Nord 5 hp or Nord 6 hp recommendations?

[Chuffey]

I'm in the market for a smaller size keyboard that has weighted keys, and good electric piano and Hammond organ sounds. Its for use in playing at home, and perhaps on bar gigs when my band starts up again. I had an Nord Electro a number of years ago, that I sold off when I abandoned playing keys in favor of bass. But I want to get back into it now. Price isn't particularly an issue, but weight is, since I'm an older player, and can't schlepp really heavy stuff any more. That makes the Nord HP attractive. Normally I'd just go into a store to try one out, but I'm leery of that now. Can anybody who's tried one of these, or owned one please comment?

 

[anotherscott]

The HP action is just adequate for piano and pretty poor for organ. If you could deal with bringing more gear as long as none of it was heavy, since your focus is piano and organ, you'd be better off with two keyboards, so as to get a piano-oriented action and an organ-oriented one. In roughly the same price range as the Electro 6HP, you could get the Electro 6D and a lightweight hammer action board you could play its pianos from, like a Kurzweil SP1, Kawai ES110, Casio PX5S, or Studiologic SL73/SL88 Studio (all but the last also have their own sounds built in which you could use as well). Basically, as long as it has a 5-pin MIDI Out jack, it will work for controlling the Nord.

 

[Chuffey]

The HP action is just adequate for piano and pretty poor for organ. If you could deal with bringing more gear as long as none of it was heavy, since your focus is piano and organ, you'd be better off with two keyboards, so as to get a piano-oriented action and an organ-oriented one. In roughly the same price range as the Electro 6HP, you could get the Electro 6D and a lightweight hammer action board you could play its pianos from, like a Kurzweil SP1, Kawai ES110, Casio PX5S, or Studiologic SL73/SL88 Studio (all but the last also have their own sounds built in which you could use as well). Basically, as long as it has a 5-pin MIDI Out jack, it will work for controlling the Nord.

Thanks for the help. I'll check these options out. I don't really want to dip my toe in the water by buying two keyboards, so most likely I'll decide between having the Nord, and a weighted keyboard, but not both. Any comments on the Yamaha CP73?

 

[anotherscott]

I don't really want to dip my toe in the water by buying two keyboards, so most likely I'll decide between having the Nord, and a weighted keyboard, but not both.

You could dip your toe in the water with just one, with an eye on adding the second later.

Any comments on the Yamaha CP73?

I haven't played it, though as a hammer action, it would again be an action more suitable for piano than organ (as all hammer actions are). The CP73 is also weak on organ sounds, though, and it lacks the ability to adjust organ drawbar settings. But its MIDI controller functions means you could add other organ sounds from an iPhone or iPad, for example.

The Yamaha YC61 is better for organ than the CP73.