Clavia Other musical instruments

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.