All user reviews of 4/5 for the Clavia Nord Electro 73

The Clavia Nord Electro 73 is the type of board that has that, the more you play it the more you love it type of feel too it. It is not for everyone though, a lot of people really don’t like most of the sounds that are on board with this board. To me they are ok it just depends on what kind of a style you have and which sounds you prefer to use in your own compositions. But this board as grew on me over that last few months.


UTILIZATION

Its very easy to understand this board, not hard t all. You will have no problem understanding the basic functions of this board. You wont even need a manual to use it.


SOUNDS

The sounds are up and down to me, some of them are so good I could mess around with them for hours and some of them just don’t do it for me. Like the Rhodes, the Rhodes on this board fell terribly short for me. They seem to be very thin and plastic like, most of the Rhodes on my other boards have a lot more bottom to them and have a full thick sound. These Rhodes sound more like the Rhodes from way back like 30 years ago. That is a be downfall for me because I really love my Rhodes sounds and using them in my work. The Rhodes are suppose to be something that can really fill your music out and give it a full sound but these Rhodes didn’t help me in that department. But as I stated before this board has grown on me and I find my self like new sounds all the time.


OVERALL OPINION

Overall it’s a great board / instrument but be aware that its not for everyone. Go to your local store and play around with the sounds on it and you will see if you like it or not. Do not just order this board based on reviews because it has a very unique feel and sound set. Its not for everyone, so make sure you test it out first. But it has a very good quality and can take some dings and drops when moving it from place to place so you have nothing to worry about.

Good effects, easy to tweak. I find the waterfall keys too short for real piano playing, but the semi-weighted action is a good compromise for piano and organ. Its monotimbral, so you cannot split the keyboard and play organ and piano at the same time, which something I like to do in some songs. And it means that an outboard MIDI weighted-key controller makes less sense.

UTILIZATION

The controls are very simple to use, but if you want to tweak, you need the manual, since the display is two cryptic characters! It's wonderful having direct access to effects, as I hate digging through levels to tweak them.

SOUNDS

Sounds are great, with one exception: the acoustic piano is absolutely terrible. I did an A/B comparison with my XP-80, and the XP-80 blew it away. And the XP-80 patch is very average! I thought maybe the patch would sound okay at a gig with some EQ, but it sounded awful there, too. The electric piano sounds lame to me, too, but I never like this patch on any board. The EP sounds are great, but at a gig they did not blow my XP-80 patches away (I have the Vintage expansion module). The Clav, on the other hand, is really something special, especially with distortion and phaser. I did an A/B with my VK-7, and the Electro 2 organ sounded better is every way: better Leslie, more punch, better vibrato, etc. I would say the organ is the best patch this unit has, and during my gig I kept coming back to it. The acoustic piano is crucial for me, thus the 7 rating.

OVERALL OPINION

I tried this board out, and I did not buy it for two reasons: the terrible acoustic piano and the short waterfall keys. But if the acoustic piano were better, I would just buy it and get used to the keys, it would be worth it. I know that the acoustic piano patch was a "bonus" patch, but for me, I wanted the Nord to be the only board I would need. If I have to get a separate digital piano, then I would also try and get one with great EP sounds. In fact, M-Audio has one out for $600 (ProKeys 88) that is getting good reviews. With a separate digital piano, I would be using the Nord just for organ, and then maybe it makes sense for me to keep using my VK-7, or buy a CX-3 or XK-3. I'm going to wait for the Stage 88; that might be the ultimate board for me.