This guy's a beast! A reminder never to judge a book (by which I mean his gnarly shirts and gold bracelet!!!!) by the cover. Great playing - great review.
Chris convinced me to buy a Nord Stage 2 from his Kraft demo. And now he's starting to convince me again about this one.... Kraft Music why u no accept my credit?!
Well I sold my Nord Electro 4D on craigslist on Tuesday waiting on my Nord Electro 5D on Friday from Kraft Music they gave me the best deal I know where I will be this weekend down my basement getting to know my new keyboard .I can't wait to work with the new changes.
Incredible playing, Chris. I can't help but wonder how many years of playing experience you have under your belt, and how many hours of preparation and practice went into preparing these selections. If it were only as easy as it looks (:
The one thing I wish Nord would do is do a 5 octave synth based on the design of the Lead 4. With synth action keys and mod wheel, arpeggiator, sequencer, VCF and VCAs etc but feature sampling sounds. Would bring to mind the old Emus.
HI Chris - great playing and great demo (loved your organ playing!!) - I have a Nord Stage 2 EX which I love apart from the piano sounds - they always seem slightly muffled / electronic sounding compared to my old Yamaha - but yours sound better on this Electro 5 - presumably shouldn't be any different? What amp are you using here? I have Roland KC110 and plug in to stereo DIs when performing with my band - but it doesn't sound as good as I would like - thanks :)
Chris Pearce I have the same problem too, and after reading a range of related threads, it seems were not alone - great organ and other sounds but when it comes to the acoustic piano sounds; muddy, poor quality and nothing like the sound Chris gets. I have a Roland KC 150 amp and have invested in a mixer as well as a Focusrite preamp, but to no avail. I'm considering selling my Electro 5 for a Roland RD 800. I took my amp into my local music store and plugged in the Roland - what a difference, it sounded so good!
For this particular demo, Chris is playing through a pair of Yamaha powered PA speaker for monitoring...but that's not what you're hearing. The Electro is running through a DI and mixer into our camera, so you're hearing the direct line output of the instrument. Think of this as a clean signal, and it's similar to what you're going to hear if you plug headphones into the keyboard. Thanks for watching!-Dave
Can the Electro be controlled by another midi controller? For example if I have a 88 key midi controller that I would like to use when playing piano sounds on the Electro 5d.
I'm tossing up between this and the Hammond SK1. Of course, the answer is to have both, but I'm limited to just one of the 2. I think the Fazioli tone in the Nord is really nice though.
Has anyone compared the Nord with the Viscount Legend 70s? I really love the vintage look of the Viscount (reminds me of a Rhodes) but there are only a few videos on youtube...
I have one of those and it isn't as expressive as the Nord, I actually don't enjoy playing my Kronos but it's good for being able to create just about anything.
I have the latest Korg Kronos 88 but I still want the Nord Electro 5D 61 ... essentially to carry along when I travel. I tried the 4D and it has that edge to it, that little something I cant explain. Too bad Nord prices are totally unjustified for what they deliver, 1000USD less I would have jumped on it but 2500 is way too much ... at least for me.
***** Maybe look into the Hammond SK1. 61 key version's pretty cheap. 73 version's still cheaper than an Electro. Not sure how the keyboard sounds compare to the Nord, but you can be sure it has a great organ sound.
I've got the Korg trinity pro, Korg m3, a Korg m50 and an analog king Korg. It's true, Korg is the IBM of keyboards. Some very highly detailed functions and very advanced expressive abilities. My favorite type of keyboard joystick and ribbon controllers, ect. But Honestly made in China, I've had a boat load of repair issues and I've been forced to replace so many keys and parts it's not funny.
GR8 demo but would have liked more focus on organ. Have played Roland and Hammond clones but never looked at Nord? Played a B3 professionally for years but need something light and compact with the B3 sound!
I've Just bought a Roland VR-09B with the updated B3 clone & much improved Leslie emulations & I Actually think it is as good now if not better than the Nord Hammond. The Nord pianos & Clavs seem better, although the light VR-09B Synth/Organ K/B doesn't help Pianos , midi'd off a good 88 weighted they are really quite good , but I mainly wanted it for the B3 Drawbar organ which is ausome ( & much cheaper than a Nord or Hammond SK !!)
@unarmed blackman same here.. I travel a lot so I hit the pawn shops everywhere I go.. always ask what they have in the back.. I've bought boards that weren't working for a few dollars and repaired them.. a couple only needed a factory reset.. sorta felt bad after I found that out.. lol. I've done some trading too , but I can't remember buying a brand new keyboard..
Korg over the years have been rather high priced for their level of construction quality... Nord machines are built by hand in Sweden by Scandinavians. I own a Nord Electro5D, sw.. And it may not match every little detail of the super controllable korgs, but Nord has a few features that Korg wishes they had. Nords are simply built better and since Korg quit making the Trinity and Triton lines after 911 to save money in our failing world economy, the quality of their tone processors has gone DOWN. The trinity and Triton series with the prophecy solo system were BEST tone processors Korg ever made. The new M3, m50& Kronos sounds are cheap and plastic like after being a long time trinity owner.
The hell are you talking about? Korgs are heavy as shit and made of out of Metal and runs circles around overpriced nords and their SAMPLING effects. They've been leading in Keyboard manufacturing since The Trinity. The dumbest comment I've ever read. The Trinity came years before 2001 and Triton came out in 2000 I know because I brought one and my cousin brought the Trinity in the late 90's. Jesus christ your an idiot Mike Randolph.
Stop the debate... this is subjective.. i owned all brand.. and they are all different. Its the same with basketball, you cant compare lebron james and steph curry.
lead is virtual analog synth for synth sounds, electro's for pianos, e. pianos, organs, clavs, etc... so you cannot just compare which is better, it depends on what you need
It would be nice (especially when being used a controller) but I guess the Electro series were always designed for pianos and organs. The Nord Stage is more all-around with a synth engine and pitch bend and mod wheel.
Is it just me or does the clav and pipe organ sound......well just not that real, kinda artificial and "slick". Or is it just this demo somehow? The Hammond SK1 for example seems to have very realistic pipe organs, and the 4D's clavs sounded a lot more like the real instrument than this. Opinions? Are you hearing what I'm hearing?
vforvillain77 the pipe organ is shit. It has no attack and just sounds like a verry cheep immatation of some sort of hammoned. The clav is crap. It has no hammer lift off and sounds toy like and artificial. Other than that the sounds are ok
yea, i noticed that, the pipe organ just sounds like some sort of square wave thing, and it's instant attack is a big mess-up, it's ridiculous. Do you own it?
trust me the clave is on point it always has been. there's somebody who compare an electro 3 to a D6 and it was on the momey. with the semi weighted keys it gives you the right type of planning as well
Unfortunately, the clav is the least relevant to me anyway. It's just a bonus sound, I just mentioned it because I was a bit beside myself that it sounded like such shit to me, when it's coming from a $2k Nord. The pipe organ is what really mattered..
I do not understand why these nord keyboards are so popular. The interface has so many complex sounds. Yamahanin keyboards know better than this.if anyone knows please tell me why nord 
as a producer I have no clue why someone needs this... I mean maybe if you want to rig it up fast without connecting it to ableton and plugins. Because plugins would definitly beat the quality of this. 2000 bucks?!?! Buy a really good midi, put some time and effort into finding good libraries and plugins and you are way ahead
Ben Dover, the answer is right there in your first statement: You´re a producer. Musicians who mainly play live have different needs. Having all the sounds you need onboard is simpler und more reliable than a MIDI setup - I can remember playing with a keyboard player bringing his doepfer controller and his macbook and there wouldn´t come a sound out of it without any apparent reason. That can`t happen to a pro, even if it works 99% of the time, you can´t afford the 1% ;-) I personally think the Nord Sounds are great als they are, you probably can find Even more refined sounds in Libraries for studio work, but in a live setting the differences aren`t really that noticeable. But of course: Each to their own!
You're not a producer. You're someone making beats with a keyboard and plug in's.This is real music gear for musicians looking to make "Music" and "Songs". That's why you don't understand it. You show up in a real studio with your keyboard controller and your ableton laptop among real musicians using actual instruments you can be prepared to get your ass laughed out the building.
