After 14 years of playing piano I also "invested" in the nord stage 4 as I probably will never stop playing the piano as long as my fingers will let me. I tested the Stage 4 in a local shop and compared it against the competition and in the end for me it came down to the Nord Stage 4 or the Yamaha CP88 (which is way cheaper). So why did I go with the Nord? Personally I feel the Piano / EP and Organ Sounds have so much more dynamic articulation and warmth in them compared to the yamaha sounds which sound more direct and compressed in my ears. Also the hands on control are one of the best things for me. Although it might not have the depth of synthesis as my Montage 6 I can just fly over the knobs and faders and quickly assemble lush soundscapes without loosing myself in deep menues (hello korg). Also I really appreciate that Nord uses real value units like Hz, ms, secs etc. instead of values between 0 and 127 like my montage. Also the latest release time of the nord and probably incoming support for it for the next years (if they keep their 6 year schedule between the stage releases) were a nice argument. The CP is already "old" and probably wont receive much attention. Although I must say that Nord does some things different and leave out a few bits which I miss from my other synths (Why do they use an ADR and not an ADSR Envelope in the synth section?) Overall I am satisfied with the investment and I enjoy this instrument daily.
It's an unbelievable keyboard and I've had mine for nearly a year now. Thanks for coming out with this video, except it's all been out there already. My only actual complaint is the lack of free Dramamine sea sickness pills which would certainly help while seeing the thing wobble every time you touch or release even one button. The NS4 is expensive, but solid keyboard stands are really very affordable....just sayin'
Great video Chris. I've got the Stage 4 Compact and I love it for playing live. Just one question though about the keyboard that you were demoing, why were all the lights and display screens flashing continuously? Was it a faulty keyboard or a trick of the camera? Otherwise great playing and very informative video.
Ah thank you! Yeah it’s a problem in camera. I think I can buy a plugin that would fix it in the future! It’s something to do with frame rates and the led screen on the board.
excellent presentation and demo. however, i couldn’t justify the price of the S4 for a gigging keyboard for me. It’s out of my price range for my typical classic rock, r&b, etc gigs. I’ve payed a few S4’s and do appreciate the quality and playability. i’m still seeing S2 and S3’s still in use with other gigging keyboard players. The draw bars are a nice touch, finally. Glad I accidentally found your channel.
As a former Electro and Stage Mk 1 owner, I do think the Stage 4 is a little pricey, but if I was still gigging regularly I would consider the price a fair investment. As a hobby/home stage piano, it's a lot of money - you could buy two synths for that. The £1,500 to £2,000 range has a lot of competitive products in it, but Nord is definitely a class above Roland, Yamaha, etc.
I’m not arguing that you could get a lot of bang for that buck with other options and of course, it would have been great if it were a little cheaper! ;)
@ChrisMutchJones Nord has definitely become a premium/pro product. It wasn't always that way - the Electro 2 was a brilliant workhorse board that you could see in cover bands all the time. When I bought my Stage, it was a stretch, but doable. Now, even the Electro 6, admittedly with more sounds and features, is pushing £2k. Some of it may be currency related, being produced in 🇸🇪.
@@ChrisMutchJones Looking forward to it. This (along with the dedicated extern section which is now gone on stage 4) is the main reason why I’ve not upgraded my Stage 3 to Stage 4. I don’t see any good way to replicate the song mode on the Stage 4 and when doing concerts this is absolutely crucial element to my (and many others)livesetup. Often I can use 5 different patches on one single song. And to try to replicate the song mode by moving presets around in the right order would be an absolute nightmare. (And what do you do if the artist suddenly wants to change the order of the setlist😂?) Regarding the extern section which is now also gone on the Stage 4, I know that you can route the synth layers for external synths but then you are actually sacrificing the synth layers for this purpose. Not so with the Stage 3, so in practice you actually have 4 layers with the Stage 3 (2synthlayers + 2 externlayers) but only 3 layers with the Stage 4 (1 synthlayer + 2 extern, or 2synth layers + only one extern, no more than 3 in total). You may ask why do you need so many layers? Let me tell you: my externlayer nr.1 is connected to my prophet 6 (and are typically doing lead sounds) externlayer nr.2 is connected via midi to my Strymon Bigsky(ehich in turn is connected to the prophet). (Since the external instruments have a dedicated section on the board you can actually also use the Nord to morph almost every function on the external devices via MIDI CC) My two built in synthlayers then goes to bass and pads. It’s really a shame cause the Nord Stage 4 really sounds fantastic.
They still have this terrible fatar tp40 keybed that makes so much noise and feels complete cheap… not acceptable for 4900 euros keyboard.. everything else is awesome on this keyboard.
Yes, the noise when the key hits the bottom of the keybed often came through in the video, and Chris wasn't pounding the keys. Maybe with the volume up it wouldn't be noticeable.
@GordonDeMuse this has got me thinking…I might do a comparison video sometime between all the different ‘noise levels’ on keybeds! One thing I can absolutely garuntee is that you’ll never hear the keybed when on any stage either using iems or wedges. The only reason you hear it is because I’m in a studio setting with a mic pointed at me for speech!
@@ChrisMutchJones i do live streams from my home studio and i am playing and singing same time the keybed noise is going in the singing mic and its kind annoying.. of course at live stages i dont care.. also while i am studying at nights the neighbours complain because they can hear the keybed… i didnt have this problem with kawai mp11se.. so my conclusion is that if i am going to pay 4900 euros for the number one expensive keyboard then i wantto have all which means i want to be able to do all that.. regards
