Nord grand 2 just released

[Schorsch]

lavia positioning its Stage, Piano, and likely the upcoming new Electro for just the 1%.

It seems that this 1% feeds them quite well. Bringing the price down significantly will probably bring up the number of units sold significantly, but at a much lower margin per unit. At the same time it requires a heavy investment in expanding the manufacturing capabilities (assuming that their capabilities are currently in line with the numbers of units build) and as such also a serious increase of financial risk. Why would you do that as a company if your sale and profits are solid and your CAPEX and OPEX is well managed to meet expectations of their owners/shareholders? Growth is not always desirable if it includes too much risk, and staying with a limited but financially strong customer base is sometimes the better strategy. Look at luxury car manufacturers …..

[agcohn]

lavia positioning its Stage, Piano, and likely the upcoming new Electro for just the 1%.

It seems that this 1% feeds them quite well. Bringing the price down significantly will probably bring up the number of units sold significantly, but at a much lower margin per unit. At the same time it requires a heavy investment in expanding the manufacturing capabilities (assuming that their capabilities are currently in line with the numbers of units build) and as such also a serious increase of financial risk. Why would you do that as a company if your sale and profits are solid and your CAPEX and OPEX is well managed to meet expectations of their owners/shareholders? Growth is not always desirable if it includes too much risk, and staying with a limited but financially strong customer base is sometimes the better strategy. Look at luxury car manufacturers …..

Well, we can't be talking about the actual top 1% (of wealthy people), as those are the types who don't think twice about buying $200K+ Steinways and Bosendorfers. I don't think Nord's are on their radar.

Maybe the top 1% of keyboardists / musicians, but that is still a pretty size-able market. At the end of the day, I don't think that the cost of Nord products are out of line with other professional stage equipment / instruments. High-end acoustic instruments can be in the $3-20K+ range.

Yes, Nords have gotten pricey for home / enthusiast musicians, but that is ultimately not the primary target market for Nord. That's why companies like Yamaha / Roland / Casio / Kawai are great, because they are able to produce a wide range of products in bulk, but they also have a significantly higher overhead than Nord and rely on much higher levels of sales than Nord.

[Theliberator88]

I’m concerned about the removal of the panel lock on NG2. Did they really do that ? If so, why ?
I own the NG 1 and have to use the panel lock during gigs all the time.

[StefVR]

I guess few people would use the grand on stage that’s what Piano 5 is for. Less weight easier to transport and more damage resilient built. Most grand users keep it home and in the studio for sure and don’t worry about panel lock.

[Benny]

I guess few people would use the grand on stage that’s what Piano 5 is for. Less weight easier to transport and more damage resilient built. Most grand users keep it home and in the studio for sure and don’t worry about panel lock.

The Panel Lock on the Nord Grand is really useful to me whether live, studio or at home (even when I'm playing it at home, it really isn't fun to have settings change in the middle of playing).

I find it interesting that the Nord Grand 2 doesn't have one and I'm curious to find out why. I'm hoping to try one out to see if the panel itself is angled differently etc. It would be great if the new design has made the panel lock unnecessary.

[StefVR]

I have a nord Grand 1 and consider whether it’s worth the upgrade. I got a stage 4 too and know already that I don’t really need the 2 Piano Layer split although it’s a little bonus. Same goes for extra effects.

It all comes down to the “upgraded keybed”. Whatever that really means as both have already triple action and for me as someone who has a 2019 Yamaha C6x Grand Piano the best feel of any digital I ever played (still far from the real deal but great).

So I guess I have to wait till someone has one in store to play. All these Namm interviews were very vague to say at least.

[luisdent]

man, this release came as a surprise to me and is both frustrating and awesome.

i had the original np88 v1 for years. finally upgraded to the NG1. i had searched all other digital pianos out there before doing the upgrade. there were really only 2 or 3 possible contenders, but NO ONE ever has sounds as realistic as the nord pianos IMO as a pianist. So I bit the bullet and upgraded to the nord after being disappointment by either competitor's piano samples or action quality or both. My very limited testing showed the NG1 to have decent action. Not mind blowing, but infinitely better than the NP88 v1 fatar garbage. There was a time I literally almost bought another keyboard controller to use with my NP88 to get better action but the nord sounds.

Anyway, knowing nothing about the NG2 being a thing, I can say briefly my thoughts on the NG1. After a while the action is very good. Not real piano, but one of the better digital pianos i have used and I've gotten used to its feel. The pianos are still amazing and the best out there IMO except maybe a very few computer based libraries, but that's a different beast.

I have literally maybe ONE time accidentally switched settings while playing, so for me the panel lock has never even been touched. not gonna lie, i'm not even sure i knew there was one. lmao. so overall i think the design is very good. clean sections, great sounds, good action, etc.

what i've found i don't like about the NG1 seems to all have been addressed in the NG2. first, I HATE not being able to layer pianos with digital pianos like the DX7. it isn't a "synth" so i can't layer it? stupid. i would probably never layer 2 acoustic pianos, but since there are digital pianos categorized under "piano" that is frustrating. The NG2 has 2 piano sections that can be layered. boom.

second, I can't EQ two layers. super frustrating. If i want a grand piano with a nice pad under it. I want the pad to have very little high frequencies, so i EQ that out. but now there's no eq for the piano. lame. NG2 has layer specific EQ.

third, same for reverb. I want piano reverb, but maybe not much on the pad or second instrument. too bad, so sad. NG2 fixes this with layer effects/reverb.

and from the demo video i saw they "claim" it's the newest kawaii action that is "supposedly" better than the NG1.

So, for me personally, it isn't a deal breaker, but I would really love to swap my NG1 for an NG2 just for those reasons. I often get inspiration from slightly mixing patches to get dreamy piano sounds. however, as a whole, this isn't a very big update on paper. unless the action is significantly better or at least "noticeably" better, i would say piano players probably don't "need" any of these updates. most more multi instrument/synth players would probably get the stage or something else all together. so it's probably just a pass for most people IMO.

I was fortunate enough to sell my NP1 v1 all these years later for a very large portion of the original price. so the resale value was very good. if I even wanted the NG2, I would do the same and sell the NG1, except now the NG2 is $1000 more???!!! I don't understand that. It's like they released a new model just to hike the price up. That's literally a substantial price difference, but even if you think the changes are major, they are "technically" a small subset of the piano. the action, wood and metal body, power supply, motherboard, etc. etc. are all probably identical or very similar. but they added a few processors or upgraded components to give you the extra layering functionality. ok, fine. if i had to guess, they will argue that the big price hike is from the added storage memory. my understanding is that the memory for pianos is extremely expensive as it needs to be very fast and non volatile to save when the piano is turned off. i get that. but still, it's only the synth memory and not even that much more. it seems like a huge price difference all in all that is making it hard for normal people to afford.

it's almost as much as the nord stage which does a lot more. sure the action is better, but so was the NG1. so just put the kawaii action in the nord stage and i'll buy that. sheesh... i'll personally pass this version and hope the next isn't so expensive or is at least mind blowing upgrades. i'm glad to see an upgrade that has features i like, but it's sad the price went up so much. at least i hopefully get all the new samples for a while.

[thejam1999]

I’m concerned about the removal of the panel lock on NG2. Did they really do that ? If so, why ?
I own the NG 1 and have to use the panel lock during gigs all the time.

Just received my Grand 2, it's a beast!
Panel lock not needed because the positioning of the panel is much better than on the grand 1.

[jbolazzi]

[quote=Theliberator88 post_id=172518 time=<a href="tel:1706316548">1706316548</a> user_id=36775]
I’m concerned about the removal of the panel lock on NG2. Did they really do that ? If so, why ?
I own the NG 1 and have to use the panel lock during gigs all the time.

Just received my Grand 2, it's a beast!
Panel lock not needed because the positioning of the panel is much better than on the grand 1.
[/quote]

I confirm after few days playing the Grand 2 that panel lock not needed anymore!