Nord C3 Combo Organ Official Announcement

[Legatoboy]

KANKER,

 

It is hard to ween yourself away from it (reverb)! I will try next gig and experiment!

 

lb

[kanker.]

Yes - VERY hard. It took me a couple of months to really get comfortable with it. This was while playing 5-6 gigs a week. That said, your learning curve could be quicker. I had no piano at the time, so I was living exclusively with digital keyboards.

[kanker.]

Regarding the name change, I'm really not surprised. Hammond kinda had to tell them that they might need to change it. Personally, I think Nord Combo is a little more catchy.

[Legatoboy]

b3boy,

 

If you wind up digging the XK-3, you could get the whole system and the cabinet with the wooden sides if your willing to set that up at each gig!

Then you would have more of a console feel!

lb

[JMcS]

Originally posted by b3boy:

Can anyone point me to any more sound or video clips of it going through a real valve leslie?

TIA

The Hammond website has a number of demo's avilable. Check the page for each of the products. Also, you may download some music - see the Service section, or request CD's and DVD's - see the products section.

 

http://www.hammondorganco.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

 

 

Here is one of Tony Monaco's demos of the XK-3 and New B3:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8097313476809366768&q=hammond+b3+suzuki

[b3_john]

Originally posted by b3boy:

I wish Nord had made a traditional wood cabinet and used a red Nord Logo on the back. Im always of the opinion that an organ should LOOK like an organ.

Before the new C3/C1/whatever (a guy over on the Clonewheel group said it could have been called the "Me-2" ) was announced I actually checked with a guy who does custom paint work. Based on the pictures I gave him, he thought the Electro would be straightforward to paint a basic black over most of the red on the cover. Just remove the knobs, screen off the writing that you don't want painted over, sand, buff, and paint. Now that we have pictures of the real Nord dual manual, it seems like it would require quite a bit more disassembly. Makes you wonder what that might do to the warranty. Hmmm....

 

FWIW, I bought my XK-1 sight-unseen (or is that sound-unheard) because everyone agreed the leslie sim was much better than on the XK-3 and real rotating speakers aren't in my immediate future. After a little tweaking I'm definitely not disappointed. I'm still trying to decide if I want to stack a second XK-1, or wait until the next generation of the XK-3 is released with the XK-1 sim or ????

 

John

[Tonysounds]

Damn, I'm getting fidgety looking at those pics! The "NOR-GAN" (Clavia may contact me directly for licensing)looks cool as hell.

 

And C-Bull, what you're seeing is their transistor organ presets (the Stage draw-LEDs look like that when using the tranny presets).

 

And I'm positive the LED strips are not touch sensitive.

 

T

[Gary75]

The new NOrd C1 keys look really chunky and a bigger depth than a Hammond keybed. I always found the keybed on the electro to be quite slow to play, long keydepth and note did'nt sound until you were really far down the keystrike. If it was more like the Korg CX3 then it would be good for me.

 

Where is the cheapest place to get an XK3 these days? Im in UK and the prices here are way heavy. I would love to find a supplier in US that ships international. I take it there's a voltage selection switch on the organ?

[b3_john]

Originally posted by tonysounds:

And I'm positive the LED strips are not touch sensitive.

If you think about it, it would be very cool if they were. Very cool.

 

John

[zxcvbnm098]

I did finally get a chance to play the Nord yesterday at NAMM.

 

It sounded great, although I wasn't able to really A/B with the organ in the Electro. It was just too damn loud on the floor there. But you really don't get an idea of how small it is until you're standing over it. It's a great small size. I also liked the addition of the half-moon switch, but I still think the lack of pianos/clavs from the Electro is a fumble. But the Clavia folks are charming, and they seem to be a dedicated bunch. The guys from the US distributor Armadillo told me they have been approached by almost all of the "biggies" to be bought and have turned them all down. They're happy to run the company as a boutique with no corporate overlords. Damn cool if you ask me.

[kanker.]

Originally posted by b3boy:

The new NOrd C1 keys look really chunky and a bigger depth than a Hammond keybed. I always found the keybed on the electro to be quite slow to play, long keydepth and note did'nt sound until you were really far down the keystrike. If it was more like the Korg CX3 then it would be good for me.

There's a close up of the C1 here - http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2007/ that shows that there's an adjustment for where the sound triggers on the C1's keys.

[RichieP_MechE]

Originally posted by kanker.:

There's a close up of the C1 here - http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2007/ that shows that there's an adjustment for where the sound triggers on the C1's keys.

Look at the black button in the rotor section in that close-up photo. I'm not sure I'd want to push it.

[resigned]

I guess the name change hasn't caught up with the Nord reps at NAMM yet:

 

http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2007/.slide_ClaviaNordC3-Logo.jpg

[kanker.]

Originally posted by The Hammond Kid:

Originally posted by kanker.:

There's a close up of the C1 here - http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2007/ that shows that there's an adjustment for where the sound triggers on the C1's keys.

Look at the black button in the rotor section in that close-up photo. I'm not sure I'd want to push it.

Whoa - I hope they change that before it ships.

[MusicaL]

Originally posted by The Hammond Kid:

Look at the black button in the rotor section in that close-up photo. I'm not sure I'd want to push it.

[mate stubb]

Originally posted by kanker.:

There's a close up of the C1 here - http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2007/ that shows that there's an adjustment for where the sound triggers on the C1's keys.

Where, Kanker? I'm not seein' it.

 

On another note, they misspelled "Brake" on the leslie speed controls as "Break". Oops!

[konaboy]

Clavia.com now has a good and long quicktime video of some cat playing the C1. Check it out

 

Sounded good to me, the sound characteristics was very similar to Electro in my opinion, although I was unsure if a real leslie was being used or not.

[kanker.]

Originally posted by mate_stubb:

Originally posted by kanker.:

There's a close up of the C1 here - http://www.fdiskc.com/syn/namm/2007/ that shows that there's an adjustment for where the sound triggers on the C1's keys.

Where, Kanker? I'm not seein' it.

 

On another note, they misspelled "Brake" on the leslie speed controls as "Break". Oops!

If you look all the way to the right in that pic (the super-sized version of the pic), there's some text describing the parameters in different menus. For example there are settings for various volume/expression pedals, Roland, Yamaha, etc.... There's also a setting for the key to trigger near the top of the stroke or near the bottom.

[Bobadohshe]

I played the C1 today at NAMM. Earlier this thread I was bashing the foolishness of a dual manual clone with NO DRAWBARS and no other sounds. But in person, my opinion was changed forever for two reasons. First and foremost, as ZXCVBNM098 pointed out, this thing is small. Okay, it's small, it's 33 lbs. NO. This thing is SMALL!! I could easily carry it under one arm. Depth wise you have one manual, another manual, and just enough room for the drawbuttons. This thing is smaller than my MOTIF 6. Maybe a shade deeper but certainly not wider. It ANNHIALATES the Hammond XK system in terms of schlep factor. This is going to be a huge selling point for NORD. The second comment I have is about the drawbuttons. I know it's been discussed heavily, so I'll just cast my vote here. They are way easy to use. Hold the button down for literally one second and the drawbar is out completely. I own a Hammond A-100 but I didn't grow up playing them, so I could see how the purists used to the drawbars would be annoyed, so fair enough.

 

As far as I could tell, the C1 sounded great. Bruce Katz was there playing when I walked up, and he sounded really good. The percussion seemed maybe over the top, but I am not an expert on the Hammond subtleties yet. He was also running through a real leslie and using Roland pedals. I played the other C1 they had setup and it seemed cool, the keys especially felt great, but as stated above everything else at NAMM was too damn loud so I couldn't scrutinize the tone to my satisfaction. The Samson Headphones blocked virtually nothing, and the Barbettas that it was hooked up to weren't cranked at all. I also couldn't figure out how to make the leslie sim come on, although I only had 4 minutes with the thing.

 

When I asked the Nord rep if they had plans for a drawbar attachement, he vigorously shook his head. I had a feeling.

[Byrdman]

Originally posted by Legatoboy:

KANKER,

 

It is hard to ween yourself away from it (reverb)! I will try next gig and experiment!

 

lb

I don't use any live on my piano - it really smears the sound. On organ I tend to use a touch of spring reverb on the VK8. Its reasonably authentic (real Hammonds did have spring reverbs - none of them contained halls or stone churches) but its more of a tone thing than a reverb thing - I don't find the other reverbs useful at all live.

[eric]

Here's a fresh NEW thought on the Nord dual manual keyboard. It sounds like an awesome compact instrument, but turns off the B3 purists and is not quite what us Electro or Stage enthusiasts are seeking.

 

So I ponder this...what if the dual manual organ is just the first in line of a series of other dual manual offerings? What if they had a Nord Electro coupled with a Nord Lead 3 in the same package? Would that sell like hotcakes, perhaps?

 

If I could have that functionality built into the same small package (NE + NL) for $3k, it could possibly do my whole gig. Even better, expand it to have some of the Stage features and that would be even better.

 

I really like the concept of such a small and stealth-like keyboard with 2 manuals. Though I think I'll be married to an 88 key weighted board forever, I can see tremendous benefit from a miniscule dual manual like this.

 

Regards,

Eric

[burningbusch]

I saw it at NAMM. I think this will be a good size hit for Clavia. Much bigger hit than the Stage, for example. It's going to be no big deal to MIDI in a module to cover other sounds.

 

I think you'll be surprised at the number of "purists" who eventually say fuck it to carrying around all this stuff to make a dual manual + Leslie systems work. Or will pick up the Nord in addition to Hammond.

 

I really dislike playing single manual clones. It's like trying to play piano on a 49 note keyboard. I would take the Nord over a XK-3 with Leslie clone any day.

 

Busch.

[Bobadohshe]

Originally posted by burningbusch:

I think you'll be surprised at the number of "purists" who eventually say fuck it to carrying around all this stuff to make a dual manual + Leslie systems work. Or will pick up the Nord in addition to Hammond.

 

I really dislike playing single manual clones. It's like trying to play piano on a 49 note keyboard. I would take the Nord over a XK-3 with Leslie clone any day.

 

Busch.

+1 on everything. I'd take it over the XK-3 for portable gigging- I've got enough other stuff to load in.

[Gary75]

Bruce is using an external Leslie on the Nord website video. You can see the thick cable and connector on the back of the C1. I'd have to hear it with less going on and leslie on slow to form more opinions though. Need to hear chorus on this thing. But it sounds sweet, especially in the top end with that old Jimmy Smith squabbling drawbar sound. Maybe Im coming round to it's colour now too if it sounds as good or better than an XK3, hopefully they can sell it cheaper than an XK3 system too.

[mr_mez]

Hi all,

 

Also saw Bruce's vid from the NAMM07 show. The quality of the recording is not great but it still sounds like a Nord to my ears. That's not to say it doesn't sound good but it lacks the depth, presence and convincing leakage emulation of the latest Hammond XK models.

 

Let's hope that Clavia put up a few samples online to give it a fair hearing.

 

Bottomline: If they price it aggressively I'm sure it will sell well.

[konaboy]

Ok, I think this is going to be a big success. Actually this instrument is unique. It is half the weight of the equivalent Hammond dual manual XK3 system and half the price so you are looking at a bargain here. Plus it is one piece to carry instead of two.

 

I believe this instrument could kick-start a whole new generation of organ players who would otherwise never have shown any interest. Myself, I would never buy an instrument that I couldn't take to a gig or jam and this thing you can carry under you arm - that's astonishing.

 

My thoughts on the lack of piano sounds. Remember what happened when Clavia released "bonus" acoustic piano sounds for the Electro. I'll refresh your memory. The sounds weren't great which led to lots of criticism of the Electro even though it was never designed or intended do do this. It probably cost Clavia a fortune in time, money, grief and strife.

 

With that in mind I'm not surprised that they decided to make one instrument that would do one thing well.

 

Here's another thought.

 

Now we have seen the Nord C1, a pure organ instrument. My gut feeling is that a Nord Epiano could be in the pipeline, imagine that, a nice weighted action offering just Rhodes sounds and weighing 10kg.

 

Nord C1 and a Nord E-piano! What a terrific combination that would be!!

[Moon Zero Two]

Question: Where is the pedal board? Is Clavia making one?

 

I have a Stage and a couple of things about the B3 sim aren't the greatest IMHO: the key click parameter is global on the system menu - on my CX-3 it's a knob - also the Drive on the Clavia just isn't the best - the B4 creams it for that Santana overdrive sound.

 

Just wondering if they might have changed that...

[DanL]

Mr Mez, how can you make any objective review of the sound of that keyboard from a recording that was probably done on the video camera mic? Leakage? Depth? Presence? Those are not things you can hear over a compressed, low quality quick time file. I used to have to put headphones on to hear the subtle changes in the leakage parameters on my old Roland organ. Live thru a Leslie those artifacts are much reduced and there is no way to be objective about the sound based on that video.

 

If this organ sounds anything like the Electro it's going to be a winner. Last night we played a real small club, so small I could only bring the Electro. It was such a satisfying experience I didn't miss my other gear. The sounds are so organic. They make you want to dig in and play. I can imagine having a similar experience on this new organ. I just have to convince my wife I need one.

[Bobadohshe]

Originally posted by RonL:

Question: Where is the pedal board? Is Clavia making one?

 

Nope. But it supports every one on the market.

[mr_mez]

Yo DanL!

 

(By the way I'm also a Dan)

 

Like I said previously "Let's hope that Clavia put up a few samples online to give it a fair hearing".

 

You're quite right though, it is impossible to be sure with a crappy camera recording. That said, I trust my ears and if someone has said "what's that?" I would have said Nord Electro without hesitation. It comes from years of listening to nasty old recordings from the 40's etc and a set of very accurate Bose open-back headphones.

 

For the record I really like the Electro - it's pretty much untouchable in it's class but let's wait until Clavia release some official sound bytes and see if I'm right eh?