Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards is nord electro 4D a gigging dream come true?

I mean only 22lb (7kg) great organ and piano sounds plus very compact and sturdy case without mod wheels etc which I never use actually looks to me as a must have for quick gigs. I feel like I'm falling slowly for it. Unfortunately my RD700GX is not giggable without porter

If you play piano and Rhodes, waterfall keyboard wouldn't be so good.

actually nord waterfall keys are pretty good for pianos as well,
sure not for any demanding pieces but completely usable and have nice feel under fingers.

If you're looking for real drawbars and piano in one unit, there aren't a lot of options... Nord, Hammond SK1 (or SK2), the forthcoming Roland VR-09 and older VR-700. For playing piano and organ from the same keybed, I'd say that the VR-700 feels best, but it's bulky and heavy (though not as bad as an RD700!). For actual sound quality of the piano, the Nord would be the pick, but I really don't like playing piano from their unweighted action. Other than that, each of these models has features the other ones lack.

There would be no way I could play piano from that particular keyboard. I'd have to have at least the HP..and even that is inferior to the Piano 2 or Stage 2. It is a nice board and I've actually thought of getting the E4 HP myself.

I'd rather have HP as well but not 73 keys - Electro 4 HP is almost twice as heavy 11 kg (24.25 lbs) and much bigger what
disqualifies it for me. Gigging keyboard has to meet 2 criteria - fit inside mini cooper on passenger seat and weigh less then 20lb ( or 10kg).

If I were you, I would rather have a bigger car than a lighter piano By the way, I remember I was able to fit my Yamaha P90 in the passenger space (with the seat slightly pulled back) in my ex Mazda MX-3 which would hardly qualify as a big car If it could fit in the tiny Mazda, it would certainly fit in the MINI as well.

Well, if you're really bothered by playing the piano sounds from the semi-weighted keyboard you could always midi up a controller with a more piano-like action. Play the nord's piano sounds from the controller and play the organ from the 4D (or you could rig up the controller as a second manual even). Something like the new casio px5s seems ideal for that (light and relatively inexpensive).

Yes, Nord sound + Good quality weighted action = an excellent combination.

Unfortunately Electro 4 isn't multitimbral - you can't play both piano on weighted controller and organ on NE4 at the same time.

yeas that's a bummer but you can sing and play at the same time

I've had an SK-1 for a few years, and really like it. I just came into a Roland VR-09, and some of the organ sounds are exciting me now. The clav/organ combinations on the SK-1 seem funkier though, as far as I can program them. The VR-09 has some really surprising limitations - it's hard to turn down the level of the Delay - most delay types it offers are set to equal level to the dry sound, with no editing access, even in their iPad app. The 'Insert Effect" (Roland calls it MFX) will apply itself to your organ and synth, or organ and piano, or piano and synth, or both synths in a layer. . . As these effects are pretty extreme, you'll want to have one component of the sound you're playing dry, and this seems impossible on a layer (though possible on some split configurations.)
Some of the VR-09 limitations seems such that they could be addressed in a future OS update. I don't know where to make such suggestions to Roland, although I'm sure they are quite aware of the limitations they've built into the VR-09 as it now stands, for either cost or cannibalization reasons.