Nord Electro Opinions

I've been wanting one of these for a while and everytime I've hear them live or mess around with them, they sound amazing, especially the organs. There's a Electro Stage 2 for sale for a grand locally.

I'm thinking about selling my Micromoog and Juno DI to fund one...don't really use the Micromoog all that much and the Juno DI just sounds okay to me. I'd love to just have one quality board.

I haven't messed around too much with Nords, but how easy to use/intuitive are they?

I know it has great pianos, organs and string sounds but does the Electro 2 come loaded with any synths? Or do I have to download them from their website and load them on myself?

Thanks

Not trying to be a jerk at all, but is it the electro 2 or stage 2? Two very different animals. How many keys does it have?

Not trying to be a jerk at all, but is it the electro 2 or stage 2? Two very different animals. How many keys does it have?

If it's a Stage 2 for a grand I'd be more than a little surprised.

Personally I'd wait and see if the price on used Electro 3s falls when the 4D hits the shelves.

Sorry it's an Electro 2 61...my bad.

No synths on Electro 2, and not possible to download any. The organ on current Nords is vastly improved from the one on Electro 2.

Is it possible to load synths onto the Electro 3?

Electro 3 has no real synth section like the Stage does, but it CAN load sampled synths from the Nord library.

Yeah, I'll add to the chorus... the Electro 3 is much more what you want than the Electro 2. Not only is the organ significantly improved, as has been mentioned, but for the things you mentioned, that's the least of it. The acoustic piano sounds are even more improved than the organ sounds. And unlike the E3, the E2 has no strings and no synth sounds available for it whatsoever. I think a grand is too much for an E2 these days.

In fact, if that's your budget, if you're in the U.S. at least, checkout the closeout Kurzweil PC361 that you can get for under a grand. Except for the fact that it weighs twice as much, it pretty much beats the Electro 2 everywhere. It has great strings, great synth (with full programmability, pitch/mod wheels, aftertouch, etc.), tons of other sounds, splits and layers, better pianos than the E2, and it now has pretty competitive organs once you get the improved organ sounds from the newest system software update.

I jst did exactly what AnotherScott is suggesting. Got a NIB PC361 with the 600mm ribbon controller for under a grand. The organs are killer and I actually prefer the keyboard action to the Nords.

Yes, I agree, the PC361 has a better action than the Electro 3. I wouldn't want to play pianos on either one of them, but for the rest, I'd take the feel of the Kurz.

I use a Nord NE2/74* and I like it a lot, but I only use classic sounds: piano, hammond, rhodes, wurlie, clav. And that's all it has, it has no more.

The piano in NE2 is not "great". It's "barely acceptable" for a piano player. It's fine for rehearsal and great to have one board that does it all (for me) that's so light for rehearsals. But I won't gig and don't even play blues jams using the NE2's piano. The NE's non-hammer-action action is better for organ, wurlie, and clav than for piano or rhodes. It's the same for NE2 and NE3.

If you want strings, NE2 does not have them, not at all. NE3 has string samples you can load, but it's not the same as having all the different kinds of string sounds you can craft on a good polysynth like the PC361.

IMHO, $1K is just a tad high for an NE2/61. I got my NE2/73 (*which I modifed into an NE2/74) for $1100 about 3 years ago. Admittedly I got a killer price, but I expect NE2/73's to be available for not much more, soon. On the other hand, with the low key on the NE/73 being an F rather than an E, the keys below the lowest C were pretty much wasted for me. (I hate to have to hit the octave shift buttons a lot ... YMMV. Thank goodness it does have very convenient octave shift buttons.)

To decide between NE and PC361, ask whether your main use is hammond/wurli/clav. If not, then PC361 is probably the better choice. PC361 piano is far better than NE2. Whether PC361 or NE piano is better is a matter of opinion, though with NE3 you get to choose among a number of downloadable pianos. Only one or two will fit in memory, but you get to pick your favorite. On the PC361, there's basically one piano with different EQ/FX settings.

$1000 is way too much for an E2 61 and a Stage 2 73 should be around that price these days. If you must have more than 61 keys the E3 is not bad. It also has effects and can load samples to compensate for it's inability to layer. The PC361 is the best bargain if you can live with the 61 synth style keys and more weight.

Now sorry KURZ but the E4 is a whole new ball game for purist and more simple interface seeking players.

You can fit more than that. For most live gigging purposes, the differences between the small and large versions are often negligible IMO... all it's missing is pedal-down string resonance. (The "extra large" versions actually include more samples over the keyboard, but those don't fit in an E3 at all.)

So, assuming you pick the "small" grands, they are only 29 to 44 mb a piece, and you have 185 mb to fill. Some of the uprights are as small as 23 mb. The other "piano library" options are much smaller still. The clav is about 6 mb. THe Rhodes and Wurlis are in the 5 to 15 mb range, with most of them no more than about 7 mb. So really, you could get a Rhodes, Wurli, Clav, and 5 pianos in there easily.

For organ, yeah, but for all other uses, it's almost identical to the E3 (though it has the enhancements that were added to the HP version of the E3... long release option on the piano, better patch selection, etc.).

You are right I was thinking of the Stage 1 73, the compact? I have seen them locally for around a grand.

That would be a great deal. Slightly better organ than the Electro 2, I believe, and better pianos (the current ones, up to its 128 mb limit), and a full synth section, MIDI controller functions, and splits and layers... nice board.

RE Nord, the sounds kick ass- IMO it's all a matter of whether you like the (Electro) semi-weighted action. Most are fine with it, I can't stand it. I get tired of overly stiff springs pushing back at my fingers all night.

If the Electro 3 had an action like the Korg CX3II (same Fatar action as Electro but with lighter springs, plays like a dream), the Roland VK/VR series, or the Hammond SK1, I would have jumped on it. But it doesn't. So I got the Hammond SK1 and never been happier, clone-wise, and the other sounds kick ass for live. Although I do miss the Wurli of my deceased Electro II module.

Nice if you need a gig board but it doesn't do anything you can't do in Logic 9.

There's a thread in another forum right now about whether it's possible to change the springs in the Nords. But I agree, at least when it comes to the current models (Electro 3 and Stage 2), I'd rather they weren't so tightly spring as well. I haven't played the SK1, but the XK1 and the CX3 were fine. Though I think the Rolands feel best of all of them. I wish they didn't weigh so much.

In a sense, what you say there applies to almost every board, doesn't it? It's just a matter of whether you prefer using the particular sounds or interface of some board.

I've always felt that Nord's biggest strength is as a gigging board, though, with their emphasis on low weight and easy access to direct controls for the sounds.

Even with Logic, though, you need a keyboard to play, and for $1k, a used 73-key Stage might not be a bad choice there either. There's not a lot of options if you want more than 61 keys and aftertouch. And a lot of people like their pitch stick.

I've been using a STAGE 1 73 (compact?) for about a decade now. It hasn't let me down. It might not have all the features of the newer ones, but it's a very solid performing and excellent sounding board. Plus it's light, and you can get a bag that let's you transport it like a guitar on your back. And the chicks dig that.

Very true. I only said that because I had an Electro for a time. Never ended up gigging with it so I transferred my saved settings into Logic 9 and sold it on E-Bay.

For my music, It was also to close to the real thing. Not something I'm particularly after. I want recognizable but off. Keeps things more interesting.

Looks like an Electro 3 or a Stage 1 is more up my alley. Can you find Stage 1's used for a grand?

I didn't know about the Electro 4 too..when is that coming out?

Thanks for all the help so far.

Later this year. It will be going for over $2k, and obviously you won't see any used ones for a while. The main enhancement is an improved organ sound, and real physical drawbars, along with some other smaller enhancements that were introduced on the Electro 3HP.

I just saw a Stage EX 73 (compact, meaning semi-weighted keys) go for $1500 on ebay, which is the lowest I've seen any Stage sell for. That's a great price, but not what I'm looking for.

I'd get a Stage EX 76 or 88 if it was under $2K, but the lowest price I see is $2600. I may end up getting an Electro 3 73 HP, to sit under my Electro 2. I'd use the NE3HP alone for rehearsals and jams; I've played enough Hammond on weighted controllers that it'd work for me. Maybe I'll just give it a year and see if prices come down enough.