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

One of the few things I don't regret buying in life. I bought this to play synth at church, and piano at home. This replaced my baby grand at home, now I can peacefully play when everyone is sleeping.I have to say I bought this keyboard (over a year ago) when it was $4,700, now its $5,300 if not more already. So good value retention fyi.When comparing to other keyboards out there, why does this keyboard sit at the top in certain areas? This keyboard is focused mostly on live performances, it focuses on providing a medium to store sounds, and be able to switch to different sounds or modify current sounds. The beauty of this keyboard is that all of these actions can be done one the fly (that is why you see so many buttons on this thing). Obviously you will need to organize your sounds before doing something that crazy, preparation is needed to pull off something like that.Need a little more reverb? you are one dial away. Need to modulate without changing your chords? hold transpose and turn dial (one hand). need to switch to second part of song? one button to your stored sound. need to decrease cutoff frequency so that you could make the synth mellow? one dial. The list goes on.Pair this keyboard up with some high quality studio monitors at home (in my opinion: Yamaha HS7's or HS8's, don't get HS5's paired with a HS8S sub, there is a frequency drop out and it sounds bad), this will make your baby grand piano at home sound like absolute trash (I'm sorry, but that's just reality)This keyboard does not have an option to record or loop, which is ok I guess (just need more stuff to make that happen). The stage 3 can be used as a midi controller or standalone. My take is that the stage 3 has enough sound samples for a standalone setup. If you want to do anything absolutely crazy, a midi-interface-laptop setup is the way to go. Then again, you could just buy a MIDI keyboard and the total hardware will cost you 10 times less, not the software though LOL.The feel of these keys are like an in-between of an organ-piano-synth. If you want more piano-mechanical-feeling keys, go for the nord piano 5. To be honest, a nord piano 5 would have met my needs just fine.The organ you have to know how to use to make it sound good, I left that section untouched for about a year before making any good use of it. A lot of synth effects I didn't really make use of (at least just yet) in our more-conservative church (we don't have drums).I did get into a car accident with this piano, and it did get a little beat up (few broken but still functioning keys). Guys, get good cases, the gator g-tour 88 slim is perfect for this. The other gator 88 slim is good too. (76 slims are never in stock, I think they fit the 88 stage 3)The stand I use is the official $300 one, very nice for portability, it fits into my case with the piano. The stand is at an awkward height, but ask anyone who has an angle grinder to make it the right height for you (take off rubber feet, cut, put them back on). That stand you will never regret for portability and clean-looking. it is a bit pricey, and it does take an additional 60sec to set up than typical stands.This keyboard is pretty heavy (42lb), plus my tour case (54lb) and stand (4lb?). So it is 100lb total and it is a 2 person job to get up a long flight of stairs. Otherwise it is ok to carry on flat ground with wheels. I do have to take down a back seat to get it to fit into my small sedan.Don't get me wrong this keyboard is the best in terms of sound, BUT, in church (or event), this keyboard will sound as good as your audio setup or audio engineer (sadly, whichever is worse). Sometimes you are trying to get a certain sound on your monitors at home and then the audio engineer goes and throws an eq and an effect on you when you are live. Make sure you have a premium gasket between your speakers and your keyboard (aka the audio engineer), else there is no use of having it in the first place.And finally, if you do not have time to spend to play around, experiment, and get the sound you want. you will be only paying for 5% of the keyboard. Get ready to spend a LOT of time time figuring this thing out, the benefit is insane though.

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.