A few weeks ago I ordered a Clavier Nord Stage EX 76 piano/stage keyboard.
Well this beauty arrived on Saturday and I've already spent many hours playing it, so thought I'd say a few praises about it, share my excitement and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who's looking for mind-blowing awesome emulations of grand pianos, upright pianos and classic Rhodes and Wurlitzers.
This is the new EX 76 version of the Nord Stage: 76 hammer-action keys that feel great and seem to have just the right level of sensitivity.
The grand piano sounds blew me away instantly. I have never heard a digital keyboard simulate the sound and feel of a grand piano so accurately. You've gotta try it! The only grand piano emulation that has been strikingly good in my experience came from a Kawai keyboard of another keyboardist I know, and even then I'd probably still favour the Stage sounds. Think you get three grand piano samples.
The upright piano setting, once again, is extremely accurate and convincing, to my ears sonically indistinguishable from the real thing. Be warned, you'll never want to go back to traditional synth piano sounds after you've heard and felt these emulations.
On top of that, you get two electric grand models, this is something I've used less than the grand and upright samples, but nevertheless they're still up to the high standard you might expect. I think one of the models sampled is the Yamaha CP80.
Then we get on to the real hardcore stuff: Fender Rhodes. To my mind this is a beeeeeeeeautiful emulation. Highly realistic and convincing, picking up the flaws and the "growl" of aggressive playing very nicely. The mellow bell character of the attack is captured brilliantly. Use the onboard phaser effect on a nice, slow, calm phase setting and you get audio heaven. You'll be instantly blown away.
Wurlitzer piano is another favourite of mine and the emulation is great once again, capturing the bark and the steely attack of vigorous playing brilliantly.
On top of this, there are also great samples of Clavinet (which personally I'm not a massive fan of, but maybe that'll change if I use them more), and stunning harpsichord simulations that are very impressive.
I mainly bought the stage for the piano functions: I wanted a selection of very realistic high quality acoustic and electric pianos, and the EX 76 delivers. But that's not all. You also get 3 classic electric organs, including a Hammond Tonewheel. To be honest, I think the Hammond emulation on the Nord C1 Organ is slightly better, but the Stage version sure ain't bad and is convincing enough. This will come in handy if I want to put the Hammond sound through a phaser or flange or something, as these effects are absent from the C1, which to my mind is the best Hammond emulator out there.
There's also a synth function with loads and loads of cool sounds, and to be honest, the synth section of the Stage totally exceeded my expectations and sounds great.
And you get probably all the outboard effects and room accoustic simulations you'll need, on top of all that - stuff like reverb, delay, phaser, etc.
As I'm partially blind, I'm still pushing random buttons and working out the ways of the programming by trial and error at the moment, but I guess that'll all come to me in time.
I'd thoroughly recommend the Stage EX 76 to anyone who's got an ear for and particularly liking for vintage keys sounds. I also tried the Electro 2, and I was also impressed at the quality of the sounds, however I wanted something with weighted piano-style keys and more built-in effects, so the Stage won.
So there's my thoughts and little review on my gorgeous new keyboard.
If you're interested, you can read more about it and listen to samples and stuff on the Clavier website.
And I'd also be interested to hear from any other users who have a Nord Stage.
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