LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Nord Electro 2

Jazz+ -- 02/10/2005, 14:08:21 -- #11121

The Nord Electro does the Hammond organ sound very well and is a good solution for a light weight portable. It gets pretty close to the Jimmy Smith sound. It has an organ action which is why I don't like playing its Rhodes piano. I also had a hard time hearing the notes clearly when I was gigging with an Electro and playing its Rhodes sound. Its velocity scale seemed to surge from too soft (hard to hear) to too loud, making it too hard for me to control its dynamics. They added some other velocity scales recently but they did not solve the problem.

trocadero -- 02/12/2005, 04:22:55 -- #11176

Jazz+>> I'm thinking of buying a Nord Electro Rack 2 with a 88 keyboard with a feeling as close to a grand as possible. Whats your opinion about that? I think that would be a better way to control the pianosounds than buying the nord electro 2 with a keyboard in it. And how is the acustic piano sounds? I see that you can download a steinway d-sample on clavia.se. Is the nord electro 2 good enough to use as a digital piano?

tomwrush -- 02/12/2005, 15:28:15 -- #11186

If you're a piano player then maybe the nord probably isn't right for you. I play in the traditional jazz organ style so the nord is great. It has an organ keyboard (waterfall keys). The organ sounds fantastic and it's only 20 pounds. It's a great keyboard for me because I play in groups where I play organ, but if I had to play piano I would not use the nord, I would probably buy an 88 key piano action controller to run the rhodes/ wurly through. Oh and the acoustic grand is next to hideous, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. peace, tom

trocadero -- 02/12/2005, 15:46:34 -- #11188

Tomwrush>> what version of the nord electro do you have? If you dont have v2.0 then you should try upgrading. Its free on www.clavia.se. Try download the steinway d-sound and say what you think.

johnq -- 02/14/2005, 09:19:56 -- #11203

Thanks for the info. I use a Technics P-30 at the moment for acoustic piano and Rhodes type sounds. Perhaps the rack version of the Electro would be good used with this, although I suppose the full blown version could be MIDIed up for the Rhodes and Wurly and then use the Hammond sounds on the electro's own keyboard.

Scot -- 02/14/2005, 13:06:14 -- #11211

I would always recommend that a pianist buy the keyboard that feels best to them. I love the feel of the Yamaha S90.  I use three old time sound modules that I hook up to a Edirol PCR-50 controller to get my other sounds and use the yamaha for all accoustic, rhodes, and other keyboard sounds (not organ, though).

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