NORD STAGE 4 officially announced for February 16th 2023

[Hlaalu]

Same here, I’m hoping they improved the Hammond engine (and possibly included other models, such as the A100, as an option in the settings)

The A-100 is the same organ as the B-3 and C-3, only in a different cabinet. I'd rather hope for a more tweakable organ engine for the NS4, than it is on the S3.

By the way, that the S4 will use a new Hammond engine is to be seen. Clavia has discontinued their C2, so it might be the case that the S4 sports just the same organ engine as the current generation of Stage and Electro. I strongly wish I will be proven wrong though...

[analogika]

Same here, I’m hoping they improved the Hammond engine (and possibly included other models, such as the A100, as an option in the settings) since I’d literally buy an Electro 7 just for that: every time I play Crumar’s own emulation (and as you pointed out, the HX3 might be even better), going back to the Electro feels like a definite downgrade.

The A100 and B3/C3 Hardware are identical.
The A100 has an additional power amp that feeds the internal speakers, but doesn't affect the signal going to the Leslie.

I'd love for an updated engine on par with the HX3/HX4. That's an awesome organ.

[RnBDog]

Hoping for an HA76 version. IMO best feel, and gig weight.

[dansnord]

It's funny, I'm just outside of my return window on the Stage 3 88. I want the best for all of you who have been waiting for this for years. But...I really hope I'm not left regretting my purchase! I don't think that will happen. My guess is that the S4 will be expensive, and I only considered the Stage 3 because of the recent, steep price cuts. I also find the organs to be great on the S3 and more than meet my needs as a more traditional piano player. And as I have said in other threads: the Stage 3 is amazing to my ears. Truly inspirational to play. And that's what I needed. That said, hoping you guys get what you want!

[agcohn]

It's funny, I'm just outside of my return window on the Stage 3 88. I want the best for all of you who have been waiting for this for years. But...I really hope I'm not left regretting my purchase! I don't think that will happen. My guess is that the S4 will be expensive, and I only considered the Stage 3 because of the recent, steep price cuts. I also find the organs to be great on the S3 and more than meet my needs as a more traditional piano player. And as I have said in other threads: the Stage 3 is amazing to my ears. Truly inspirational to play. And that's what I needed. That said, hoping you guys get what you want!

It will likely be awhile until the Stage 4 is widely available, and by that point the re-sale value on your Stage 3 should still be pretty high, albeit less than it would be before the Stage 4 announcement and any associated Stage 3 price-reductions, but the resale value should still only be a couple of hundred less than the price of a new Stage 3.

[gordon]

My NS4 predictions from the image (most of these have been observed by other commenters so I think we are on the right track):

PANELS: I predict a new approach to Panels:
- Each instrument (organ, piano, synth, extern) has multiple PANELS – like the Nord Stage 2/3 global panels A and B, but controlled PER INSTRUMENT.
- Among other benefits, this enables the SYNTH instrument to add a third much needed panel (A/B/C) whereas Organ, Piano, Extern? can remain with two A/B

SECTIONS: Each instrument section appears to have the following in common:
- Level sliders rather than encoder knobs - 2 per section (3 in the case of synth) with LED level displays
o Good for being able to instantly visualize and modify all A/B (and C) levels across all instruments
o Bad (compared to rotary encoders) for ‘tweaking’ preset level up or down – sliders will hopefully be programmed to “catch” a preset level rather than immediately override it when moved
o Assume these are NOT motorized faders – there would be no need for the LEDs if they were
- A single button at top of each instrument along with two (or three for synth) LEDs which I predict will switch the panel DISPLAY between panels A/B(/C)
- A pair of lighter gray buttons just below the sliders which I predict are for Octave Shift and the usual control modifiers PSTICK/SUSTPED/etc
- A pair(probably 3 for synth) of black buttons at the lower end with 4 LEDS which I predict replace the NS3 “on/off/zone-select” single button. Hopefully these are one on/off/zone-select per PANEL for that instrument
- Note there are 1 or 2 LEDs below the level sliders and above the lighter gray button pair (octave shift) – maybe one per Panel/slider - maybe these are related to the level sliders, to indicate Morph or to help indicate whether slider is in correct position, or some other per-panel related function. Synthe has 3 such LEDs visible

ORGAN:
- There appears to be a 6th Organ Model on the selector switch (NS3 has FARF/VOX/B3/PIPE1/PIPE2)

PIANO:
- No piano-specific changes I can see

CONTROL SECTION:
- Program/Song Parts buttons either reduced to 4 or (hopefully) increased to 8 (2 rows of 4).
- No more need for Panel A/B buttons here as they are now distributed to each instrument at the top.
- General philosophy seems to be to put “performance” controls nearer the bottom and move “editing” controls nearer the top. So I predict the “monitor/copy/paste/organize/store” buttons are moved above the OLED display. Hopefully the transpose and split buttons are moved down in return but that’s just a wish.

SYNTH:
- All indicators are that a 3rd Synth panel is added. Is it a full synth or just a sampler, who knows. Good either way.
- DOES synth have 3 on/off/zone buttons at the bottom rather than two? Hope so but hard to tell.
- Synth has a lot of blurry knobs. Good. And MAYBE a slider or two? hard to tell but there are some interesting panel markings / empty space.

EFFECTS/OUTPUT:
- We’ll just have to wait and see – how many effects channels there now are (NS3 had 2) and how they can be assigned to the 7 (not 6) instruments

REAR PANEL:
- There appears to be one additional Pedal-or-I/O connector in addition to the NS3(SUST + CTRL + ORGAN-SWELL) plus all the other I/Os as per NS3

I have pre-ordered my pre-order already I need that extra synth channel already and don't want to have a second tier (Wave) on my rig

[Fairstar]

A 73 or 76 HA with the same keybed as Piano 5 would be an interesting market addition - and maybe ditch that infamous HP line altogether?

[analogika]

SYNTH:
- All indicators are that a 3rd Synth panel is added. Is it a full synth or just a sampler, who knows. Good either way.

I’d think we’re getting three identical engines. Different engines would need different controls, or just use a subset of what’s there. That doesn’t make sense to me.

[Afghanza]

A little over 24 hours to go I am excited. No way I have the money to buy one now. Just being curious what kind of monster machine they have build during the pandemic! I am hoping for a big upgrade on the fx section as well. Especially on the delay and reverb section.

[StrangeAeons]

Same here, I’m hoping they improved the Hammond engine (and possibly included other models, such as the A100, as an option in the settings) since I’d literally buy an Electro 7 just for that: every time I play Crumar’s own emulation (and as you pointed out, the HX3 might be even better), going back to the Electro feels like a definite downgrade.

The A100 and B3/C3 Hardware are identical.
The A100 has an additional power amp that feeds the internal speakers, but doesn't affect the signal going to the Leslie.

I'd love for an updated engine on par with the HX3/HX4. That's an awesome organ.

Thank you, I genuinely thought they were supposed to sound different. That means that all of the various models featured in Crumar and Viscount’s emulations actually sound different because they were modelled after organs built in different times and possibly with different components, but not because they were different “models”, correct?