Nord Stage 3 88-Key Digital Piano with Fully Weighted Hammer Action Keybed

Reviewing the Nord Stage 3 Compact 73-key Semi-Weighted. This is a really great keyboard. There is so much to know that it takes a while to learn, but you get comfortable with the basic functions pretty quickly and can easily program some useful sounds for regular use. But allow yourself lot of time to explore the limits of the synth and organ sections. The mod-wheel is extremely handy and can be assigned to almost any function; it is very useful for organs and volume control in a live performance. The piano section has so many great options that each convey a different sound and feel -- you'll always find something to fit the song. The compact 73-key is perfect for mobility and the semi-weighted keys are wonderful to play. I kept my Yamaha fully-weighted hammer action for days when I "must" play some classical or need that authentic piano feel. The Nord is so much fun and sounds so great though, that the absence of the hammer action is not an issue at all. In fact, I purchased this keyboard specifically because it did not have hammer action keys to get the benefit of the lighter weight keyboard since I lug it around to and from my house 4-5 times per month. The only negative comment I must leave is that Amazon really struggled to deliver this product unscathed. The first one I bought (from PitBull Audio and fulfilled by Amazon) came looking like the box had fallen off the conveyor belt somewhere along the line, and the keyboard had an enormous dent in the red wooden siding and some kind of plastic rattling around on the inside. That one was promptly returned, with ease (thank you Amazon) and I re-purchased from the same seller, again fulfilled by Amazon. The second one came double-boxed but the instrument still had a minor scuff on one of the wooden sides (unbelievable!). I don't know if these are a B-list/refurbished items sold by PitBull Audio or just poor quality control. All in all, it seemed like it was just too much to ask between PitBull Audio, Amazon Fulfillment and UPS 2-day logistics to properly handle this item with due care. I decided to keep the second keyboard and haven't had any problems with it after nearly three months, and I'm keeping my review at five stars as a review of the Nord keyboard's performance, independent of the distributor/resellers involved and despite the scuffed wooden siding.

GREAT keyboard. I upgraded from the Nord Stage 1 I bought 10 years ago. This is almost the same keyboard, but the keys feel better and the sounds are higher quality, I love Nords because all the controls are super accessible; I improvise with my tone a lot, and it helps that anything I want to change is on a button or a dial on the front, no navigating through menus or clicking a button 10 times to get what you want. Really excellent organ and electric piano sounds. The acoustic piano sound is the best I've heard from an onboard keyboard (Some Kontakt plugins can still beat it). I bought the HX3 DBC Drawbar Controller and affixed it near the left edge of the keyboard using velcro strips, so I can have a nice physical drawbar feel. I was almost considering buying the new electro instead because of its physical drawbars, but the stage 3 with the HX3 works great and I'm glad I made the choice I did. The synth section leaves something to be desired -- mostly too many long list- and menu-oriented controls, it's not really amenable to any kind of real-time tone design, and I still find it pretty hard to navigate to what I want. It's fine if you know that on this song you want such-and-such piano and then you want to switch to this predetermined synth sound; what I have trouble with is, as I'm playing I've got some particular organ that I have tweaked my way into over the course of the song, and I want, for example, a lead synth in my right hand while keeping the organ patch on my left. It is *doable* to set a split point on the fly (which is pretty impressive), maybe about 4 button clicks away, but then finding the right lead synth from the synth section, instead of stored in a "main patch" (which would change the whole configuration, wiping out my organ) is hard enough that I can't really attempt anything like that. Anyway, in the studio the synth section is fine, I've designed some pretty cool patches. Also the pitch bend knob is the best in the business, I can't stand those standard wheel knobs anymore -- you can actually get some decent sounding expression and vibrato out of this one. So yeah, Nord is pwning the keyboard market right now, and they deserve it.

This is like a Moog, where you have to dial in the sounds and effects to get that awesome sound you could easily get out of the box with a Kronos, M4, Roland, etc. If one were to take the time to customize it and set it up (which is quite complicated) then this is where it gets such a great reputation (because you can customize it to your set-up and signature sound). I was hoping for better "out of the box" preset "wow" effect for the price, with the option of customizing it should I choose. Keep in mind the Compact version is very small... this could be OK if you want a really small keyboard to haul to gigs or a secondary stacked keyboard to play leads, but I found the smaller than average sized keys were a pain to use as a main keyboard.

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Este nord stage 3 es de los últimos sintetizadores que he agregado a mi estudio. Es muy completo, si buscas un sintetizador que puedas ejecutar como un piano esta es la opción. Cuenta con 4 partes esenciales, órganos, pianos, sintetizador y efectos. Puedes encender y apagar cada una de las partes o combinarlas para crear diferentes texturas por capas. Un todo en uno, perfecto para el estudio o para sesiones en vivo. Llevo un par de meses con él y estoy maravillado