Demo on Nord home page.

Bright Grand...??? What is the manufacturer? It looks like a Yamaha C3 in that pic, but the C3 is 6'1". I will be installing this tonight.

Nevermind, I just noticed it's an Yamaha S4. Very glad Nord released something new for us!

Great stuff, but why another Yammie?

Not that I'm complaining though...[hugs his E3]

James
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Well judging by the 3 demos Nord uses (Boogie/Dynamic/Stomp), and comparing the sound with the other pianos, and the Yamaha C7s especially, I think the new S4 is a step up in overall sample and sound quality. I'm gonna delete the Grand Lady D and Studio Grand 1 for now, and delete my Schimmel Upright, and make space for the S4 in XLG. I find myself almost exclusively using the Yamaha C7 Studio Grand 2 live and the Bosie every once in a while. I think the Yamaha's just sound better for the kind of music I do, so I'm really looking forward to this new S4 sample.

I installed the XLG Yamaha S4 and I love it. It's nice and bright, but can be mellow as well, and works perfect for the style of music I play. I highly recommend NP88 users to install it.

I tried the LRG version earlier this morning on my E3. It's a good, clean, bright sound, however it's not really my cup of tea. I prefer warmer, more vintage sounding pianos.

Cheers,
James
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I just installed it myself. It seems like a useful addition to the piano library, I still prefer the Bosendorfer but the bright grand might cut well through the mix in a band.

Regardless of its usefulness, ain't it nice to easily be able to load / unload various options to find what we all prefer and can use as the situation and / or tastes warrant? Can you believe no one else in the industry has so usefully adopted this paradigm?

Gigantic (Pixies-reference, as Velouria is now playing on my smartphone) kudos to those clever, nutty Swedes @ Clavia/Nord!

+1

Yeah..youbetcha...really great! I'm finding it my favorite. Can totally be mellow with the soft pedal, but has wonderful definition. Nothing muddy at all. So very cool to be able to have all this variety.

Wow the price of the Nord is not that bad at all considering there are so many good sounds to choose from... I am already enjoying Grand Lady D and Studio 2, can't wait to try Bodorf and S4! (wait after my big gig in 2 weeks before updating software)

I downloaded the XL version to my NP88. Initial verdict: I think it's possibly the best "balanced" of the Nord offerings to date.

The Grand Lady D is nicely voiced across the whole range but the dynamics could be a bit more refined.

The Studio Grand 2 is lyrical and more responsive but has a weak top two octaves.

The Grand Imperial sounds wonderfully airy and open but suffers from a slight nasal quality in the octave above middle C.

The Bright Grand seems to take the best of a lot of these - it has the even response of the Grand Lady, the dynamic sensitivity of the Studio Grand and the openness of the Bosie.

The real test is how good it is in mono over a PA. Up till now, I've always found the Grand Lady D to be the best overall bet there but I have high hopes of the Bright Grand.

Let us know Aidan. BTW, I totally agree with your analysis of the sounds.



+1!



+1!

I never tire of the Reds!

Possibly the result of sampling a new piano?

Nord's updates are no jokes, each one is a step forward and makes your instrument better!

Yes it is nice to see a manufacturer making some effort to keep their customers happy with new sounds.

IMO this new bright grand is the best so far.
A couple of notes seem to jump out a bit too much (the D below middle C for example) but it could possibly be to do with my monitoring. Even with this I do quite like the sound once some treble is rolled off.

I tried the new Bright Grand XL at rehearsal last night. Sounded great in the band mix. I still prefer Bosendorfer XL for solo playing, but the bright grand has a nice punch to it for group playing. I run stereo live tho so I can't speak to how well it does in mono.

Nice job Nord.....

not to deviate from the subject (well, actually yes...) a quick question to NP88 owners. I recently had a back and forth with a Stage 2 owner- and he felt the velocity curve on the AP's was too "fast" ( which i guess equates to "light" touch) - to the point that he was using a different board as a controller for the AP samples. Do any of you notice this as an issue with the NP88? He felt the Stage 2's velocity curve was possibly set up that way to make it easier to play the organ and synth patches, which is understandable.

the velocity curve/ touch response on the NP88 is adjustable, correct?

EDIT: i'm looking at the NP88 user manual- and it looks like the only adjustments are to make the keyboard touch lighter/faster. Is the default setting OK for heavier touch players?
thanks!

Surely the velocity curve on the Stage 2 can be adjusted too? It's their mothership keyboard. Even my Korg T1 from 1988 has an adjustable velocity curve!

I tried a Stage 2 a few weeks ago at a music show and I was immediately struck by the difference in feel between that board and the NP88. Even though they apparently have the same action, I believe Nord have made custom adjustments in both which give a totally different feel.

The Stage action felt lighter and shallower in its throw (the latter possibly due to the addition of aftertouch sensors). That could well account for the issues your colleague has been having. Bottom line: I wouldn't choose a Stage 2 if your primary need was a good feeling piano.

I've made this point before - adding aftertouch to an action tends to completely alter the character of the playing experience. It will be interesting, when they arrive, how the Kronos 73 and 88 compare with the SV1. Same action (RH3) - but I strongly suspect they will feel a lot different under the fingers.

thanks for the insights, Aidan. So you are happy with the touch response, etc for the NP88 i take it?

I'd ideally like the Nord to offer at least one "harder" touch response curve but overall, yes. All these things are compromises, the Nord is no exception, but it's a pretty good compromise.

I could not agree more. I've used one of my other weighted keyboards to trigger the NP88 and customized the curve for a harder feel, much better.

I had some time to play with the new "Bright Grand" and I am loving it. I have not tried it at a show yet but somehow I think this patch will be perfect for my rock band. I hope Clavia keeps them coming. The ability to get new sounds is one of the largest part of the NP88 added value.

Care to put the Bos and Bright Grand through DPBSD?

BTW has anyone tried to reverse engineer the .npno format to extract the samples? And has anybody tried to resample it (use an automated tool to sample every key at many velocities)?

Although I haven't reverse engineered the npno or straight Nord sample files, I have it on good authority that the npno files are based around a lossless format such as FLAC. This means that the actual WAV/PCM captured audio stream is more than likely a third or more bigger than the sample you're uploading into your keyboard.

Siriosys - for the benefit of those less informed (like me), explain in more detail what you are saying here. Is this a good thing - the actual sample is more detailed then the size of the file would dictate? meaning that the uploaded file's content is "richer" than its size would ordinarily indicate? or is it the reverse...

thanks!

I tried the Bright Grand in a jam session with a couple of mates last night. I was wondering why the heck it sounded so ugly, then I realized that the treble was set way too high. After that, I really liked the sound of the piano. That and the Studio 2 are my favs, I think the Bosendorfer sounds so weird, is it supposed to sound so 'weird', are they really that characterristic in real life?

My apologies for not making things clear. Instead of detail, I'll get straight to the point. In short, yes, it's definitely a good thing!! File formats like FLAC tend to provide the same level of fidelity as their larger WAV format files but in a reduced file size. So in short, you're winning!

I don't know the exact details about the npno format, but it would be fair to say, that the 190Mb Bosie sample possibly started out life in a larger format, but they've been able reduce the filesize to fit it into the Nord's limited memory capacity without losing too much fidelity - and that's a good thing.

Technically speaking, if the Nord samples are indeed compressed using an algorithm like FLAC, there will be absolutely no loss in fidelity.

Cheers,
James
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