"Your Nord Piano 2 HA88 Has Arrived!"

This will be the longest 5 days in history.....

Congrats!

"Welcome to Club Red, sir", as they say...




James
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The Craig man ? I seem to recall getting that same email.

Congratulations! Blame it on my color blindness but I am really in love with the red color of the Nords and I am constantly having GAS for having one If it wasn't for their controversial keybed, be sure I would have ordered one already

More congratulations from another Club Red member

Be sure to have a good headphone/speaker set ready when the piano arrives. And don't worry too much about what they (myself included) say about the key action - it will grow on you for sure.

One more congratulations from a Nord owner. Regarding the key action I find it to be quite a good compromise for the different sounds and as said above, we simply get used to a particular key action and adapt when using it - like we do with acoustic piano actions that for sure can be very different. I have compared the HA88 action for example to Yamaha Motif, Korg Kornos and Roland NX700 several times and do not find any one to be particularly better, given the adaptation we do when we use the different ones and the spectrum of sounds they cover. But of course, none of them are very close to an acoustic piano action and since I also have an acoustic grand piano, I just ordered the Kawai VPC1 to have a very-close-to-real piano action in addition for both my Nord Stage 2 piano sounds and Ivory 2 piano sample library.

Thercman,
Congratulations on your new piano. I hope that you really like it. I suggest you go ahead and download the manual and read through it while you're waiting for your board to arrive. It will give you a good head start. You might also want to go ahead and download the latest OS and the Sound Manager software (along with any samples or pianos that you might want to load onto it).

Also, Nord is really good about updating their sound libraries with new sounds and samples, so it's worth checking the nord website from time to time to see what's new. They just recently (last christmas) released a new Fazioli grand piano sample which is absolutely beautiful, and in the near future they're going to release a new Yamaha U3 upright piano sample.

As for the keybed, there are definitely issues with it, but I think they're overblown by people. The keys are annoyingly noisy (really wish that Nord would put some sound dampening material in their boards to reduce that, surely they could do that without adding much to the weight or expense). But that's really not much of an issue if you have the sounds up at normal volume (if your wife is trying to sleep in the next room while you're playing with headphones on, it might be an issue though

As for the action, I think it feels really good. Opinions vary, but don't be surprised if you find you really like it. It felt a bit weird to me when I first got it, but now I love it. It's much lighter than what I was used to (yamaha p250 and my parent's old upright gulbransen piano) but it's still substantial enough to have a good feel. More importantly, it connects really well to the sounds.

Good luck with it....

Thanks everyone, I am sooooooooo excited! I am sure my wife won't be happy when it shows up. She wants me to wait until I can play better. *shrug*

So here is a little about my decision making process that lead me to being a "club red" member. (I hope it might help others in their process, after all this is a big purchase) Of course I started asking questions on Pianoworld about where a newbie should start within xx-xx price range. (Everyone has been very accommodating I and really appreciate all the help!) That gave me some ideas and a list of models to go check out. Wanting something to more closely emulate an AP's keys bed (highly influenced by my piano teacher) eliminated many of the less costly models really quickly. I also found that many of those less costly model's piano samples were well, not the greatest nor were the key-beds. Based on the key-bed quality and sounds got me down to this list; Roland RD700NX, Kawai ES7, Kawai MP10, Yamaha CP-5, Kawai VPC1 and the Nord Piano 2. My quick thoughts on each from a newbie's perspective.

The Roland has a very nice key-bed and seems to respond well. It has many great features, includes a decent library and can be used as a controller. The down side, to my ears the piano sounds are good, but seem to be lacking something. They are almost un-natural to my ears. I'm having trouble warming up to them.

The Kawai ES7's key-bed is amazing!!!! Although not their "top of the line" I love the weight and response of them. This is mostly a piano wanna be so not many features or sounds. However the onboard piano sounds seem pretty good and I would be satisfied with them I think.

The MP10's key-bed was heavier than the ES7 and a little less responsive. The on boards sounds while good are also limited.

Yamaha CP-5 - I never had a chance to play one of these but I did mess around with the Motif/MOX lines a bit. So I can't be sure how they compare. First the looks of the CP-5 turned me off and after messing with some of the menus on the other lines I quickly thought if the menus on the CP-5 is this much of a pain I don't want anything to do with it. So this this was eliminated at that point.

My last minute choice was the Kawai VPC1. I love the quality of their key-beds and the craftsmanship that goes into their products. I was actually looking for a controller just like this one. The reason I didn't choose this was I got the Nord for $2400 new. So by the time I invested in a VST library I would be at that price and still not not be anywhere near the size library of the Nord. I may still buy one at a later date though just for the key-bed. Maybe the Kawai VPC should come with a code that allows for a discount on the VST's that they have teamed up with. That might help with sales...

The Nord. The local Guitar Center has a stage 2 in stock so I based my impressions of the Piano off the Stage 2. RED!!!! I was sort of neutral on the color to begin with but is a grown on me. The layout of the buttons and menus are very intuitive. Everything is just a quick click. Okay we here go..... The controversial key-bed. :-) The action of the keys (how fast they respond) seem to fit right in there with all the others IMO. Every key-bed feels different even on real pianos. The part I DO NOT LIKE is the noise of the keys. The clack, clack of the keys while playing could be distracting or annoying to others. I must say that this takes away from the professional craftsmanship of a professional $3000 stage piano. Is this Nord not listening to their customer base? I have heard this complaint posted all over the internet for a long time and Nord has lost customers because of it. It had me on the edge for awhile as well. So what led me to purchase this? It was the library plain and simple. Nord has some amazing sounds. They have an extensive library that they are continually upgrading and the downloads are free! Another huge draw for me is the ability to swap out the on-board sounds from the library. This makes the piano very versatile by not having to be tied to a computer. The savings in future VSTs alone will actually make this stage piano less expensive than the others in the long run. It will also keep it relevant.

EDIT: I have seen people mod the Nord by using a small strip of felt or similar product to eliminate the clacking. It is a simple and easy mod, though I am sure opening the the case will void any warrantee.

This is going into my studio where it will be plugged into my Allen & Heath mixer which is routed to my Rokit 5's. I am planning to upgrade to Yamaha HS80's this month.

In anticipation of this purchase I have already downloaded and glanced through the manual. I also downloaded the entire Nord library a week ago and version 6.26 of their sound manager. So I should be good to go when it shows up.

Thanks again to everyone that helped through this process! I couldn't have done it right without you!

Woooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Congrats! Sweet!

Congrats indeed.

Very cool shot too - very 'Nord'.

James
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Thanks! I love this thing. I feel empowered playing it... lol Here is another shot. I am waiting on the other mount so I can add the synth then I will neatly zip tie all the cables up.

Congratulations Thercman,
She looks beautiful. Have you given her a name? Which is your favorite piano sound?

So far I am enjoying the Grand Imperial

Here is a sample. Please be gentle I have only had 4 lessons. :-)

https://soundcloud.com/thercman/nord-piano-grand-imperial

What an instrument!!...and a player:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYr1ebOarLk