List of Nord Stage 4 known issues/bugs

[analogika]

Man they must REALLY be working on quite the mega-update considering how much silence there has been on their part.

They've never communicated upcoming updates.

Ever.

[Mr. Marko]

Yesterday I reported lack of Timbre control of Digital Waves Category with these knobs:

OSC CTRL / ENV AMT/ LFO MOD AMT

I like this synth section - hoping to see some tweaks via OS updates to sweeten the deal.

[lotn73]

That's a badge of honor, isn't it?

Man they must REALLY be working on quite the mega-update considering how much silence there has been on their part.

They've never communicated upcoming updates.

Ever.

[analogika]

That's a badge of honor, isn't it?

Man they must REALLY be working on quite the mega-update considering how much silence there has been on their part.

They've never communicated upcoming updates.

Ever.

For whom now?

I merely pointed out that you were sarcastically railing at them, demanding something they haven't ever really done in FORTY YEARS.

Call it what you want; I 'd probably call it "company policy".

[lotn73]

They deserve it for releasing a VERY expensive piece of gear that has glaring holes in its capabilities - with no guarantee or even a word that they are working on fixing it. The NS4 has barely usable MIDI. They put several of the effects pre-fader, WTF?? (Oh yeah, just use additional effects and you won't have that problem. NO.)

I've been a huge Nord fan since the Electro 2, - I've owned every version of the Nord Stage, currently one NS2, one NS3 and one NS4, and I STILL am mostly using my NS2 due to Clavia removing capabilities that I continue to find very useful (Pending Load being a big one, some MIDI issues I've posted about previously being others). They redesign adding improvements but remove other things. Why?

Remember the Nord Electro 2 had an LFO wah effect? It was great! Hasn't been there since... The original clavinet was modeled in the NE2 IIRC, and it sounded really good. The sampled one we've been using ever since has some flaws in its sound and they never fixed it. The Leslie effect got much worse from the NS2 to the NS3, even though they added tweakable parameters. Some may like it more, but I don't. Why don't they make all these things options?

Oh, and I also have steered people to Nord and sold a bunch of their products over the past few years. Not going to anymore - UNLESS they show us some support. Nothing but crickets now.

[maxpiano]

The original clavinet was modeled in the NE2 IIRC, and it sounded really good. The sampled one we've been using ever since has some flaws in its sound and they never fixed it.

NE2 Clavinet was sampled as well, just for the records, see https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-electro-2

The piano section is comprised of five carefully sampled electric pianos - E-Piano Mark I, E-Piano Mark I Suitcase, Wurlitzer 200A, Mega Clavinet D6, and a custom Electric Grand Model G.

[lotn73]

The original clavinet was modeled in the NE2 IIRC, and it sounded really good. The sampled one we've been using ever since has some flaws in its sound and they never fixed it.

NE2 Clavinet was sampled as well, just for the records, see https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-electro-2

The piano section is comprised of five carefully sampled electric pianos - E-Piano Mark I, E-Piano Mark I Suitcase, Wurlitzer 200A, Mega Clavinet D6, and a custom Electric Grand Model G.

Ah, thank you for the edification! They did a great job on it, wish it was available to port into the newer series.

[analogika]

They deserve it for releasing a VERY expensive piece of gear that has glaring holes in its capabilities - with no guarantee or even a word that they are working on fixing it. The NS4 has barely usable MIDI. They put several of the effects pre-fader, WTF?? (Oh yeah, just use additional effects and you won't have that problem. NO.)

I've been a huge Nord fan since the Electro 2, - I've owned every version of the Nord Stage, currently one NS2, one NS3 and one NS4, and I STILL am mostly using my NS2 due to Clavia removing capabilities that I continue to find very useful (Pending Load being a big one, some MIDI issues I've posted about previously being others). They redesign adding improvements but remove other things. Why?

Remember the Nord Electro 2 had an LFO wah effect? It was great! Hasn't been there since... The original clavinet was modeled in the NE2 IIRC, and it sounded really good. The sampled one we've been using ever since has some flaws in its sound and they never fixed it. The Leslie effect got much worse from the NS2 to the NS3, even though they added tweakable parameters. Some may like it more, but I don't. Why don't they make all these things options?

Oh, and I also have steered people to Nord and sold a bunch of their products over the past few years. Not going to anymore - UNLESS they show us some support. Nothing but crickets now.

See my signature: "The Nord giveth; the Nord taketh away."

I hear all of what you are saying.

The NS4 effects being pre-fader is surely annoying. Having only one instance of an effect and having to move the piano to the second slot because you need to EQ it, but that's already in use by the synth engine is surely so much better, right?

Each board is a set of trade-offs.

The Stage 2 was awesome, but I kept my Electro 2 for its distortion and wah — which are key to why the clavinet sounds so much better than any that Clavia has released since.

The Stage 3 lost pending load, and the Hammond hasn't sounded quite as good despite extensive tweaking, but the pianos and synth sound so much better, and having seamless transitions is worth SO much — and in conjunction with Song Mode adequately replaces pending load (except in situations where stuff is called on the fly, I suppose).
Oddly, the Leslie simulation in the Stage 3 is IMO MUCH improved over the Stage 2, by the addition of the "close" option. Once they added the rotor/horn balance, it was good. Nonetheless, something about the organ isn't as on-the-nose as on the Stage 2.

I no longer expect each new version of a board to be an improvement in every regard — rather, a balance of complexity, accessibility, features, development time, and price.

[lotn73]

Each board is a set of trade-offs.

The Stage 2 was awesome, but I kept my Electro 2 for its distortion and wah — which are key to why the clavinet sounds so much better than any that Clavia has released since.

The Stage 3 lost pending load, and the Hammond hasn't sounded quite as good despite extensive tweaking, but the pianos and synth sound so much better, and having seamless transitions is worth SO much — and in conjunction with Song Mode adequately replaces pending load (except in situations where stuff is called on the fly, I suppose).
Oddly, the Leslie simulation in the Stage 3 is IMO MUCH improved over the Stage 2, by the addition of the "close" option. Once they added the rotor/horn balance, it was good. Nonetheless, something about the organ isn't as on-the-nose as on the Stage 2.

I no longer expect each new version of a board to be an improvement in every regard — rather, a balance of complexity, accessibility, features, development time, and price.

I am 100% in agreement with all of these points, analogika! I kept my NE2 for the same reasons - some kind of gritty, dirty, soulful vibe from the overdrive and wah effects, which translated to amazing clav sounds and I also felt that the Wurly on the NE2 was more alive and punchy.

After using the NS2 for such a long time (nearly 8 years), before carefully treading into the NS3 territory after waiting a year or more for the main bugs to be worked out, the biggest thing I was missing from NS2 was the Pending Load feature. It took me a LONG time to get over this, though once I dialed in all my songs and discovered the goodness of Seamless Transition, I really don't miss Pending Load nowadays. I missed some of the rotary encoders that disappeared between NS2 to NS3, though not too big of a deal.

Agree on updates to Leslie sim between NS2 to NS3.

I suspect I will eventually move to the NS4. I am still waiting patiently for other major OS updates and also to see if this "Page Name" thing might be a proxy for Song Mode on NS4. I've invested so much time and energy with the NS3 dialing in programs and songs that span 4-5 different bands...it would be very time consuming to reset all of this in a new instrument, and more challenging without Song Mode or a proxy for it.

I have faith that Nord will ultimately resolve some of the larger NS4 issues, such as the MIDI problems and so forth. The only Nord instrument from the past that lost all support was NL3, I believe due to the main NL3 engineer either passing away or departing Nord...no one else knew how to work on it.

[lotn73]

Man, you guys are making me want my old NE2 back, lol!

Honestly, I really do love the improvements to the Stage 3, but somehow to my ears the Leslie sim just sounds more artificial. Actually, I loved the Electro 2 sim and think it's better than the Stage 3. YMMV I guess. My thing about Pending Load is exactly as you surmised, Analogika - I do a lot of gigs where songs are called out, and this has been an indispensable tool for me. The Stage 3 works a charm with Song Mode when you have a setlist, for sure.

I've only fired up my Stage 4 a few times as I don't want to get too deep with it if they decide not to fix any more issues. It might be on the chopping block.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent.