New Nord Piano Sample - Pearl Upright

[OrpheusNY]

This one is more of a character actor than a leading player, but it sounds nice to me in the demos. Looking forward to trying it out.

 

https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libraries/nord-piano-library/pearl-upright

[jeffincltnc]

Nice!  She's a beaut.

[cphollis]

That makes for no fewer than 14 uprights to choose from, each quite different.  For this one, I'd probably blend in a brighter Sliver Grand or similar to get a bit of attack back.

[jeffincltnc]

I love and appreciate that Nord puts as much focus on the upright pianos as they do.   I don't necessarily love the really small uprights, like Bambino but they offer some very well done and tasty character uprights that I really enjoy.  I contrast this with other keyboard companies that just go all in on a flagship grand sound, usually from a big Steinway or Yamaha, and then seem to have one upright in there as an afterthought without a lot of attention to details.

[Docbop]

Now how about more Wurlitzer samples and more variety of Rhodes would be nice. 

[16251]

No sarcasm when I say, I wish I could hear the beauty and nuance of the Nord acoustic pianos. I read these threads and would love to be able to join in but they (the samples) all sound about the same. As I've said, I did own a Piano 3.

 

Again, it's not you, it's me.  Anyway, carry on.

[stoken6]

49 minutes ago, 16251 said:

No sarcasm when I say, I wish I could hear the beauty and nuance of the Nord acoustic pianos. I read these threads and would love to be able to join in but they all sound about the same. As I've said, I did own a Piano 3.

 

Again, it's not you, it's me.  Anyway, carry on.

Not just you. I'd trade 10 of the existing Nord pianos for one Yamaha-quality sample I could confidently get my Jerry Lee on without worrying whether it will make it past the guitar in the mic.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[rickzjamm]

Reminds me of the UI on the Yamaha YC. 

 

[SteinwayB]

Definitely personal  taste as I think the White Grand is the best DP I have ever played.  Makes my CP4 CFX sound like a toy.  I can play it all day and not get tired of it.  I have tried multiple VST's (Synchron D, Ivory I and II, Hammersmith, PIanoteq) and to me nothing compares to the White Grand.  

[DJkeys]

There must be a demand out there for all of these different upright pianos, but none of them are useful for me personally. Perhaps in film scoring.  I have a few Grand Piano samples and those are all I need, Silver Grand, White Grand.  

 

-dj

[harmonizer]

None of the previous upright samples were satisfactory for me, as someone who uses 1 powered speaker. The Felt did not even impress me in its demo sounds. While the Bambino and Amber did not fall apart in single-speaker mode, their low end was unsatisfying - they did not pass the test for playing "The Letter" (Joe Cocker version) or "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (GK version). Other upright samples had that quirk where the octave immediately below middle C just sounded squirrely in single speaker mode. I cannot test the Pearl since I have an Electro 3, but if I hear others saying it works well in single speaker mode maybe I'll try to get a used Stage 2EX, and maybe my son will find himself getting the Electro 3 handed down to him.

[Joe Muscara]

On 12/22/2022 at 12:31 PM, jeffinpghpa said:

I contrast this with other keyboard companies that just go all in on a flagship grand sound, usually from a big Steinway or Yamaha, and then seem to have one upright in there as an afterthought without a lot of attention to details.

AFAIK, almost no other hardware manufacturer samples an upright, if any. They might have something called "honky tonk" or something like that but it's just an edit of the single grand they use as the source for the rest of their pianos. That's why I jumped on the Ivory Uprights sample library back in the day (I'm sure they have it in Ivory II but my computers have moved on but my spending on sample libraries hasn't). Those were fun sounding uprights and a nice change of pace from grands.

[time4jazz]

1 hour ago, Joe Muscara said:

AFAIK, almost no other hardware manufacturer samples an upright, if any. They might have something called "honky tonk" or something like that but it's just an edit of the single grand they use as the source for the rest of their pianos. 

One exception (at least) is the Yamaha CP 73/88, which have a couple of nice sampled uprights, including the Yamaha U1.

[jerrythek]

I know Korg has been sampling uprights over the last 5-10 years. SV-2, Nautilus, Grandstage and I'm sure some others.

 

2 hours ago, Joe Muscara said:

AFAIK, almost no other hardware manufacturer samples an upright, if any. They might have something called "honky tonk" or something like that but it's just an edit of the single grand they use as the source for the rest of their pianos. That's why I jumped on the Ivory Uprights sample library back in the day (I'm sure they have it in Ivory II but my computers have moved on but my spending on sample libraries hasn't). Those were fun sounding uprights and a nice change of pace from grands.

 

[Joe Muscara]

Thanks for the corrections, @jerrythek and @time4jazz. I consider myself updated. I'd like to try them out sometime I'm near one again.

[16251]

1 hour ago, Joe Muscara said:

Thanks for the corrections, @jerrythek and @time4jazz. I consider myself updated. I'd like to try them out sometime I'm near one again.

Well, the upright in ES520 seems awfully real to me. MeX at 9:50 seems to think so.  Me dig.

 

 

[Mighty Motif Max]

6 hours ago, harmonizer said:

None of the previous upright samples were satisfactory for me, as someone who uses 1 powered speaker. The Felt did not even impress me in its demo sounds. While the Bambino and Amber did not fall apart in single-speaker mode, their low end was unsatisfying - they did not pass the test for playing "The Letter" (Joe Cocker version) or "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (GK version). Other upright samples had that quirk where the octave immediately below middle C just sounded squirrely in single speaker mode. I cannot test the Pearl since I have an Electro 3, but if I hear others saying it works well in single speaker mode maybe I'll try to get a used Stage 2EX, and maybe my son will find himself getting the Electro 3 handed down to him.

Did you have any luck with the Black Upright? It’s the one upright sample that I thought actually sounded rather good in mono through a KC-220 at Guitar Center (what a great sound system, eh). That was from a Stage 3.

[harmonizer]

53 minutes ago, Mighty Motif Max said:

Did you have any luck with the Black Upright? It’s the one upright sample that I thought actually sounded rather good in mono through a KC-220 at Guitar Center (what a great sound system, eh). That was from a Stage 3.

I looked up my old posts in the Nord user forum to answer your question. I tried the Black Upright in November 2016 and found it the most usable acoustic piano sound in mono up til then on my Nord - better than the Italian Grand (L), Silver Grand (L), Bright Grand (L) and Bambino XL.
Then I tried the Royal Grand (L) when it came out in December 2016, and found it even better, finding the octave below middle C more alive than the Black Upright, and the low end much more satisfying than the Black Upright.

But eventually I found that the Royal Grand did not cut enough in our covers band, but I did not go back to trying the Black Upright with our covers band. Since we are trying to learn "Carry on My Wayward Son" and the AP sound is really exposed in that, maybe we should try it again.

[Bobbo Fett]

9 hours ago, harmonizer said:

None of the previous upright samples were satisfactory for me, as someone who uses 1 powered speaker. The Felt did not even impress me in its demo sounds. While the Bambino and Amber did not fall apart in single-speaker mode, their low end was unsatisfying - they did not pass the test for playing "The Letter" (Joe Cocker version) or "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (GK version). Other upright samples had that quirk where the octave immediately below middle C just sounded squirrely in single speaker mode. I cannot test the Pearl since I have an Electro 3, but if I hear others saying it works well in single speaker mode maybe I'll try to get a used Stage 2EX, and maybe my son will find himself getting the Electro 3 handed down to him.

Will this NOT work on the Electro 3? I didn't see anything on the page saying that it wouldn't.....

[harmonizer]

14 hours ago, Bobbo Fett said:

Will this NOT work on the Electro 3? I didn't see anything on the page saying that it wouldn't.....

It has a "6.x" in its name. In my experience, all the Piano Bank samples from Nord which include a version "6.x" in their name only work with certain Keyboards, and the Electro 3 and Electro 4 are among those excluded. (I am not complaining if this is the case here, since I bought my Electro 3 10 years ago).

[Sam Mullins]

I use the Black Upright for a few songs in my duo where I need an upright with some interesting character (e.g. Fiona Apple’s Valentine)  

[harmonizer]

I tried the Black Upright again in my Electro 3 over the weekend. The mids and uppers seem pretty good. The low end seems stale - better than the new upright sounds released by Nord in 2016 and 2017, but not giving as much low end as I want. The Black Upright does seem the best overall choice for AP sound 3 in case my Roland dies on a gig, so I left it on my Electro 3 instead of Royal Grand.

[ITGITC]

On 12/26/2022 at 7:33 PM, Bobbo Fett said:

Will this NOT work on the Electro 3? I didn't see anything on the page saying that it wouldn't.....

 

I have verified that the Pearl Upright will NOT download into my Electro 3 HP.  The Nord website doesn't state that it won't.  But yes, it's a 6.0.npno file format.   I guess this is how it will be for all the new programs.   I'll continue using the Black Upright Petrof.

 

I LIKE my Electro HP, but I want Nord to incorporate a better keybed before I purchase a new one.  Why can't they put the Nord Piano 5 keybed (73-note Triple Sensor keybed with grand weighted action) in the Electro HP?  Sure, I could get the Piano 5, but I like having the Hammond organ simulation when I need it.  The Piano 5 (73) with a Hammond clone is cool, but I don't want to carry two boards.

 

Ummm... dammit! 

 

Tom

ITGITC? 

[elsongs]

On 12/22/2022 at 10:38 AM, Docbop said:

Now how about more Wurlitzer samples and more variety of Rhodes would be nice. 

Clavinet too! I upgraded from a Nord Electro 2 to a Nord Stage 3 four years ago, but the clav sounds seem like a downgrade to me. 

[Stefan011]

2 hours ago, ITGITC said:

I LIKE my Electro HP, but I want Nord to incorporate a better keybed before I purchase a new one. 

 

 

All Nord HP instruments have the Fatar TP100 keboard and I have sold my Electro 5 because of it. I hope the TP110 is much better and they incorporate it soon.

[Legatoboy]

Yupper, I think it's gonna work ... nice!  

[ITGITC]

6 hours ago, Stefan011 said:

All Nord HP instruments have the Fatar TP100 keboard and I have sold my Electro 5 because of it. I hope the TP110 is much better and they incorporate it soon.

 

Correct.    

 

If you want to audition a TP/110 keybed, you'll need to find a Kurzweil SP7 Grand in a store somewhere.  Good luck!

 

I bought my Electro 3 HP with the TP/100 keybed and kept it.  I'm a piano player.  Although the TP/100 isn't the fastest keybed, for my use it's head and shoulders better than using a semi-weighted Electro.  Everyone has their preferences depending on their experiences and how they plan to use the instrument.  I wanted a 73-key instrument that is lightweight and has a variety of replaceable high-quality sounds. I'm also a big fan of the Electro's user interface.  Playing organ sounds using a hammer action keybed is not ideal, but - for me, because of years of piano lessons, timing, feel, and muscle memory - it is much preferrable to using a semi-weighted keybed for piano sounds.

 

If I had to replace my Electro today, I would probably buy the Piano 5 (73).  Fortunately, I don't need to.  My Electro continues to be a great solution for me.

 

Tom

 

 

 

[Docbop]

Finally install the Pearl  upright and liking it and looking forward to tweaking it a bit.   I'm starting to see the use for the uprights for live and tweaking in studio.  They have a nice top end and midrange warmth and note definition and a low end that is with some EQ can be a big but not muddy things up in a mix or live.  The uprights have  a shorter tail on the notes for playing fast with more definition.   So that how I hear it as a piano newbie.