Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards New Grand Piano Sample in Nord Piano Library

And it's a Shigeru Kawai SK7 sample. It sounds terrific. I always hoped they would do a Shigeru Kawai sample. Such diversity in piano samples and now part of owning a Nord Piano/Stage/Electro, you have access to Steinway D samples, Yamaha C7 and S4 samples, a Fazioli sample, a Bosendorfer sample, and now a Shigeru Kawai sample all under one hood! Never mind the other piano brands like Petrof, Schimmel, etc in the Upright Piano section. Kudos to Nord for continuously offering new sounds and samples.

http://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libraries/nord-piano-library/grand-pianos/silver-grand

There's a thread on this one already. Other new samples too recently, like a DX and some other stuff, ya?

Previous Thread

I hate to say it, but I have pretty much zero interest in Nord until they cease butchering their sample sets. <Checks latest Nord specs - 1GB for APs - gotta be dreaming.> <Checks calendar to confirm that the year is actually 2015.> <Checks online to confirm actual existence of reasonably priced flash memory.> <Checks dream state via pinch test - don't believe it.>

Oh Dewster...I agree about the rubbish old Nord. But how about this for state of the art (goes from very good to truly inspiring at 2:15):

https://youtu.be/w9r3ib0GHJU

Garage band sounds better.

Thanks, now my ears are bleeding!

At least it's an honest demo from the manufacturer. I'm thinking there's even a chance this one would sound better than the demo in real life, unlike some of the processed and compressed Youtube demos from the big names.

We're giving out awards now for not even attempting to polish a POS? I'm probably not prepared for how far down this goes.

Well I can't really say when I sit down at a CP4, RD-800 or any of the many high end boards available on the market right now that I'm not really back in 2005. None of the 'flagship' DPs including my AvantGrand sound appreciably better and play better (except the AvantGrand) from an action/feel point than my Yamaha P-80 I learned to play piano on. There hasn't been a major step forward overall IMHO. I can at least appreciate a certain diversity in the Nord sound, even if it's expensive and low tech.

I often wonder though, what would the big manufacturers like Roland, Yamaha, and Kawai charge for their DPs with the same RAM and same flexibility that Nord does? Obviously there's a strong market for live players judging by the emphasis of everyone releasing lower weight more 'stage friendly' DPs right now.

Kurzweil Forte is a giggers board with workstation DNA. It unfortunately shares the same Fatar action as the Nord Stage 2 EX. The sound library is extensive and always available, unlike a Stage 2 or even the Stage 2 EX where you have to pick what you want to carry with due to the storage limitations. The Forte is better featured in splits, layers, MIDI controller functionality, sound design capabilities. It does not have as good a clone wheel organ (however the KB3 doesn't suck outright) and it's not as easy to use, nor as light. However, Kurz just announced a hammer weighed 76k version which trims length and weight. The Nord is $4999 in the US, the Forte $3995. The Korg Kronos uses SSD for large sample libraries that dwarf the Stage 2 EX and has workstation features and sound engines that almost summarizes their entire 50 years of intellectual property. However it has a plasticy build and the action, while not awful, isn't an MP11 either. Nor is the user interface as refined. But, Korg is offering the mothership of all workstations yet to appear for $3699.99.

I think the Nord Stage 2 EX is good. It meets the needs of certain players very well but there is something bizarre happening in its US retail pricing that places it horribly out of sync with its nearest competitors and is suggestive that it has features that it doesn't, or at least should have at its price point.

Dwell on these discrepancies in US vs. EU pricing. Nonsensical.


.

But for all the Forte's and Kronos' higher technical specs they just don't have anything like the diversity or character of the Nord. Specs aren't everything. Nord has found a way to get truly organic and distinctive voices into its pianos. Nord players have a palette of sounds available that others can only dream of.

You could also argue that Roland Supernatural represents a real advance. No doubt achieved with (relatively) tiny sample sets it performs at a broadly comparable level to multi-gig sample libraries.