the labeled functions when the labels are under rather than over the buttons. (I always thought they should have made the shift button a different color like yellow, and then label all the shift functions in yellow print as well, and it would be more obvious.) If you do find yourself having to make the Stage available to others, I'd have one set of 5 programs that are something like "Piano, B3, EP, Strings, Brass" or whatever, and tape a label for those 5 sounds over the 5 Program buttons, and tell them just to use those buttons (and the organ drawbars) and not to touch anything else. ;-)

 

As an aside, another nice advantage of the ES920 is that it has speakers. So it also gives you a board you may be able to just turn on and play in "unplugged" situations.

[stoken6]

I'd have one set of 5 programs that are something like "Piano, B3, EP, Strings, Brass" or whatever, and tape a label for those 5 sounds over the 5 Program buttons, and tell them just to use those buttons (and the organ drawbars) and not to touch anything else. ;-)

Way ahead of you Scott!

As an aside, another nice advantage of the ES920 is that it has speakers. So it also gives you a board you may be able to just turn on and play in "unplugged" situations.

Plus a line in for external sources (such as a Nord?) and 5-pin MIDI and manageable weight. A lot of good things about this board.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[harmonizer]

stoken6, I love the colored dots you added to the back of your Stage. Things like this are important when making connections at a gig where there might not be much light, especially for those of us who have reached a certain age and cannot read tiny little letters in the dark. In my case, it was actually my son who added similar markers to the back of my Nord, after watching me struggle to figure out which jacks were which during setup at bar gigs.

[Stokely]

You aren't kidding. Especially since some manufacturers go against the norm with the order of the jacks (if you can say there IS a norm). More often than not I plug instrument cables into the MODX inputs, intending to use the outputs, mainly because they are the first ones in the row. I really need to add something like those dots. Same goes for the footswitch vs the sustain.

[analogika]

Yep. I have coloured tape above the jacks on my Nord, and the control pedal and sustain pedal plugs are wrapped in tape of corresponding colour.

 

Makes things considerably faster, even after years.

[stoken6]

Things like this are important when making connections at a gig where there might not be much light

Yep. I have coloured tape above the jacks on my Nord, and the control pedal and sustain pedal plugs are wrapped in tape of corresponding colour. Makes things considerably faster, even after years.

That's the plan. I've posted previously about how having a loom of colour-coded cables, and corresponding colour-coded sockets, makes connecting the loom feel like "plugging in one cable" - it's one thing to think about, and one thought to have about it. It actually reduces stress levels at a gig quite considerably.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[stillearning]

Or, if you"re colorblind, as I am, number/letter codes on red tape (so not to look awkward or mar a Nord) suffice nicely.

[MathOfInsects]

Yep. I have coloured tape above the jacks on my Nord, and the control pedal and sustain pedal plugs are wrapped in tape of corresponding colour.

 

Makes things considerably faster, even after years.

Exact same process here.

[Docbop]

When I worked that Yes tour we had four semi's full of gear. We had a big crew but still hired a lot of local stagehands to help. So having sea of anvil cases rolling off the trucks would of be a nightmare to keep organized. So all the tops of the anvil cases were color coded so we could tell the local stagehands red box over there, blue there and so on. Even doing SysAdmin work we had color coded network cables and my favorite were the red cables were outside the firewall . One cool thing we had was a handheld device we could type in what exactly a cable was connected to and it spit out a piece of shrink wrap with the info printed on it we could shrink onto the cable. Labeling saves so much time.

[TomKittel]

Maybe if someone is not looking for a "All-in -one"" solution, A good alternative would be a combination of a Kawai MP7SE / GSI Gemini module / Novation Peak. That would cost the same as a nord stage 3. Better keyboard, organs , rhodes, synth, maybe equivalent Acc piano. . If you have some spare money you could add a Crumar d9x for better organ controls.

 

Oh yes, don't forget to include headache of making all the sounds easily available and playable, plus a mixer and a whole lot of cables, power supplies, and an extra shelf to store it all...

[mdenriet]

Oh yes, don't forget to include headache of making all the sounds easily available and playable, plus a mixer and a whole lot of cables, power supplies, and an extra shelf to store it all...

You can use pre-programmed PGM changes to switch between sounds. The Mp7 can control 4 CC's directly with pots..so you can realtime add fx or some other parameter. It also has a line input with line-fader. Power supplies are included, and when you are a keyboard player, i assume you have a stash of cables and a keyboard stand to put everything on. The gemini module and crumar d9x , you can put together and place the on the Mp7, so that would leave 1 stand-extension for the peak.

Maybe you think its a lot of effort, but 30 years ago i used to drag 5 keyboard with we to a show, so this is peanuts. I think the improvement in soundquality and playability for rhodes/wurli/organ/synth make up for the hassle.

[CyberGene]

Maybe if someone is not looking for a "All-in -one"" solution, A good alternative would be a combination of a Kawai MP7SE / GSI Gemini module / Novation Peak. That would cost the same as a nord stage 3. Better keyboard, organs , rhodes, synth, maybe equivalent Acc piano. . If you have some spare money you could add a Crumar d9x for better organ controls.

 

Oh yes, don't forget to include headache of making all the sounds easily available and playable, plus a mixer and a whole lot of cables, power supplies, and an extra shelf to store it all...

 

There's no right and wrong and it depends on the personal preferences. Yes, it's a bit of a headache to have to connect multiple keyboards, mix them and stuff. OTOH, it's much easier for me to have one hammer-action keyboard which has piano and Rhodes switchable, one synth with strings, pads (organs) switchable and one small mini-key keyboard with various mono-leads switchable, rather than having to remember what multi/combo/performance had what exact combination of those three categories, where's the split point, etc. Mind you, I've always been bad with memory and quick thinking ð But having three separate keyboards, each with 5-6 basic sounds that I select from directly, makes it much easier to me, rather than having to program and remember the hundreds of possible combinations when using a single workstation for all of those.

[TomKittel]

Maybe if someone is not looking for a "All-in -one"" solution, A good alternative would be a combination of a Kawai MP7SE / GSI Gemini module / Novation Peak. That would cost the same as a nord stage 3. Better keyboard, organs , rhodes, synth, maybe equivalent Acc piano. . If you have some spare money you could add a Crumar d9x for better organ controls.

 

Oh yes, don't forget to include headache of making all the sounds easily available and playable, plus a mixer and a whole lot of cables, power supplies, and an extra shelf to store it all...

 

There's no right and wrong and it depends on the personal preferences. Yes, it's a bit of a headache to have to connect multiple keyboards, mix them and stuff. OTOH, it's much easier for me to have one hammer-action keyboard which has piano and Rhodes switchable, one synth with strings, pads (organs) switchable and one small mini-key keyboard with various mono-leads switchable, rather than having to remember what multi/combo/performance had what exact combination of those three categories, where's the split point, etc. Mind you, I've always been bad with memory and quick thinking ð But having three separate keyboards, each with 5-6 basic sounds that I select from directly, makes it much easier to me, rather than having to program and remember the hundreds of possible combinations when using a single workstation for all of those.

 

I have been there with multiple boards, FX and modules. After setting up everything I was regularly exhausted and hyper nervous before the show started. Where can I put my submixer? Where is that hum coming from? Which of the cables has that loose contact? Who has stepped again on one of my cables or power supplies? And so on... to me the Stage 3 was a relief. But I have to admit that it took me years to figure out how LIVE MODE really works and what the SETLIST feature can do.

 

It all depends on personal preferences for sure. But when you get older, less is often more.

[cphollis]

Ah, simplicity. Now that I think I've made things *very* simple indeed, I'm willing to tolerate a bit more coordinated complexity in my rig, and am going in that direction. I am adverse to using a laptop for a performance (something else to bring, connect and maybe break), so I am driving everything from the setlist feature on the NS3C. Weighted controller below. Only onboard effects. No small mixer unless there's a gain staging issue.

 

I now am starting to control an audio-reactive light show by sending a midi CC to change scene with each Nord program change or song part. That took a while to set up, but it's pretty slick if you are into that sort of thing. I'm now looking at a Korg Wavestate to do more late 80s and 90s stuff, its presets would be driven off the same NS3C programs. Anyway, since I have a "single point of control" for everything that can march through stuff and sends simple commands, I'm pretty happy while still keeping it not-crazy. Laptops are still required to drive the lights, record, etc. -- but I don't have to think about them. Also, bluetooth MIDI for the win -- at least for this use case.

 

What I don't want to do is add something else to do when I'm trying to focus on having fun

[Cabo]

 

I now am starting to control an audio-reactive light show by sending a midi CC to change scene with each Nord program change or song part.

 

 

I was thinking about trying to implement something like this -- Could you provide some details?

[cphollis]

 

I now am starting to control an audio-reactive light show by sending a midi CC to change scene with each Nord program change or song part.

 

 

I was thinking about trying to implement something like this -- Could you provide some details?

 

It might be a longer discussion, but here are the highlights:

- audio beat detection using the Smart Tempo feature of Logic Pro X, outputs soft midi clock while recording the band (tempos vary!)

- midi beat clock drives LightKey, which will pace the action within a preset accordingly

- LightKey accepts midi CC's to drive presets, LightKey drives wireless DMX for ApeLabs lights via dongle(s).

- midi CC's to be sent are stored with each Nord song portion program

- as I march through songs, lighting preset changes are sent for intro, verse, etc. Using WIDI over bluetooth to reach the stage laptop.

 

The ability to do this is not limited to Nords, so OT from that perspective. And there might be a simpler, cheaper and better way to do this, but this wasn't expensive and it works pretty well. I could write everything up if others are interested. Also, you would do something else if you wanted audio-reactive video, which involves more money of course. That would be a longer writeup

[vonnor]

Not quite zombie alert but...

 

With the Stage4 coming, I'm sorely tempted to pull the trigger on a Stage3 HP76. Only issue is back when those things came out I played both that and a S2 HA76 at Gearfest and didn't care for the HP action - was a little loo light. Now that back issues are creeping up on me I might be able to live with the lighter action (and lighter workstation - 3lb lighter than my Kronos2-61).

 

Any of you guys own and like the HP76? Talk me into ordering one. @eric?

 

~ vonnor

[cphollis]

I had a NS2 EX HA76 and did not like the action from a piano players' perspective.  At the time, the aftertouch strip could make the keystrokes mushy, and I'm sort of counting on the key bounce when I get going.  I have heard that they fixed this later in the build, but at the cost of a very stiff aftertouch strip that is difficult to use. 

 

I did try the NS3 HA76, and -- for me -- the action was neither fish nor fowl.  Not a great piano action, not a great organ/synth action, etc.  I suppose if you want a single board to do it all, compromises will be made.  I hear the piano action is much improved on the NS4 version.  My NP5 plays like butter, so I know that Nord knows how to do good piano actions!

[vonnor]

Did you mean HP76 (Hammer Portable), Chuck? I didn't think the 2EX or 3 came in the HA76? And as a correction, it was the 2EX-HP76 that I compared to the S2HA76 at gearfest. I left that day with the HA76.

 

[eric]

2 hours ago, vonnor said:

Not quite zombie alert but...

 

With the Stage4 coming, I'm sorely tempted to pull the trigger on a Stage3 HP76. Only issue is back when those things came out I played both that and a S2 HA76 at Gearfest and didn't care for the HP action - was a little loo light. Now that back issues are creeping up on me I might be able to live with the lighter action (and lighter workstation - 3lb lighter than my Kronos2-61).

 

Any of you guys own and like the HP76? Talk me into ordering one. @eric?

 

~ vonnor

 

Hey! Thanks for asking! As someone that had the NS2 HA76, I'm not sure you'd love the NS3 HP76. The HA has a smoother and lighter feel while the HP requires more force to play. Caveat - my experience is based on a few years owning and using the NS2 EX HP76. I briefly played a NS3 HP76 at NAMM and it felt basically the same to me, though I guess there's a possibility of small changes between NS2 and NS3 for the HP action. I sold my HP76 years ago after getting my NS3 Compact, though I did keep my original NS2 HA88, which stays in my music room and I love it.

 

The HP action is quite a bit different than the HA. The HP 76 makes for a very lightweight (in terms of portability) option for the full keyboard (though the action itself does not actually feel lighter). The weight savings between the NS3 HA 88 and HP 76 is around 12 lbs, where as with the earlier NS2 HA 88 and HA 76 it was just a 5 lb difference.

 

The HP 76 is heavier and feels more sluggish than the HA 88, which is lighter and smoother feeling. Once you get used to the difference, it is not that bad and I appreciated the reduced weight of the HP package as I move gear around a lot. I still find the HA keyboard is a bit more inspiring and easier on the hands. I think it works very well for playing organ sounds and it just feels more elegant in general. But as is the case with many things, there is a tradeoff. Higher quality action means heavier weight. You'd have to decide on making the tradeoff to live with the less elegant action of the HP 76 action so you can benefit from the ease of transport.

 

I am on the fence about which action I'd go with, if I ever decide to get a NS4. I might try the new 73 HA though I have really come to love the waterfall action in the NS3 Compact. Hope this helps!

[kenheeter]

I had a Nord Stage EX 76HA and the action was very nice. It was a heavy lift. I sold it and bought a Stage 2 EX HA76, which has the TP100 action.  Not quite as nice to play piano on but the keyboard is much lighter to lift. I personally don't mind the TP100 although I now have a Numa X with TP110 and I like it better. Also a nice light lift.

[Stokely]

I've got a beady eye set on my buddy's NS3 HA88, but I need to sell a couple things first   

41 pounds is not too bad, though the case he'll include is pretty heavy.  I'm more worried about the size on some stages I play.  

I've wanted a NS3 for years, almost bought a compact but covid hit and I stopped gigging, then the price went way up.  Now the price is sorta back down, but I have an SK Pro...figure the NS3 weighted would be a great complement, with my Modx7 as a backup plan when needed, if I don't sell it.  I play a lot of piano on my main keyboard and I while I love a lot of things about the Modx7, I don't really enjoy playing it and that counts for a lot.

[vonnor]

Thanks guys. After kicking it around and checking the budgetary considerations, I decided to get the 88 key for $300 more. Will order it tomorrow.

 

~ vonnor

[vonnor]

I'm looking through the Stage3 user manual, and I'm starting to get a little worried. On the Stage2 there was a way to assign all 6 engines (Piano-A, Piano-B, Organ-A, Organ-B, Synth-A, Synth-B) to their own separate receive midi chan. I am not seeing how to do this in the Stage3 user manual. That kind of versatility is essential to the way my live rig is setup.

 

Does anybody have a Stage 3 and knows how to do this? Or if it can even be done?

 

~ vonnor 

[Sam Mullins]

14 minutes ago, vonnor said:

I'm looking through the Stage3 user manual, and I'm starting to get a little worried. On the Stage2 there was a way to assign all 6 engines (Piano-A, Piano-B, Organ-A, Organ-B, Synth-A, Synth-B) to their own separate receive midi chan. I am not seeing how to do this in the Stage3 user manual. That kind of versatility is essential to the way my live rig is setup.

 

Does anybody have a Stage 3 and knows how to do this? Or if it can even be done?

 

~ vonnor 

Nope 🙄

[AnotherScott]

Yeah, unfortunately, that's on the list of nice NS2 features that didn't make it to the NS3.