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NORD NS88 Details
Concept
Too often, our choices as players require compromise. We do our homework, make phone calls, and scour the Internet seeking advice on the perfect stage piano, yet at every turn, we're forced to give up some benefit and choose between the lesser of compromises. You like this one, but the action is too stiff; another one feels right, but the sounds are thin and weak; another still sounds great, but of all its features you'll only use a few; yet another one feels and sounds right, but weighs as much as your car.
Friends, players, hired guns: the search is over.
Introducing the Nord Stage 88, the culmination of Clavia's award-winning technology and design in a full-range weighted-action stage piano. Featuring the best of Clavia's technologies, the Stage 88 is designed with practical benefits for real-world pianists. Of course, style factors in as much as substance - what would a Nord keyboard be if not bright red?
Construction
The Nord Stage 88 is a high quality yet very road-worthy stage piano. Constructed of the same light metal as other Nord keyboards, the Stage holds up to the rigors of touring and constant transportation. At less than 40 pounds, the Stage 88 is among the most easily portable controllers available. Wood panels round out the style of the Stage, providing the classic yet discernable look of the Nord Electro2. Complementing the Stage's portable construction is a set of Rhodes-like legs which screw onto the bottom (the legs are sold separately - price TBA).
Architecture
The Stage features three sound sections - the Organ, Piano, and Synth sections. The Stage is 6-voice multitimbral, so 6 sounds can be combined into a powerful performance. You can use 2 sounds of each section at once - that's two organ manuals, two synths, and two pianos layered together! An A/B switch allows you to quickly move between two advanced setups immediately, so hunt-and-peck navigation is kept to a minimum during a performance.
Clavia's patented pitch-stick and modulation wheel construction is included for maximum expression, and the unique Morph Grouping technique allows you to combine effects and sound parameters together into one physical controller. The Stage also has four outputs, giving users the opportunity to run individual sounds through different outputs - this is a great way to dominate your performance, and control your sound mix.
The Organ Section
Like the Nord Electro2, the organ section is based on full simulation of electromechanical organs. The Nord Stage contains not only the famous sound of the Hammond B3, but it also adds Vox and the Farfisa organ models as well. The complex digital modeling recreates every nuance of these unique organ sounds giving you the full arsenal of Organ sounds.
The Nord Stage emulates the energy stealth from the tone wheels, resulting in the “compressed” sound that occurs when playing many notes simultaneously. The rotary speaker emulation is the final touch of our rich organ sounds, and is available for the pianos and the synths as well. The key-click on the Hammond organ model is now a user-defined parameter, so players have even more control over their sound.
The Piano Section
The piano section is comprised of 6 different sound groups. These groups include the Mega Clavinet D6, the Wurlitzer 200A, the Rhodes Mark 1, and the custom Electric Grand model G. The Acoustic Piano Group includes the Yamaha C7 Grand Piano and an upright piano. A Miscellaneous group also exists, for any future sounds that Clavia will develop for the Nord Stage.
The acoustic pianos were created using a very advanced sampling technology. The sounds are stereo multisamples, recorded at many different velocity levels. The key-release, pedal down, and pedal up sounds have also been added. In an acoustic piano, the vibrating string will make other strings with shared overtones vibrate, creating its very energetic and full sound. The Nord Stage pianos will produce the sympathetic string resonance when each note is hit with the pedal down. This full sound was attained through the development of a completely new sampling engine, which provides the lushest, most accurate and expressive grand pianos ever made for a digital keyboard.
The piano section is very flexible, allowing the use of any of the Stage’s rich effects, splits, and layers, and in the future Clavia will release new piano samples that can be loaded via the Nord Stage’s USB port.
The multisample engine of the Nord Stage displays subtle nuances throughout the whole dynamic range. Thanks to the carefully designed sound engine, an aura of authenticity is created that can only be heard in a Nord instrument.
The Synthesizer Section
Clavia is world famous for synthesizer technology since the groundbreaking Nord Lead from the mid-1990s. For discriminating musicians, a subtractive synthesizer has been built into the Stage, creating opportunities for texturing and layering piano and organ sounds. This synth is like no other that Clavia has produced - instead of digging through parameters and sculpting your sound with a large array of knobs and encoders, the Stage's synth section features the essentials. A single knob moves you through various oscillators, glide and unison functions are added, as well as a low-pass filter, modulation envelope, amp envelope, vibrato, and and EQ. The synthesizer unit in the Nord Stage is sonically rich, very easy to use, and has it’s own unique personality.
The heart of this synthesizer is the Oscillator section, where you can choose from basic sound elements. The Analog section recreates all the elements from classic subtractive synthesizers like the Moog MiniMoog ™. The FM section recreates the typical FM sounds that were dominating the 80s by the Yamaha DX 7 ™. The synth section includes digital wavetables, which recreate sounds similar to famous instruments like the PPG Wave ™. Each section has many different oscillator presets. The timbre knob varies multiple parameters within the selected oscillator preset, allowing players to sweep between different characters of the sound.
The filter section has 12db and 24db filters. You can easily manipulate filter cutoff and resonance, and control them with velocity or keyboard tracking as well. There is a modulation envelope which shapes both the filter and the oscillator, and an amp envelope to control the attack, sustain, release, and decay of the sound.
Effects
The Phaser, Flanger, and Chorus effects are modeled from the classic analog stomp boxes that were popular in the 1970s. With parameter knobs for realtime adjustment of effects, all the swirling phasers, metallic flangers, and meaty chorus effects found on classic recordings are here - crystal clear and faithfully simulated.
Among the modulations the Nord Stage is capable of, there are the vintage Tremolo, three Wahs, and Auto-Pan. Use the Auto-Wah with a Clavinet for raw funk licks. Create a psychedelic vibe with a Rhodes on Auto-Pan. Give a Wurlitzer some body using the Tremolo.
There is a Ring Modulator on board, an effect used by many experimental and electronic musicians. From jazz, funk, prog-rock, and pop to fusion, R&B, and avant-garde, this useful effect has conjured incredibly unique tones for a generation of players. A delay unit has been included to create haunting echoes or slap back effects.
Amp Simulation
The effects section also includes an amplifier emulation unit which creates the famous sounds of a Fender Twin Reverb, a Roland Jazz Chorus or a Rhodes Suitcase amplifier. You can also set the drive of the amps creating the sound of an overdriven amplifier. The drive knob works like a normal overdrive effect when no amp model is selected.
There is also a Rotary Speaker emulation, that not only brings a much-needed feature to a live organ performance, but can be used with any of the electric or acoustic piano sounds as well as the synthesizer unit.
Master Effects
Finally there is also a compressor and a reverb unit. The reverb unit has Room, Hall and Spring reverbs to create different atmospheres for your sounds. These effects come at the tail end of your sound-construction potential, allowing you to easily blend with your band whether you're plugged in through the main mixer, or running your sound direct to your amplifier.
Accessories
The Nord Stage can be delivered with classic piano legs reminiscent of a classic Rhodes piano. The legs are very easy to assemble and disassemble for transport. The legs are optional and sold separately.
Free Upgrades
Pianos come in many varieties, and while a Yamaha™ C7 might sound great, it might not be the sound you need at the moment. Clavia will constantly offer a number of various sounds that you can download free of charge from www.clavia.se . Use the Nord Stage's USB port and sample-dump software to swap sounds quickly from your Mac or PC.
NORD NS88 Specs
KEYBOARD
88 medium weighted hammer action keys
Aftertouch
Supports 3 split zones with visual LED indication MASTER
Compressor
Reverb with room, stage and hall option
CONNECTIONS
4 assignable separate audio outputs
Sustain pedal
Rotor pedal
Organ swell
Control pedal
Headphones
MIDI in
MIDI out
USB EFFECT SECTION
Ring modulator
Tremolo
Pan
Wah
2 auto wahs
2 flangers
2 phasers
2 chorus
Delay with ping pong mode and tap tempo function
3 amp models with 3 band EQ
Rotor effect with selectable speed and drive
ORGAN SECTION
Hammond B3
Vox Continental
Farfisa
Full polyphony
9 digitally controlled drawbars
Separate level control
Percussion control
Vibrato/chorus control
GENERAL
Wooden pitchstick
Modulation wheel
Master level control
21X6 program locations
2 live buffers
2 individual panel setups
Morphing
PIANO SECTION
2 Acoustic Grands
2 Upright Pianos
3 Rhodes, Mk I, II and V
Wurlitzer model 200A
Clavinet D6 with EQ control
Yamaha CP80 Electric Grand
40-60 voices
Separate level control
3 selectable dynamic curves
MIDI
6 part multitimbral
DIMENSIONS
L. 1297mm
H. 121mm
D. 334mm
SYNTH SECTION
10 analog waveforms
1,2 or 3 operator FM synthesis
32 wavetables
16 voices
Hard sync
Unison
Amplitude envelope
Modulation envelope
12/24 dB lowpass filter with resonance
99 memory locations devided in 3 categories
2 band EQ
Separate level control
WEIGHT
18.50kg
OPTIONAL
Legs
Semi hard case
NORD NS88 Hear this Product
Four improvisations played and recorded by Palle Dahlstedt demoing the Yamaha Studio Grand C7 close and Concert Grand Steinway D ambient. If you are interested in more of his work visit his site: http://www.id.gu.se/palle .
How To Choose / Useful Information for Pro Keyboards
Click a question to see the answer.
Why a Pro Workstation keyboard vs.a Portable/Electronic/Arranger keyboard vs. a Synthesizer?
Pro keyboards have a multitude of other features like audio recording,
editing the sound to the most elemental part of the sound, a 16+ track sequencer
with detailed editing, a lot of synth sounds, they will run 4 to 18 simultaneous
higher quality effects like reverb, … and have no arranging or styles other than possibly
arpeggiators or drum patterns, . . A fully orchestrated sound/song can be accomplished
with a pro keyboard but it assumes you want to create each part or instrument sound in
a song much more closely (from scratch) than a portable ++
Portable/arranger type keyboards are more for fast songwriting,
for backing tracks when you play or for one person band with drum patterns,
bass, and other sounds with the accompaniment having different song style genres
(blues, swing, rock,...) with different patterns for the verse, chorus,...
of the song. The song styles and performances are very educational as well for
learning genres that you may be unfamiliar with. You can have many instruments
follow what your left hand plays in real time and chord recognition for
fast performing,
portables have more meat and potato sounds and fewer synthesizer sounds
Synthesizers- typically do not have workstation features
like sequencing, recording audio, having all types of sounds, . . .
but rather focus on doing a few or sounds extremely well which usually
are not acoustic or real world instruments but 'other worldly' sounds
with many ways to manipulate the sound.
What affects the price you will pay and what should you look for?
The level of realism and selection of the sounds-
each keyboard typically does some sounds better than others so decide
which main sounds are important to you and play each model (or listen to sound files)
you are interested in to find the one that sounds best to you. Does it have all the
sounds you are looking for to make a completed song?
Ease of use- hardware knobs, buttons,... amount and location and logically placed
Display size- touchscreen, color, icon based, easy to read, backlighting not too dark,...
Sequencer- depth of editing features, ease of use as you could spend most of your time here, linear recording only or pattern based recording as well, ...
Quality and number of effects- reverb, EQ per part, compressors, master FX, number of part insert FX, master/global FX, does it have enough DSP to finish a 16 track song without needing external processing
Audio recording/sampling -2 to 8 tracks or more- how easy is it to actually record and playback, does it have enough recording memory/time- re: roughly 10 meg a stereo minute, how is the recording backed up,..
Drums- does it have ‘easy to chain’ patterns or is the arpegiator easy to use, does it have pads on top of keyboard or none at all,...
The number of simultaneous notes the keyboard will play (polyphony)- important if you write denser arrangements or use instruments that use a lot of polyphony (piano,...)
Control computer software via hardware sliders, knobs,...
Computer control the keyboard with editor/librarian- as VST plug-in,
standalone, 100% editing, the visuals on a big
computer screen can shorten the learning curve (much more intuitive)
Operating system- is it intuitive or obtuse, ...
Maximum RAM memory- will determine possibly how much recording time is available
or how much room you will have for adding external samples/sounds
Connectors- # of audio outputs, balanced or unbalanced input,
data storage- memory card, jump drive, USB to computer connection
Please notice that almost every keyboard on our site has a sound file
you can play on your computer to hear for yourself.
What about speakers?
For home or studio use we prefer powered studio monitors
for the best audio quality without spending a lot and keep
the sound in stereo (versus a mono keyboard amp) which is much better with full orchestrations,...
All have headphone jacks if you prefer not to be heard.
For stage, keyboard amplifiers come in all sizes depending on the size of the venue
What accessories should I consider?
Stand- stabds come in many shapes and styles- X style, Z style, ...
Bench- consider a more sturdy 4 leg bench if you do not need portability,
X style if you do -- the wider the better.
Headphones- full size will be more comfortable and quieter
and may offer better quality audio
Pedals- most come with a sustain pedal, some have jacks for more control
- volume, expression, etc.
Bag or case- we recommend the manufacturer bags and cases first,
then Gator Cases and bags. Do you need wheels? Will only you be carrying it? Will it be on planes? (should have ATA rating)
Jump drive/Storage card for audio, midi ...
Computer interface if no USB connection- need multi-port midi,
how many channels of audio ...
Dust cover
Glossary
What is a Style?
combination of sounds like drums, bass and keys with rhythms and chord progressions
in a certain genre (rock, big band, jazz,…) which create backing tracks that you can play a lead part over
What are Song Sections?
these are divisions of a song that portable arranger keyboards identify as an intro, verses, choruses,
bridge, fills, outro,… with performed by musicians that reflect the mood/feeling of each of those sections that enable
faster song arranging
What is MIDI?
an
interface to connect a keyboard to the computer like USB port for printers. It
sends note and other data from the keyboard to the computer or vice versa.
Basically says play this note at this time at this volume level- it is not an
actual audio recording. It also makes it possible for one keyboard to play
another keyboard.
What is polyphony?
the number of
simultaneous notes that can be played, though if it’s a stereo sample/recording
each note can use 2 notes at once. Its important for anyone who plays a lot of
notes at the same time and holds down the sustain pedal. The earliest notes
played will cut out when the limit is exceeded. This can happen with pianos
with 32 note polyphony especially.
What is a sequencer?
a
recorder with 1 to 16 tracks usually so that multiple instruments can be played
back for fully orchestrated songs and can have elaborate editing capability.
Typically digital pianos have only 1 or 2 tracks for playing back a piano
performance and archiving another. These can be downloaded to the computer with
a midi interface
What is sampling/samples?
a short audio
recording of a note. For more realistic sound, digital pianos can be recorded
at different velocities so that when you strike a note harder, the timbre
changes for better realism
What are effects?
to modify and
enhance the sounds in the keyboard including non- piano sounds. e.g. - reverb
will put the piano in a small room or up to a large concert hall.
Don’t see the answer to your question?
Call us toll-free at 1 877 778 7845 and speak to our piano experts
3900 Fiscal Ct, Suite 200
West Palm Beach
Florida 33404
USA
Telephone:1-877-778-7845 Toll Free
or 561-842-7451 Fax: 561-840-9032E-mail Us! Hours: Mon-Fri 10 am -7 pm EST, Sat 10 am -5 pm EST
Nord NS88 Stage 88
Panel
Rear
OnStage KSP100 Sustain Pedal
ONSTAGE KS7191 KEYB STAND DOUBLE
AUDIO TECHNICA ATHM20 HEADPHONES
ONSTAGE KT7800PLUS DELUXE BENCH
