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What! What does that mean!

All the best with getting it back to where it belongs...YOU!

I got an "Exception" message from UPS that it was "late" arriving at facility and so it was rescheduled to be delivered tomorrow. I'm not around tomorrow. So I called up UPS and we've been tracking it all day. They said there are so many packages right now it's like a needle in a haystack.

When the delivery truck came, he said it could be on the loading dock since his truck was full and he couldn't fit it. So I said hold it at the UPS facility and I will pick it up.

They said sure. Except they called me back again and said they haven't found it yet. GRRRR. If I miss this shipment, then with the holidays, I'm not going to see it till Dec 27. There goes my Christmas present in Christmas Red.

Anyway, there's still a chance I might see it tomorrow. Or maybe they can hold it for pickup by tomorrow night.

So frustrating...

They often give you the run around when they don't want to admit that they aren't sending parcels as quickly as they should. Sometimes you pay for priority shipping when it's actually being sent on a regular truck with all the other cheaper sent parcels.

I don't buy it when a shipping company says they aren't sure where a parcel is. It's all logged and they know where it is at all times. every time it changes location/vehicle it gets logged to its new position. That's the only way they can get any parcel to go anywhere. It's a very efficient system actually, but there is some deception involved. The tracking programs available to the public are not the same ones that they use internally. They lack a lot of detail so they can fudge the dates and times a bit. The reality is they try to limit the number to truck runs they do and put as much as they can on each one. Sometimes you are lucky and your priority parcel gets on the next truck leaving - when that happens your perception as a customer is that the service was very good value and that your parcel was a high priority. If you are unlucky and your parcel missed that truck and ends up on the next one, it can be delayed and then you end up wondering why the delivery time-frame doesn't seem to be holding up. That's when they start giving you vague information in the hope that they can distract you long enough for the parcel to arrive in the meantime. It really is luck of the draw a lot of the time, unless you pay megabucks for absolute guaranteed delivery times. The good news is that most parcels eventually get there, and undamaged. Your's will turn up soon enough. Hopefully in time for Christmas!

ando, I hope they're not lying to me when the lady I talked to 3 times today said she personally searched for the package and couldn't find it. Their volume is extraordinarily high, she said, and the stacks are big. She couldn't find a keyboard shaped box.

The other possibility, she says, is that it went out on the wrong truck, in which case it will be sorted out tonight.

LOVE IT! Thanks Santa!

Worst case scenario as always. One day late and at NIGHT. That's when the keyboard arrived. So quickly plugged it in and just gave it a play.

WOW. This has the sound I remember that has so much body. The piano sounds like you're playing a horn. Just played around with Grand Lady D which is loaded. This thing is just perfect for jazz.

The weight of the keys is great. Heavier than the FP7F so I felt more in control. Reminds me of the Casio Privia weight although it doesn't feel the same. And as hard as I hit on it, nothing metallic comes out. I may actually set it for a lighter touch at a gig, which is unusual for me since I'm used to the heavy weight on my grand. I surprised at the comments wanting more hard touch.

As I was playing this, I was thinking to myself. Did my playing improve? My tone and articulation just sounds so much better.

Now I had expected the board to be lighter. But I guess 36 lbs is still substantial. Not something I'd want to lug around in my arm.

Next thing to do is learn all about the OS and downloading samples etc. Maybe read the manual. I never do that.

My wife was a little shocked at the red color. "Really? You got a red keyboard? uh...OK".

So glad it arrived, and is not damaged. Not really worst case, eh?

Sounds like you made the right decision! Those gut feelings are pretty reliable, usually.

Thanks voxpops.

UPS called me early in the morning -- "your package will be delivered before noon". Yeah right. At noon: well, I had to leave today and so I left my son at home while the rest of us went somewhere. Then I get back and it's still not here. I left again and and got back right before dinner. I thought I had to hold up going to eat just wait for this thing. Whew.

But I guess I need to be understanding. The truck driver says he had 800 items on his truck. The last delivery day before Christmas. So that must be close to that many number of stops. Wow.

So anybody want an FP7F?

Congrats on your NP purchase and what a fantastic Xmas present!

I'm not sure what the rules are on this forum for promoting other ones, however, there is a dedicated Nord User Forum (www.norduserforum.com) which has some equally talented members as there are here and in fact, some of the members here, are members there......... myself included. There, you should find some great tips on updating, downloading sounds etc etc, however, it's all pretty easy stuff. I would certainly recommend you check the OS version of your instrument and ensure you're at the latest level.

Go grab that Bosie sample in XL format and upload and see how that grabs you. It's now my mainstay piano and I couldn't be happier. Although I'm using a Nord Stage 2, the sounds are identical and the long-release feature helps add so much realism with legato pieces.

Thanks for the welcome Siriosys! I have a lot to learn here. I have downloaded all the sounds and OS update. I left to go to a party while it was downloading the bank to the Nord and I came back many hours later and it didn't take.

So here it is stuck again saying "Preparing Bank Download". Something got messed up.

I think maybe I should update the OS first.

Just from playing it yesterday and a little today, I feel really connected to this machine. This is such a good decision for what I do.

I still have the FP7F on the upper stand and an A/B test shows that thinness that bothers me. It's so obvious side by side.

Anyway, I hope I get it running again without too much trouble.

Darn. Having such a difficult time loading the piano samples. Every time I leave my computer, it stops. And the only way to get it started again is to reboot the computer.

Fortunately, I loaded the Grands (which is mostly what I use) so maybe I'll take a break from this.

Got 1.44 OS loaded (came with 1.2). And my two favorite ones are the Grand Lady D and the Bose Imperial. I think with these two I'm functional.

If you're having problems, contact this guy. He gets back to you pretty fast.

Pablo Mastodon
Nord Technical Support USA/Canada
(800) 994-4984 x3030
(813) 644-8480 (direct line)
Pablo.Mastodon@AmericanMusicAndSound.com

jazzwee, sorry to hear that you're having some issues transferring sounds to your Nord. As you're no doubt aware by now, it can take some time to transfer the larger instruments, so I'm wondering if your screensaver, virus checker, or any other background applications are kicking-in and disrupting the transfer process? If possible, try to disable or close these additional tasks before starting the Nord software manager.

Also, are you using a Mac or PC? I have a small netbook running Mac OS X which I use almost exclusively for uploading samples to my Electro 3. Fortunately, I've never had any problems with the computer locking-up during transfers, I'm 'only' ever sending the 'L'-sized sounds, as the largest 'XL'-size do not fit within the Electro's memory.

Cheers,
James
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James, I'm using Windows 7. Seems to be some intermittent USB problem and yes, it is possible that some CPU intensive task is affecting it as I have not turned anything off on the computer.

Is there a way to incrementally add a sample instead of loading the whole bank at once? Now that I have the Grands in there, I don't want to restart again from the beginning.

I'm not even close to filling up the memory. I should have 73mb free. But it just keeps stopping at some random point.

Dave - I didn't want to call anyone for support on Christmas day so I'm trying to figure out for the moment. Otherwise, that's great information. Thanks.

Are you using the "Nord Sound Manager v5.30 " ?

It was easy once I did that..otherwise, being the total computer idiot I am, I never would have been able to figure it out..

I'm on a 2.5 year old iMac with the older OS-X 10.5.8. I just went into the "sound manager" and individually deleted all the upright samples and grands to free up memory space and then loaded in the XLR samples of the Bosie and Yamaha Bright Grand. It took awhile for those to load -probably 20-30 minutes for each one, but it went very smoothly.

'Those two are all I need. The Bosie for more solo or ballad stuff and the Bright for cutting through in the group.

In any case give Pablo a shout tomorrow if you're still having problems.

Before I started, I loaded the newest Clavia drivers for USB and the latest Sound Manager.

Initially, I tried to replace the entire bank before I changed the OS. AND THEN IT STOPPED. So then the keyboard had no sounds. I saw there was an old bug with this.

I tried updating the OS. It kept "losing connection" with the NP. After multiple NP restarts, it finally took and fortunately here there was no reboot of the computer which takes so long.

Then, after some many reboots later, I finally got the download started on the NP. I thought great, let me just leave it alone. I left it overnight and apparently it stopped at whatever I saw last that night.

My bank selection - I removed all the uprights, clavinets, harpsi. I just need EP and Grand. So looks like I can probably add one more Grand to the list.

Anyway, now that I have at least the grands loaded, this keyboard is great. I sound so different on this. Like I have more control over the character and dynamics in my solos. It's just so perfect for jazz! And that strong sustain on the tone is so forgiving compared to the FP7F.

Figured out a workaround! Downloading entire bank is very buggy. Takes very long to do anything (20 minutes per sample). And then it always stops so I have to start again.

But downloading individual samples seem to work fast like 3 minutes apiece. I've already loaded 2 in a few minutes.

Wasted the last 2 hours on repeated rebooting.

jazzwee, what do you mean by 'downloading and entire bank'?

Up until now, how were you transferring the sounds if not dragging them onto the Nord Sound Manager individually?

Cheers,
James
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James, I really didn't know what to do and then I saw the option Bank Upload/Download so that's all I used. I put all the sounds that was on the NP onto a folder. I replaced it with newer ones I downloaded from Nord Samples. Then I did a bank "download". This means I had to replace 500mb or so each time. Chances of timeout 99.99%.

I think there was a bug in the Sound Manager (new version).

I only figured out today that I could load samples individually. But I spoke too fast earlier. After 5 tries on the Bosie sample, it kept stopping so I gave up. Shorter samples didn't have an opportunity to timeout so they were fine. On the Bosie, I would get timeouts as far as 97%! What a waste of time.

I then loaded the older Sound manager (5.28) that was on the DVD, and it loaded the Bosie with no timeout and no reboot. So my opinion is that the new version (was it 5.8?) of Sound Manager is not ready for prime time.

I now have only the samples I need and I still have over 200MB available for something. I'm fully functional now with all the latest stuff.

I will probably email the support guy to let them know of my problems with the latest Sound Manager. I also turned on "Long Release", though I still have no idea what the difference is . Everything is sounding good.

I'm developing a preference for the Grand Lady D 5.3 over the Bosie. But I have both loaded and one C7.

I'll probably record something shortly here and give it an official whirl.

I'm officially a Nord convert!

Welcome to club red! I love my Nord instruments. Still using them all the time. Starting a new jazz trio in January and gonna hit the music performance career hard this year and I'm totally confident and totally equipped with my Nord Piano for all my piano work, both in and out of the studio. Like you said, if you've got a real piano, don't worry about loss of technique playing the Nord. I practice almost exclusively on my AvantGrand and do the gigging on the NP88. I purchased the Nord Gig Bags for both of my Nords and they are NICE. Well worth it. Built first class and attention to detail is second to none. I expect that though coming from a company like Nord.

Well said Zachary!

BTW, long time no see...good to hear you're progressing with your playing.

James
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