All user reviews for the Clavia Nord Stage 2 88

I bring you back to the downloadable manual on the net

UTILIZATION

simple general config, for a maximum of possibilities
clear enough manual
editing sounds: all or almost is in front, the grip is naturally

SOUNDS

sounds suitable, or very well,
not terrible presets,
Too bad it does not make coffee

OVERALL OPINION

PLUS
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- This is a very good keyboard scene, pretty and more.
- Pianos are superb realism, especially the great imperial.
- Very well as electric pianos, organs very realistic
- Part synth / friendly and powerful sampling.
- The effects are visible and powerful, flange, chorus, wah, delay, reverb amp simulation, equalizer
- Everything is in front, the machine has been well thought-oriented scene
- Possibility to connect a second MIDI keyboard to play the organ for example

MINUS
----------
- Heavy keyboard is good without being great
- The high price
- Presets for the synth part
- Access to memory on a small screen

6 octave keyboard (Mi Mi)
4 banks with 128 sounds (replaceable)
Modulation effects, reverb, distortion, delay, all editable.
Controllers Pitch Bend, mollete for morphing
USB and MIDI connections
Editing parameters thanks to software not provided CLAVIA

UTILIZATION

Great for the scene because editing in real time (buttons, knobs, ...)
Clear manual, but the forums are trsè used (see website NORD STAGE USER)
The sounds are not entered in the parameters of the machine (or KORG ROLAND style), everything is done manually by turning the knobs until "SOUND" is found.

SOUNDS

Are the most realistic and organs are used (FARFISA, HAMMOND B3, VOX), acoustic piano (wonderful!) And electrical (RHODES, MArk 1-4, Wurlitzer). On synth sounds, I find too vintage for my taste.
It really changes other workstations (though I have a kronos)

OVERALL OPINION

I use on stage and in the studio, especially the sounds of piano and organ. For synths, I use other keyboards.
What I like about this keyboard is more than color, ease of use LIVE, and realistic sounds of piano and organ. Also, the morphing for drastic change parameters of a sound without changing the program.

I would do this choice

See product page.

UTILIZATION

Users of workstation-type pattern and company will laugh! It's childish, it Splite easily, layers are created in 2 seconds. The effects are at your fingertips on the right of the keyboard (reverb, delay, phaser, distortion ...) and quickly adjustable when you have a sound that suits us, we store and forward, one can add a layer for example, and add a splitter or a B3 low left hand with the stuff (6 sounds can be used simultaneously, or any splitter or splitter as 2 or 3 ... etc) it sounds complicated but it takes 10 seconds ( if so serious!).
The manual is not a stone but perfectly sums up the basic functions.

SOUNDS

The sounds are excellent, in addition to pianos organs are almost perfect. For pianos, I advise to load the sound of the great concert Boesendorf found in the sample librairy North course, not that other sounds are bad (far from it) but with the great boesendorf it kills! on the other hand he is greedy and takes a lot of space (so it will turn at least two other piano sounds lighter).
The Rhodes are excellent, the Wurly "supertrampesque".
The organs are fabulous.
I will issue a small flat on the sounds of the synth sample librairy side, I find them a bit cold. But with the synth part, you can change them at will and give them a nice personal side.

OVERALL OPINION

I use this machine for 9 months and I am delighted because it is complete for any type of scene, I use it in several groups (Rock, variety, Musette, French songs, jazz) and it fits anywhere .
Not to mention the weight, only 18kgs, for one-stage piano keyboard it looks!
I recommend this instrument to all lovers of piano, organ, rhodes and foremost who do a lot of scene.
I would do without any concern that choice.

For specifications I refer you to the site of Clavia.

The keyboard comes with a power supply cable, USB cable, a sustain pedal and a proper keyboard covers-red.

The configuration could not be simpler: you plug it on and voila, ready to play!

UTILIZATION

The keyboard is divided into three sections: organ (B3, Vox, Farsifa), Piano (Piano acoustic grand and upright, Rhodes, clavinet, piano, electronic), Synth (samples, waveforms, LFO, envelopes ...) .

Each section can be stacked up to 2 instruments per section (6 instruments at max: 2 organs, 2 pianos, 2 synthesizer).

To these three sections you can add effects (chorus, delay, wah, flanger, tremolo, reverb ...)

The Operating Your very easy even for a novice: each button has a function and you do not get lost in endless submenus.
In 30 seconds you can stack such a grand piano, a Rhodes, 2 B3, a sample of violin and a wave wave, make changes in sounds, add multiple effects to a reverb, start the arpeggiator on a sounds, assign any effects to the modulation wheel or after touch, splitting the keyboard ...

In short it is powerful, thoughtful and quick to implement. It is a formidable stage keyboard, robust and relatively lightweight (18kg for 88 keys). Regarding its use in the studio, he perfectly fulfilled his duties as master keyboard with integrated usb midi. All controls send a message noon, which means they can be assigned to any function of your DAW.

The manual is very quick read (only about fifty pages) and contains everything you need to know. Anyway the keyboard is so intuitive that the manual is on the edge of superfluous

SOUNDS

As for sounds, which first strikes are the pianos. Just incredible! It breathes, it lives and could spend hours listening to the string resonance. One can only feel inspired when our hands touch the keyboard. By far the best that I have been given to listen!

The organs are also very good, with the opportunity to play with all the drawbars to shape the sound to our liking. leslie simulation did a good job and percussive effects are well rendered.

The rhodes are quality even if they do not transcend the originals.

Finally the synthesis part, I will not dwell much on the subject because I have not tested all the possibilities. In all cases there is plenty to do, everything is at hand and the creation / editing sounds is really easy! Small detail, you can import your own samples, but keep in mind that only have one velocity layer ... realistic level we have seen better.

The touch keyboard is as it was a good compromise between a piano and a touch touch organ. touch is heavy enough to enable nuanced play the piano (the excellent dynamics should help!), and light enough to allow good velocity for organs.

Caution, however, the keyboard is pretty noisy!

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 3 months and I never tire of it! even though we toured the functions fast enough finally, the architecture of the beast pushes us to be creative to find OUR sound. Moreover, it is possible to download new piano sounds and new samples from Clavia's website.

Just for comparison of touch, I have a Yamaha p-95 and feel of the latter is more "realistic" for a pianist that the Nord Stage 2 88.


The machine is a little expensive but considering it will last you quite some time, you return to your costs
Attention all the same: the Nord Stage is not a workstation and does not have the vocation. If you are looking for a workstation, go your way!

I would do this choice 1000 times if I have a chance!

Keyboard stage * red *. The 88-note version weighs 18.5 kg, which is rather "light" category. Excellent build quality and finish (wood sides and metal cover). Optional 4-foot aluminum finish on how Rhodes vintage look.

The mechanical keyboard (hammer action) comes from Fatar (TP/40) set by North. The hit is a bit lighter than the competition scene keyboards (Roland, Yamaha, Kawai). This is not what is best in terms of emulation of acoustic piano touch, but it is a good compromise which allows for a good expression on the piano, while keeping some gameplay for instruments that lend themselves less (organ, synth). Note that the touch is (in my opinion) significantly better compared to the previous Stage that had a consistency more "elastic".

Under the hood, three main sections: Organ, Piano and Synth, all in duplicate, on two panels combined and split into layers. Clearly, you can mix up two organs + 2 + 2 pianos synths on all or part of the keyboard. Let's add to that a section "extern" to control external sound banks, and a section full effect of good quality.

Note that the instruments are assigned to one or other of the two stereo outputs, which can be technically significant live.

Two sample memory, 500MB for pianos (acoustic, electric clavinet and harpsichord) and 380Mo for the various samples used by the synthesizer part. All sounds are replacements from North libraries, which are enriched continuously.

Need to buy the triple pedal to use the half pedaling and pedal noise. The pedal is provided a simple swith on / off: I would have appreciated a simple pedal progressive "North" (especially since there is no full compatibility with the pedals progressive trade).


UTILIZATION

I had some concerns on that side, but still looks like a cockpit of Boeing, the handling is very fast. Most settings are allowing immediate access to quickly build a patch "on the fly" or adjust in real time a patch has already been stored. We are far from workstations and menus / sub menus keyboards Japanese scene: here everything is done on a small 2 line display and knobs for direct access. In short, the old, double-clutching and heel-toe, no programmable automatic transmission. This is less flexible in the options, but incomparably faster to implement.

Among the features really clever, a morphing feature allows you to assign different settings to controllers. We can control filters, effects, levels and even create crossfades between instruments at once to dial or pedal. Useful live. In terms of news, click a master can now sync arpeggiator, LFO, and various effect parameters.

One can of course save their patches (400 locations). The factory patches can give an idea of ​​the possibilities of the machine, but they are generally pretty average.

SOUNDS

Sounds are one of the best of current knowledge Nord (2011): The piano section is the North piano, organ section contains three organs of C2, and the synth is a kind of Nord Wave simplified but bringing new products.

Section piano: See my detailed opinion on the North piano. In short: The acoustic pianos are quite unique in their genre, you can choose from a large library of piano strong personalities. The latest developments (sympathetic resonance, and half pedaling repedaling) provides a definite plus. Marriage samples - keyboard is well studied, and easily found its mark. Possibility of using the North Triple pedal for more realistic (unfortunately expensive and heavy, not really compatible alternative). Rhodes also large collection of various generations and settings, including a Sparkletop of beauty (there would be others in preparation). One clavinet and wurli, played only a bit hollow, but once worked with convincing effects. In the sounds I use less, a CP80 and a large collection of harpsichords.

Organ Section: The section B3 and Leslie are truly stunning. I had a Nord Electro 3 (organs of C1) and of the Stage 2 is really a step up. The sound is warm and vintage at will. Affected side, an option to trigger the sounds early in the race of the key, making it playable on the organ keyboard, however, more suited to piano sounds.

Section synth: I will not dwell on the synthesis part and I am less stalled. It has a single oscillator (against 2 for the Nord Wave), but the "unison" can dramatically thicken the sound as overlaying several oscillators. With the ability to mix two synths in layers, there are many possibilities. The big news from the Stage 1 is to allow (as in électro3) reading samples, which can grind at leisure through the filters of the synth section. Found in the Northern Sample Library a large collection (rather unique) sound of vintage keyboards: mellotron, chamberlin synths and 80s. There are also more traditional sounds of acoustic instruments: strings, brass, guitars, bass and various instruments. It is also possible to incorporate its own samples. The sounds are very successful vintage, the string sections as well. For some acoustic instruments, we may regret that this sampler handles only the single layer. Indeed, the bass solo strings and other instruments could benefit from using solid samples multilayers (gain in expressivity and / or ability to have different joints depending on the velocity). This is often the case with competitors. But hey, a keyboard on stage, it is not to play bass or guitar right? Also new is an arpeggiator, simple but useful that can be synchronized to cutting rhythm master wanted to click.

The effects are good and comprehensive (more comprehensive and flexible than the Nord Piano and electro 3, on which we can not, for example fine-tune the depth of vibrato). The Analog Delay is very effective, amp simulation / Eq very useful, especially on electric pianos. We thus have four double "rack" effects (1 for each panel), which is added the Leslie and the compressor and reverb which are global.


OVERALL OPINION

In short, very happy with this keyboard that I use for several weeks.
It is expensive and a little apart in the category of stage keyboards. I began to taste the instruments by the North Electro 3, used in parallel with my keyboard at the time (Roland RD700SX), I went to the North Piano, then the Stage 2 and I do not regret at all.

A small conclusion + and - to Audiofanzine:

Goodies:
Keyboard + thought of as an "instrument" in its own right, facing vintage.
+ Sound and replaceable library scalable and continuous improvement.
+ A unique collection of samples of acoustic pianos that capture well the personality of each piano: Bosendorfer, Steinway, Yamaha, Petrof, tail, baby grand, human ...
+ Simulation of organ at the top
+ Section synth can now use a large collection of samples
+ Discount on resale under the Roland and Yamaha consors

Cons:
- Cher, price of accessories
- Less versatile sounds "generalists" (bass, horns, guitar ...)
- Sustain Pedal provided non-progressive, optional triple pedal

Everything has been said about it.
I have version 88 keys.

UTILIZATION

So there you have to know what you want.

On paper, if you compare the last Korg or a Motif XS, this keyboard will seem a bit feeble for the price.
In practice, I had the opportunity to have an S90, Yamaha, and other toy in the hands and I have never had the courage and the patience to customize to my taste, and according to my needs on stage. Everyone does not have all day (week!) Available to program the machine without getting lost, let alone the next daunting for some.
In practice, with the Japanese overpowering synths and full of possibilities "on paper", it comes soon enough to simply search through the thousands of sounds available some "performance" or "patches" that go for what wants to play and then held there.

With the North is quite the opposite: The use and programming are so simple as not to customize the instrument would be to miss the thing.
After some early stage in understanding the Sound Manager (PC software) and to reassure me (clear a bank, make a backup, restore factory config etc ...) I decided to create 6 programs that I use to live in trying to find the sounds I made with my S90 as not to disturb the balance of the group.
5 hours later it was folded. 6 programs over the first 6 locations in the D bank, named after the corresponding songs in my playlist.
It makes you want to create multiple programs per song is so simple.
I thought I should wait a few weeks before replacing the S90 in my group and in fact next week I took him in rehearsal! It will be ready for 2 hours playlist.

In 10 years of using Yamaha synths, I have never been able or willing to do what I did in 5 hours with the Nord Stage 2.


Hand side is a bit simplistic to read (in English: that's not great for non-English).
But again, once you have used the machine you realize that it is because the machine is altogether simple and intuitive.
Once we understand the shift button, slots A & B, split, and synth parameters ben it was 80% of the way. Even the screen is there to make you understand what the parameters are stored and with what.
If having a machine that you utlise only 10% of the opportunities you reassuring, the Nord Stage 2 is not for you. Here it is unnecessary secret menu. Everything is on the dashboard. So it's almost afraid of trying all possibilities in a few hours. On reflection, finally, a human machine!!

The editon sounds could not be easier. The only downside for synth sounds, a tutorial on the use of analog parameters (filters, resonnaces, LFO etc. ..) would have been welcome to the profannes.

SOUNDS

Okay so here we touch the real difference.

The Nord Stage 2 is a musical instrument. It sounds silly but we feel "physical" play an instrument, not a keyboard that plays a sound reproducing device.

Playing the B3, one gets the imprression to have a B3 under the fingers, like an acoustic piano or Rhodes. However, the keyboard is a bit light for my taste but it is a compromise in order to play the organ and synthesizers.
My game is a thousand times more expressive with my S90. I find myself playing the effects of dynamic and vary the game like a real piano, which disappears when we instinctively to the touch an instrument that does not really react to the nuances.
We must try it to believe it! It was almost like working gaammes its top!

Side effects is also simple and effective.

But to remember is that this is not a workstation. It is an instrument with his grain, his personality and what you do.
He brings a real plus as such but does not know anything else.


OVERALL OPINION


so I decided that:

1) The quality of sound, especially acoustic and electric pianos. To top it is also the organ.

2) The simplicity of the approach to use live. It creates its programs bank everything is stored (layers, splits, etc. ..) is the range in the order of the playlist, switch it on stage between songs to catch a wheel and cherries on the cake PC backups as you can, that is only 20 minutes you pass a keyboard in A config B config completely different (for example if you play in several bands of different styles, Rock, Fusion, Jazz etc.. ...)

I'm delighted with my choice. I do not need a workstation in the studio because I have everything I need in Cubase VST, and live a workstation is the gas plant to manage. There in 20 minutes my keyboard is loaded with the config together, and sounds give the impression and the feeling of "real" instruments. Lacks only the printer to exit the playlist amount on stage!!

Stage piano, heavy keys, but system to the effects of organs without bouzillé fingers! Super efficient

UTILIZATION

It is a bit heavy (18kg) but no need to have 3 synths, everything was ready: Organ - Piano - Rhodes - synths, the total splitables and bunk. I sell all my equipment, I no longer need an instrument on stage.

Manuel super efficient, editing sounds a breeze, access to sounds made by all the tips.

This instrument includes all dream of having a keyboard in hand, with a dose of thinking quite impressive when you understand why things are arranged this way on the machine. It's a keyboard designed for the stage, live, and designed with the help of professional musicians that turn, that's for sure.

The "manager sounds" could not be simpler to use.
Only complaint, samples of synths can not be heard before being put into the beast, so I spent some time loading and transfer of sound.
Be careful not to clean samples in any way, as some sounds use these samples in layer.

SOUNDS

Great sounds! Finally, I found the emotional attachment to a keyboard, I had lost that right from the piano of my childhood. It has a soul and that piano sounds are realistic incryablement. (See my songs in "Tribute to George Duke, except the battery, all sounds coming from the NORTH STAGE 2).

https://fr.audiofanzine.com/funk/compos/a.play, t.11227.html

Only downside, as usual on all keyboards, including the most sophisticated: the brass are poor. However, the violins are really great when we understand how to play them.

As for the organ sounds, piano and rhodes, a bliss! And to think I almost bought one Rhodes (the lightest weighs 65 kg!)

Rhodes to the need to worry.

OVERALL OPINION

I utlise since June 1, 2011. First concert yesterday, the total happiness, sounds of thunder of God.

He'll have to write Clavia to tell them that their demos on their site do not quite enhance the quality of their sounds. They are actually much better than on all the sites I've visited before you spend € 3000. I think I've seen everything on the NORTH STAGE 2, youtube, forums, etc..

In truth, the sounds sound better than the sites, because there finally make contact with a touch of piano which approximates the orginał, my body remembers it, a bit like Proust's madeleine I found the pleasure of hearing the slightest sound basic melody.

The sound quality ... it's so important!
Here I am again connected on a visceral keyboard, like the characters of Avatar, but not by the tail, just the hands and ears.