A Quick review of Nord Stage 3

Hi all!

I am very lucky to have received my brand new Nord Stage 3 HP76 while so many people are still waiting for their instruments. Now it's been few weeks with my new baby and here's what I feel about it:

Quick pros and Cons:
+ 76-model is suprisingly good keyboard for its very light weight, it's just 12,5 kg (27.5 lb)! It has enough key weight and precision for a piano player and it's also mechanically very quiet. 
+ Those extra GigaBytes of piano and sample memory really make things different. Nord Piano and Sample libraries are great collection allready and continuously developing. Now you can have so many of your favorite pianos (sampled with XL-size) inside your Stage. 
+ Two bright OLED-displays make things much more usable (compared to older Nords).
+ new synth has lot of power and high quality sound
+ nice little extras here and there (new filter effects and new morphing capabilities for example)

- Firmware bugs. Users have found quite a lot of problems and anomalies (some of them are minor, some more critical). Just read this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0
- Sample Library incompatibility and lack of (fully functional) Sound Manager or Sample Editor. New Stage 3 is using a new format for samples and (on 30th August) we're still waiting for editor and conversion software. At the moment NS3 cannot use neither sample library sound nor user's own samples. This frustrates me most.
- Synth. NS3 synth was advertised as having Lead A1 engine. As a A1 owner this seems little overstatement. NS3 feels little limited compared to A1. (On the other hand there are some features you cannot get from A1: Sample playback obviously but also Superwaves).

New video from Lapland with my music

Please check a new video from our winter holiday in Lapland. Video was filmed and edited by my brother Antti, music is a song of mine called "Day One at Celestial Backyard". (You can listen to this song in its original form in My Music)

New in Nord Piano Library: Roal Grand 3D

Like many times before, Clavia has again given us a nice little Christmas present: a new grand piano sample set called Royal Grand 3D. So far Clavia hasn't revealed the exact piano model which was sampled, but I suspect it is a Yamaha. At least it sounds more modern compared to those more vintage ones. "3D" comes from the fact that it's binaurally recorded simulating players position. As they put it: "The dummy head is shaped like an average sized human head, equipped with ear shaped microphones, in order to reproduce the human hearing experience. The Royal Grand 3D was recorded in an acoustically dampened room where the dummy head was placed in the player's position to capture a natural and authentic experience of actually sitting in front of the piano."

Royal Grand feels just great - it's maybe Clavia Piano Library's best in terms of playability. At least on Nord Piano 3's action you'll get just right response, right tone from pp to ff. With earlier Bright Grand (Yamaha) for example, I felt that those brighter tones (forte) came out sometimes too easily. Royal Grand feels so easy and natural to control. It's more close to my idea of playing a real grand piano.

On the other hand, it can perhaps be too "round" sounding to cut thru in difficult acoustics or noisy gig situation. Quite often if you start to mess with EQ you'll loose something (natural sound and/or playability). Time will tell. To my ears Royal Grand is little closer to Roland's typical piano sounds. They are very even but they can be little "muddy" on stage situation. Clavia's Bright Grand is so clear and powerful and I never need to EQ it or anything. Those mellower pianos sound great at home or on recording but on stage they can be problematic.

More on Royal Grand 3D from Clavia's site:
(link)

Nord Piano 3 review

I remember being very excited when I heard about new Nord Piano 3 (NP3) which was announced at NAMM 2016. I had owned the very first version of Nord Piano, but last couple of years my only Nord has been Stage 2 (76 keys) which is a work horse I still use on most of my gigs. In almost all my latest recordings I have used some of Clavia's piano sound - they have a great piano library which covers the most famous grand pianos from Steinway to Bosendorfer, many different soulfull uprights and great electric pianos. (link here)

Nord Piano 3

So basically with NP3 there was nothing new with sound. My personal reasons to buy it was to get 88 keys, doubled memory capacity (1 GB for pianos and 256 MB for samples) and the best piano action Clavia has been able to give us so far. Other very nice improvement was the new very bright OLED-display. 

I believe for many of us the most interesting question is how good this new piano action actually is? To my fingers it's very good and clearly an improvement over earlier models, but not quite as realistic as my Kawai CS-7's action which is little more close to a real grand piano. On the other hand CS7 weights 80 kg and it's clearly not for gigging. If you want to make more fair comparison with NP3 and Kawai, you should probably take Kawai MP11 (stage piano) for this comparison. More components of real grand piano action makes it bigger and heavier: MP11 weights 32.5 kg and NP3 just 18.2 kg.

NP3 in its place in my cellar

NP3 has triple sensor action which makes it possible to trigger hammers more precisely and more faster. For example, you don't need to release a key all the way up before pressing it down again and still you'll get a sound. This is a welcomed feature if you play lot of fast repetitions. In general I feel that with new NP3 I have more control over different dynamics from pp to ff. Difference is not huge but still I feel that my Kawai CS-7 is more sensitive and perhaps little more heavier. I believe that the some difference in playing feeling come from two things: Kawai has escapement feature ("point of sound" in middle of key press) and more steinwaylike texture on their keys. For some reason Nord decided to not use "Ivory Keybed" which was announced at NAMM 2016. To most demanding piano enthusiasts NP3's keys can feel little plastic. But anyway these things aren't deal breaker to me and my fingers; with my new NP3 I can have best possible digital piano on my gigs and best piano sound on my recordings. One last very good thing to mention is that NP3 action is very quiet. Older Nords were very noisy and therefore annoying to use at home with lower volumes. Time will tell how quiet NP3 remains when it has hundreds of kilometres of road behind.

If I need to say some critical about Nord Piano 3 it's about something that's been there since Nord Piano 1 and 2. First, there's no external MIDI panel which makes Nord Stage 2 very powerful with external MIDI devices. Of course, Nord Piano has MIDI in/out (both traditional and USB) so it's basically possible to play some other gear with it but to be honest it really should have some buttons (at least external MIDI on/off button) and few knobs for controlling external gear. In general I like Nord Piano's simplicity - it's A PIANO and certainly not a workstation! - but because of this simplicity it should have better options to connect it to other gear. My second criticism goes to its sample playback synth which is of course simple and many ways very usable. But in my opinion there's one thing that should be there: a filter (cutoff and resonance and preferably those most basic filter choices). I am a synth enthusiast and to my mind synth without a filter is quite handicapped one. Of course I am not imagining to play killer leads with Nord Piano but any synth pad is quite lifeless without a filter.

More about Nord Piano from Clavia's web site (link).

Archipelago Part 1 - Overture

Please check Overture (part 1), intro of my Archipelago Suite.

This is a set of tunes made for a film series about Finnish & Swedish Archipelago.

Kawai CS-7 and search for a best possible digital piano

I'm lucky to have spent time with Kawai CS-7 for six months now, so it's time to write few lines about it. First few reasons why did I buy it. I already had Nord Stage 2 in my cellar, but I began to feel that I needed a more grand-piano-like digital piano for practicing and recording. The idea was also to buy a piano for a stable setup and therefore it was a bonus if piano also looked like a piano. I also wanted to have an instrument which is as easy as possible to use; just switch it on and you're ready to play it. No need for mess with computers, sound cards, mixers and speakers etc.

Roland V-Piano

Before Kawai CS-7 I went through few options. Basically it was a battle of three brands: Kawai, Yamaha and Roland. I must say Roland's alternatives were not very compelling to my taste. I have actually had three Roland RD-models (RD-600, RD-700SX, RD-700GX) so I believe I'm familiar with Roland's pros and cons. To me their "Supernatural" technology isn't perfect (yet). There are obviously some great qualities - no hearable looping or velocity layers - but sound itself can be little artificial and "muddy". In my opinion Roland's keybed isn't same quality compared to Yamaha and Kawai. This ain't surprise; those latter two have long history of manufacturing real acoustic pianos. There is still one Roland model which might have been a real alternative: Roland V-piano. This undoubtedly revolutionary product which was introduced on 2009 was still unfortunately too expensive even when sold second hand. V-piano is a brave concept and many pianists appraise it, but in my opinion soundwise it has same artificial qualities as Supernatural pianos. Also I am afraid that with V-piano there's very little hope for getting updates or general improvement in the model(s).

Yamaha NU1

The most serious competitor for Kawai came from Yamaha NU1. I remember that when I first played NU1 in a local music store this was a first digital piano ever which gave me an illusion of playing real acoustic piano. Or at least very close. It also fulfilled the aesthetic idea of how a digital piano should look. NU1 was also getting great reviews from magazines and internet. To me it was still little pricey. However there was a one crucial point which finally ruled NU1 out. When I played it with headphones I had a strange feeling that I was lacking the full dynamic palette especially when playing Fortissimo. One more thing to notice is that NU1 do not try to imitate grand piano touch, it has upright action inside. Sound is anyway sampled from Yamaha CFX-grand. So basically with NU1 you're playing grand piano with upright action.

In Finland we do not have Kawai reseller so I had to travel to Denmark to test CS-7. Luckily Copenhagen was on our summer holiday trip route! After a short encounter I had a strong feeling that this piano is quite promising to fulfill all the needs I described. Keyboard action felt natural and responsive, basic sound was nice and clear. As a nice bonus I also discovered that there were actually quite broad palette of different sounds, great variety of features (good connectivity for example) and also nice little LCD-screen. But all these extras were still secondary to the best part of it: Kawai CS-7 has a great grand-piano-like action with escapement. It also looked beautiful. Still the price was very reasonable and clearly lower than NU1 for example.

Kawai CS-7

Now after six months of playing CS-7 almost daily, I have a good feeling that my choise was right. Thanks to Kawai, I believe my playing has improved technically and arthistically: piano gives just right amount of resistance to my fingers and very precise response. If I play good it sounds immediately good but when I play badly I get immediate feedback of that too. The feeling is very similar to modern grand piano which is very responsive too. Sound is very good for playing and practicing, but for recording I'd say it's quite good. Now I am comparing it to Nord Piano Library which is in my opinion very good for recording purposes. With Kawai's "piano technician" you can nicely adjust many things: touch, voicing, resonance features etc. As said, there are many nice little extras like chance to MIDI/Audio-record your playing, metronome which can play nice drum beats and audio input (to play with your iPhone for example). 

Pianoteq 5 released!

I've been a big fan of Pianoteq since 2009. For those who don't already know, Pianoteq (PTQ) is a modeled piano software/plugin from French company Modartt and developer Philippe Guillaume. I have to admit that there were few years when I didn't practically touch PTQ at all. My Nord Stage 2 with all those quite nice sampled pianos was all I needed. Quite resently, some of my new musical ideas needed another type of piano sound, something which was outside my Nord's territory, I went back to check PTQ again. Luckily enough, same time I discovered that there was a new update available: Pianoteq 5.

Pianoteq 5 - a quick review:

First and most importantly, Pianoteq 5 seems to be a great improvement over version 4! It has more brightness and natural character of acoustic piano sound. If I A/B switch rapidly from my favorite (sampled) Nord piano sound to (modeled) PTQ, I can hear that there's still a difference in 'basic tone quality' between sampling and modeling but modeling has become little closer. To me this is a clear sign of improvement. With 'basic tone quality' I mean listening to individual notes played separately. I feel that modeling has still room for improvement for making it as warm and natural as it is in real life. On the other hand piano can sound very clear and punchy too; most often heard in pop, rock or jazzy situations. This ain't the best part of PTQ. Pianoteq is better for mellower sounds, more distant sounding concert hall pianos or cinematic piano sounds. But for that kind of tasks it's brilliant!

When listening to PTQ 5 I think there's one improvement over earlier versions: sound quality is more even all across the keyboard. I remember well that I have had hard time especially with PTQ's low mids area - going down from middle C and especially when played with forte or fortissimo. Still this low mids isn't the best part of the new model but it's not that artificial sounding anymore. In fact I have long felt that secret for finaly nailing 'it' lies in catching attack. Many PTQ users have asked for more 'woodiness' or whatever to call it. I believe Modartt should still pay more attention to the attack part of the puzzle. I strongly believe that this very first moment when hammer hits strings is very important for giving piano its personal sound. Of course, all this happens in a special acoustic space (wooden cabinet etc.).

Anyway piano sound isn't only individual basic notes which live in isolation. In fact piano is a complex structure where allmost all of its parts are affecting to other parts. It's all those complex hammer/damper/string interraction features where modeling clearly beats sampling. To get a better picture, just check this page: https://www.pianoteq.com/pianoteq5#new

Quite often lack of these features make sampled pianos sound 'sterile' or 'dead'. On the other hand, if modeling has improved in basic tone quality, it's fair to say that also sampled solutions have improved in this interraction area. Best sampled pianos have pedal down samples, pedal noises and even string resonance. How does they implement the latter, is not known to me. Is it somehow sampled or modeled? Anyway there's lot of feeling of whole piano resonating when you play PTQ and not that much when you play Nord (which have pedal down samples and 'string resonance'). PTQ feels like real piano and it's easy to understand why so many classical oriented players appraise it. In my opinion PTQ is best in solo piano, when it's easier to hear all these interaction features. On the other hand, band situations favor more punchy basic piano sound and this can be little difficult for mellower or more distant sounding PTQ. Fortunately there are great tools for adjusting the sound: hammer hardness, EQ, effects (compressor, reverb etc.) just to mention few. Still I have to admit that I wouldn't probably use PTQ for jazz piano trio recording at its current state. There are clearly limitations what kind of sounds you can get out of it and what not. With too much EQ, for example, it just gets unnatural.

Pianoteq Effects panel

One thing is sure. Pianoteq is fascinating way of learning things and just for having fun. You can play and record your perfomance with one piano and then listen to it with another. Using all those mic settings etc. you can really put it to another perspective. I have to admit that in these few years Pianoteq has taught me more about those features like string resonance and half pedaling than my acoustic Kawai. PTQ has opened my ears to listen to all those different things which make piano so special instrument. If you wanna dig into real classical stuff, you can experiment with different tunings or try to play Bach or Mozart with some historical instrument:

check: https://www.pianoteq.com/kremsegg1

Pianoteq and tuning possibilities

Couple of things deserve a special mention here. First: Pianoteq's user interface. It's just amazingly beautiful and so intuitive to work with. Everything is in right place and it looks marvellous. It has tons of features and parameters, but still it looks simple and not too technical. In my opinion this is very important for satisfying user experience. Second: Pianoteq user forum. I don't know any other software which has so devoted users and so lively forum. Developers are also interested to take part in those threads and all this gives you a nice feeling of things going further.

Pianoteq main User Interface

To sum it, I am so glad that Pianoteq story continues and I will definitely see what's the next step in this  evolution!