New Nord Electro 2 piano sounds

[silentman]

To all Electro users.I have just downloaded the stage pianos C7 and Steinway D close samples for the ELECTRO.I have 2 electros(rack with fatar SL-880 and a 73)and I found the samples really interesting.The Steinway is great,so it is the Yamaha.I used to have the AcGrand3.Also there is an update (2.30) of the OS of the electro.Please write here your opinions about the sounds.I heard them both with Home studio ESI monitors and my Earphones,not with an amp.

 

Cheers to everyone

 

The Silent one

[yannis D]

Geia sou silent - eimai apo Athina kai xrhsths toy Nord episis

So (let's speak in english now) i downloaded the Steinway and i prefer it over the Yamaha, wich is more jumpy and rocki-ish to my ears. I would like to have the both but the instrument's CPU is not that big to support both the pianos plus all the other instruments, so i kept the Steinway and i erased the Electric Grand in order to keep the Rhodes's, clavs and wurlies.

there are some threads on this forum about the new Electro OS and sounds, check them out

se xairetw

Yannis

[David Loving]

I like the new steinway the best. I am going with it.

[silentman]

Geia sou Yanni

 

Protimw to Yamaha,I prefer the Yamaha sound as it is more romantic,brighter and great for Elton John,Billy Joel,Art rock.Why did you erase the Electric Grand ?The space for the acoustic grand is only available if you erase the previous acoustic Grand...

 

Current Setup

Nord electro rack 2,Nord electro 73,Roland JV-1080,Nord Lead 2X rack,Fatar SL-880.

[yannis D]

I erased it cause there were no space... hope i did'nt do any malakia! The old piano was less CPU consuming than the Steinway - i think 5,2 Mb when the new one is 9,8 or something like this. So i had to erase another instrument too, in order to load the new heavy piano sound... So if i'm mistaken let me know or PM me to talk on the phone

 

Yannis

[Bridog6996]

You still should have been able to include the steinway without having to remove another instrument. I have the Steinway on mine with all 5 other slots filled.

[keynote]

Me no like new Pianos for Electro. Me thinks they are below average at best. Me wonders why Clavia no how to make good Piano sounds like Yamaha and Roland do and now even Korg seems to do. Me thinks Clavia's algorithm is flawed on what makes a Piano sound sound like a Piano. Me thinks Clavia needs to go back to the drawing board and/or coerce former or current Yamaha or Roland sound engineers to join their ranks with promises of fat pay checks and other primo perks. Me thinks then that Clavia will finally have a Piano sound that doesn't suck. (My personal opinion of course).

 

Ha! LOL... Sorry, but I for one have never liked Clavia's acoustic Piano sounds. And for the life of me I cannot understand how all those brilliant Swedes at Clavia can't come up with a decent Piano sound for their keyboards. Except perhaps that those brilliant Swedes at Clavia aren't so brilliant after all. PS: That is no reflection on Swedish people as a whole, who by the way, I think are wonderful.

 

I really think they need to use a better algorithm and correct the mistakes (however many) in the implementation of it and thus succeed in the final outcome of their efforts which would in theory be a superb piano sound emanating from their keyboards. Which they have so far been unable to do in my opinion. Pity, because their Organ, Clav, and Electric Pianos are really good.

[Bridog6996]

I don't think the problem is that Clavia is unable to create a good piano sound. Their obstacle with the Electro is memory. A detailed, well-sampled acoustic piano sound requires a lot of memory, much more than the Electro has. Given the proper platform, I'm sure their acoustic piano sounds would be many times better. Actually, while I'll admit that they're not great, I think their recent Steinway and Yamaha samples are pretty admirable all things considered.

 

And besides, organ, clav, and electric piano are what Clavia developed the Electro for, and they obviously did a great job with those. It's sole purpose is to emulate electro-mechanical devices, so put it in perspective. Acoustic piano is not a focus for the Electro (or the Stage for that matter), so if you're looking for high quality piano, then you're barking up the wrong tree.

[Jersey Jack]

I agree entirely with this post. I own a Yamaha S90ES, but the guitarist I work with has a Nord Electro 2, and I usually use this board for rehearsals instead of lugging my Yamaha to his place. The organs are world-class, but the acoustic piano really sucks.

 

I'm afraid that neither he nor I are familiar enough with the Nord to load the new piano sounds into it, but given the great distance between the Electro and the Yamaha, I'm not sure that it would make much a difference. The pity is that that most of the arrangements are moving toward an organ sound simply because that sound dominates during rehearsals!

 

Best,

Jack

[eric]

I'm a big Electro enthusiast, but have never been a big fan of the acoustic pianos in the Electro. The new ones are an incremental step forward (in stereo), but still don't come close to the piano sounds I normally use when gigging with my S90 + Electro.

 

I've found that the original mono Steinway piano on the Electro is the best one for rehearsals and it is a pretty dynamic and realistically woody sound - just not as bright and sustaining as the Yamaha pianos.

 

What I do if I am not digging the Electro piano during rehearsals is to switch to either the Wurly or CP80 sounds. These are top-notch sounds that can easily stand in for a piano sound.

 

Regards,

Eric

[Steve in KS]

I spent about half an hour comparing the two new

pianos to each other, both are great improvements to

previous samples. Then I turned to my Yamaha P120, and

there is just no comparison at all. I think that the

small amount of storage space on the Electro (plus the

unweighted keyboard and velocity capabilities)is) are

just too limiting to have a truly good piano on it.

I wouldn't hesitate to use one of the new pianos in a

pinch, but they just aren't any competition for

dedicated digital pianos like Yamahas. Of course I

wasn't EXPECTING them to be either. I would still love

my Electro with no acoustic pianos on it at all. : )

I think it was great of Clavia to add these pianos for

those who really need them, it is all above and beyond

supporting the original intension of the instrument.

Many thanks to them!

 

-Steve W

[silentman]

Hey guys I didn't want your opinion about which piano is better,and better than the clavia pianos.So please tell me your opinion about the 2 new samples.I know the disadvantages of the electro memory.Although I used for 3 hours the steinway I went back to C7.Perfect for soul(Isaac Hayes,Aretha Franklin).Just your opinion about the new pianos and not a Vs mode between the cold swedish guys and the suicide solution japanese guys.

 

Thank you

[kanker.]

I think I really am the only one out there who likes the Electro pianos.

[yannis D]

Silentman, for me Steinway. Just thinking that i play the real deal

[Analogaddict]

Originally posted by kevank:

I think I really am the only one out there who likes the Electro pianos.

You are not alone! I like the character of the Electro pianos; whenever i use my Motif or whatever else pianos, it's obvious that we're talking about a synth, the Electro pianos have a to my ears altogether different sound, which kind of grows on you. A little distortion and EQ makes a big difference too. I espescially dig the upright piano, it gets a lot of use. IMO they ought to release a memory expansion board now with the new pianos and EP:s, perhaps the button for switching samples could lead to a directory of samples a la the Stage, with sub menu variations. There can't be much more than a software update to it. IIRC, the Electro has 32 mb memory in total, which is not really a lot. I believe they use some kind of sample compression, but it's still a really small memory, espescially since it's not user expandable...

[DanL]

I like the Electro AP's as well. Not as much as my S90ES which I bought for a better piano among other things, but they are fine for a gig. We did a party on a Tuesday night (yes, a Tuesday). I took just my Electro and amp- no rack, no nothing. It was just fine by itself in a band context. I don't think I'd use them for a solo piano gig but in the band they work fine- they cut, even better than the ES does. I'm thinking about doing a layer with the ES and the new Electro pianos, to get the cut of the Electro and the nice full tone of the ES.

[Mr Pianoman]

I like it to....

As Analogaddict said: It grows on you..

It also depends on which kind of music you play..

sometimes the music you play doesn´t fit with that big grand piano sound.

I think also that it has that really nice crunch that makes it great playing in small ackustic settings...

 

Only problem that I have is the keys being not being so great playing piano on....It´s a little sloppy i think.

Thats why I´m getting really big G.A.S over the new 76 STAGE....with it´s weighted keys

Hope it doesn´t get TOO expensive...

I think it could be a real big seller if the price doesn´t run off to much..

[daBowsa]

I spent several hours yesterday with the new pianos. I deleted all sounds except AcGrand5 and AcGrand6 so I could switch back and forth with 1 button press.

 

I played low register basslines, mid register comping, high register arpeggios...I downloaded the digital piano shootout MIDI file from purgatorycreek.com...

 

My conclusions? I really dig my Sony MDR7506 headphones. Oh, and both pianos are awesome. I can honestly say, I'd be happy with either of these sounds if I didn't have my S90.

 

With that said, I left the Yamaha on there. The Steinway is beautiful - you can really get lost on it. I thought the dynamics were great - nice full tone and refreshing to play a piano patch that isn't drenched in effects. But, like others have said, the Yamaha will cut the mix better and more suits the character of the Electro. The rehearsals and gigs where I bring only the Electro will not be requiring a controlled and delicate piano sound.

 

After spending this time configuring the Electro yesterday, I think the next OS update from Clavia should include:

• Replacement/upgraded/larger memory-chip
  Instead of the CP-80 and the Yamaha, I'd like to have the Steinway Mono and the Yamaha. There's just not enough room to do this with 32MB.
  
• Downloadable Effects from the Stage
  Do we really need 2 Chorus, 2 Phaser, and 2 Flangers? Is each one a mono and a stereo version? I'll have to look that up.
  Anyway, how sweet to instead have your favorite Chorus, Phaser, and Flanger...PLUS Reverb, Delay and Compression! Come on Clavia...you know you can do it!
  

 

Regardless, I LOVE MY ELECTRO!

[konaboy]

Yeah the new pianos are superb and I was really torn up when I had to choose only one of them. I want to have both of them loaded in memory at the same time! Each one has it's strengths and choosing the best one depends on the applications.

 

9.2Mb for a single piano voice is more than adequate, I believe the popular Yamaha P80 has less. TO my ears the new Nord pianos have more character and detail.

 

THe Steinway is fantastic, warm, thick and very expressive. THe yamaha is twitchy and needs concentration to respond well´.

[Cliffk]

For me, the Steinway does the job. I play mainly old-skool funk and soul so mostly use AP for drumless ballads, and the Steinway's warmer, richer tones sans effects (as opposed to the Yamaha) gives a nice break from the rasping, wah-ing and distorting of the clav and Rhodes sounds.

 

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth but if Clavia were thinking of another sample upgrade, I'd welcome the 'guitar-scratch' effect on the clavinet (like on the Scarbee D6) that can be heard, say, in the intro of 'Superstition'.

 

A less important question to Clavia would be why they didn't put the 'pan' and 'tremolo' effects on different sections, one on 'Modulations' and one on 'Effects'. I personally like using both simultaneously.

[silentman]

Thank you guys for your opinions,I can't make a pick between the 2 new pianos.I would recommended to anyone who has the rack version of the nord electro to test it with a fatar SL-880.It might not be a hammond feeling on it(the 73 version of the electro is perfect for B3) but it is the perfect clavier for EPs and fair enough for the Acoustic Grand.I will agree with you that you say that the Nord has a more natural play in the piano,although not perfect.You can hear the wooden clicks of the keys with headphones.The point with Clavia is that they keep working with us who already have electros.That give them a great bonus when you are going to buy their products.The 73 version that I have for the road has too fake keys,so all of you that you have the key version of the electro you should feel the piano a little out of the whole concept(Great EPs/B3).Try it again with an KX88 or a fatar heavy...

 

Play it again....

[Bridog6996]

Originally posted by konaboy:

9.2Mb for a single piano voice is more than adequate, I believe the popular Yamaha P80 has less. TO my ears the new Nord pianos have more character and detail.

For what it's worth, the Yamaha P80 uses 11Mb piano samples, but other newer and better piano sounds use quite a bit more. For example, the sample size for the P90 is 22Mb, and both the 90ES and P250 have 32Mb piano samples. Then there's the Fantom X "Ultimate Grand," with a 64Mb sample.

 

Naturally, I don't expect the Electro piano to sound anywhere near as good as the above because I didn't buy it for its piano sound. Just like I don't blame my P90 for having crappy harpsichord or organ sounds. The new Steinway sample is enough of an improvement that I would use it in a pinch, or if I was lazy one day and wanted to only bring one board.

[WWW]

If the 'new electro' pianos are so 'good,' then why does the piano on the Nord Stage still suck?

[shakeyeraz]

Not liking the Yamaha - flat and uninteresting ( and I love Yamaha acoustic pianos!); Just now going to load the Steinway.

 

k

[daBowsa]

Originally posted by wdl:

If the 'new electro' pianos are so 'good,' then why does the piano on the Nord Stage still suck?

What are you using for piano?

[silentman]

Unfortunately Mr Bill I don't have money to buy an original Steinway,so although I have played in a D and a B I believe that the electro with a proper keyboard (Yamaha KX 88)can bring a little happiness to common humans like me.I have half your years probably so please don't blame me for the space that I have between a great piano and an average piano.Great site you have..

[MusicaL]

Originally posted by wdl:

If the 'new electro' pianos are so 'good,' then why does the piano on the Nord Stage still suck?

Do you have the latest OS and Piano samples? Are you running them in stereo? Hopefully, you answered yes to both of these questions.

 

aL

 

PS: IMHO, "suck" is just too objective a description for the pianos on the Stage... Maybe you just don't like them!!!

[WWW]

sorry for my use of hyperbole.... I'm just frustrated. You know, high expectations etc.

 

PS--I just checked the Clavia site for the Electro sound updates and I can't find any Yamaha C7??

 

Help?

[jfhyde]

http://www.clavia.se/products/nordelectro/sounds.htm

It's AcGrand5: Yamaha C7. taken from the Nord Stage library, down toward the middle of the page.

 

John

[jfhyde]

I swear I only hit send once!!

John