Nord Stage piano sounds

Pr0 · Post by **Pr0** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:25 pm

I've recently tried a Nord Stage. It's piano sounds are gorgeous, deep and so realistic that I asked myself "Why on earth doesn't the Oasys have pianos like those?" So I remembered Karo's. Are Karo's pianos anywhere like the Nord's?
Thanx

Pr0

Kevin Nolan · Post by **Kevin Nolan** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:58 pm

Pr0 wrote:I've recently tried a Nord Stage. It's piano sounds are gorgeous, deep and so realistic that I asked myself "Why on earth doesn't the Oasys have pianos like those?" So I remembered Karo's. Are Karo's pianos anywhere like the Nord's?
Thanx

Pr0

You're joking - right?

I auditioned the Nord Stage and found it to be among the tackiest, cheapest sounds I've ever come across.

The Nord Stage piano is shallow, cheap and on the bass end is outrageously undersampled. Its dynamics are completely out, and it is impossible to play classically on it. Furthermore, its acoustic piano sample is only a few megabytes in size.

the same goes for the CP80. It is probably even worse. the CP80 on my Korg Karma is better, and the OASYS CP80 puts it to shame. Even the CP80 sample on the JV/JD PCM-1 cards from 1992 are noticably superior to the Nord Stage CP80.

Overall, the Nord Stage Acoustic and CP80 pianos are among the worst I have come across. An EX5, let alone a Motif, puts it to shame; and as for your comparison with OASYS's 500 MB Steinway sample - you're simply deluding yourself.

The Nord Stage is among the worst keyboards I have ever come across and it and the electro have turned me convincingly off Clavia keyboards forever.

I cannot comprehend where you're coming from on this

Kevin

mdh · Post by **mdh** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:32 am

Kevin Nolan wrote: I cannot comprehend where you're coming from on this

Under a bridge, no doubt. I agree with you 100%, the piano sounds on the Nord I tried were significantly worse than a Casio. I've swung cats by the tail and got sweeter tones. The doppler effect at the high and low end would be amusing were it not for the price tag on the kit. Epic fail.

I haven't tried any of the Karo sets on my OASYS but I bought Sharp's OASYS Assault and I like his 5-layer piano. I also like the real thing that he sampled, so maybe I'm biased (high-end Yamaha grand). And of course the built-in EXs2 is also lovely. Comparing this to Nord is like comparing apples with orang....utans.

oasys76 · Post by **oasys76** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:28 pm

Pr0 wrote:I've recently tried a Nord Stage. It's piano sounds are gorgeous, deep and so realistic that I asked myself "Why on earth doesn't the Oasys have pianos like those?" So I remembered Karo's. Are Karo's pianos anywhere like the Nord's?
Thanx

Pr0

Hi PrO,

I love the realistic sound of all the Karo pianos. FANTASTIC

Cheers,

Oasys76

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:38 pm

Yeah, the stock Nord Stage piano samples are vastly underpowered.

However, Clavia released some free new piano samples on their website, so the users can burn them in their flash ROM. I hear they are much better.

ksounds · Post by **ksounds** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:06 pm

the piano sounds ... were significantly worse than a Casio

I guess you're talking about old-school Casio. In recent years, the piano sounds on their digital pianos are quite nice.

kanthos · Post by **kanthos** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:08 pm

evildragon wrote:Yeah, the stock Nord Stage piano samples are vastly underpowered.

However, Clavia released some free new piano samples on their website, so the users can burn them in their flash ROM. I hear they are much better.

The samples on the Electro 2 and the original Nord Stage (unless you've upgraded the OS and swapped in some of the newer piano samples) weren't as good as they could be. The piano samples available now, as standard on the Electro 3 and Nord Stage EX (or, like in my case, the upgraded Nord Stage), are much better.

Different keyboards appeal to different people, Kevin and mdh, and Clavia, like any good manufacturer, is continuously improving their products. I haven't seriously tried the Motif or OASYS for piano sounds, but the Nord Stage and Electro are good for other things - I wouldn't trade the organ section, in particular, for any other keyboard that doesn't give me full drawbar control.

I don't play classically on mine (if for no other reason than I've got the semi-weighted 73-key model, not the weighted 76 or 88-key models). Regardless, I'm very happy with it, and though I'm not going to delude myself that it's perfect in every way, I'm more than happy with it as a complete package.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:24 pm

The bummer with Clavia are those digital drawbars. They could've done it with LED sliders just like on the OASYS! This way is pretty much retarted and not as hands-on as it could've been.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:06 pm

evildragon wrote:The bummer with Clavia are those digital drawbars. They could've done it with LED sliders just like on the OASYS! This way is pretty much retarted and not as hands-on as it could've been.

I don't know about that. I don't own one but I love the idea of the 'virtual drawbars'. the fact that you can change to a new preset and see exactly where they are, is what makes it more hands-on and direct than any other system. maybe motorised drawbars, that would be good!

regarding a replacement for motorised faders, like endless rotary encoders, I envisage a system with a linear touchpad similar to the wheel on an iPod (this could be done for knobs too), with LED bars behind the semitransparent surface

on modern instruments we need more feedback on the actual position of controls, like on the P08 and the Little Phatty.

Pr0 · Post by **Pr0** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:43 am

kanthos wrote: The samples on the Electro 2 and the original Nord Stage (unless you've upgraded the OS and swapped in some of the newer piano samples) weren't as good as they could be. The piano samples available now, as standard on the Electro 3 and Nord Stage EX (or, like in my case, the upgraded Nord Stage), are much better.

That's probably it. Meanwhile I've got to try Karo.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:11 am

X-Trade wrote:
evildragon wrote:The bummer with Clavia are those digital drawbars. They could've done it with LED sliders just like on the OASYS! This way is pretty much retarted and not as hands-on as it could've been.
I don't know about that. I don't own one but I love the idea of the 'virtual drawbars'. the fact that you can change to a new preset and see exactly where they are, is what makes it more hands-on and direct than any other system. maybe motorised drawbars, that would be good!

Visual feedback, ok. Realtime control, no! Real drawbar is real drawbar. You can't replace it with the retarded up/down buttons! That's why OASYS faders have LED meters which show the position of the faders when changing patches. It's a brilliant solution and Clavia should've done the same. No motorized faders needed. (They would bump up the price and weight of the board considerably.)

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