Clavia Nord Stage 3

This is the first program of Nord Stage 3 factory presets. This sound was recorded from Yamaha grand piano "S6". I have played S6 at rental studio before. I felt the sound light and cheesy. However, Royal Grand 3D has modest heaviness and humidity. OK, even if they have same designs, all pianos has own characters. I also find much polyphony, long release, and low noise from Royal Grand 3D.

After I bought Nord Triple Pedal, I recorded 3 experiments. The 1st one is damper pedal experiment. Before I started playing, I stepped on the damper pedal. You should hear it when you turn the volume up. We can erase pedal noise with one button. The level can be adjusted by plus or minus 6dB, too. Pedal release noise is modest.

I played "G-C-E" chord with left hand, stepped on the sostenuto pedal, releasing left hand, and play with right hand. The dampers on the keys that were played when the sostenuto pedal was pressed remains away from the strings, but notes played after releasing sostenuto pedal disappear quickly after key off.

In this recording, I stepped on soft pedal with my left leg, damper pedal with my right leg. The soft pedal is almost kept on, and the soft pedal is turned off only twice, one bar at a time in the middle part. You can see the difference in sound with and without the soft pedal, and I think the connection is fairly natural.

The following is basic tones created using only one synth section. This "Saw 01" is a lead sound that uses one sawtooth wave from classic waveforms. The vibrato that appears in about 4 seconds is due to aftertouch. The vibrato that appears in about 13 seconds is from pitch stick rocking. The filter is "LP M" that imitates Moog filter. I added some delay effect. I think Nord Stage 3 has a well-made virtual analog synth. Good balance between thickness and sharpness.

The waveform of the previous "Saw01" was changed to square wave, made into mono legato, a little portamento was applied, and vibrato was applied with a moduration wheel. I also adjusted the cutoff and resonance. Sufficient vibrato is applied with the modulation wheel, but it is weak with aftertouch. If Clavia enable the setting "Synth Vibrato Dly Amount" in the sound menu not only for delay vibrato but also for aftertouch, I am happy. Nord Stage 3 synths provide full-time portamento when mono, and fingered portamento when mono legato. The Yamaha DX7 was able to portamento even in poly, so I'm often disappointed with the synths I bought after that.

A tone that makes aftertouch vibrato with morphing function. I set the oscillator configuration to "1 Pitch" and morphed the "LFO" in the oscillator section with aftertouch to apply vibrato. It takes a little better, but not enough. With Yamaha's DX7, EX5, and MONTAGE, I can use aftertouch vibrato to create vibrations during pronunciation, but it's difficult with the Nord Stage (I have the original EX and 3).

I chose a classic sawtooth wave, set the configuration to "4 Detune", and added some detune. Unison was set to "1" to add a sense of stereo. There is no delay, but "ROOM 2" reverb is applied a little. You know the goodness of virtual analog. Nord Stage is a stage piano with the best synth.

A synth brass made from one sawtooth wave. I shaked the cutoff with MOD ENV. You can feel the goodness of virtual analog in this sound, too. Since the envelope generator has only 3 points, I can't adjust the sustain level well, which was frustrating. It is easier to use 4-points EG , but the panel area is limited. I added just a little reverb.

FM(Frequency Modulation) strings sample. I selected a classic sine wave, set the configuration to "13 FM2", and applying FM while keeping the modulator at the same frequency as the carrier ("0 semi" in terms of value). I used cutoff and resonance because I couldn't control the overtones well with FM alone. There are only two FM configurations. It's less than Clavia's previous models. I set unison to "3". When Unison is set to 3, it often shakes too much, but this sound was OK. Nord Stage EX has Unison knob(not button), I loved it.

Strings using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). The PWM sways too much in the low keys, so I sometimes adjust it to be less on the top and modest on the bottom. But it seems that Nord Stage 3 can't do that.

The Nord Stage 3 synth oscillator has a waveform category called "SUPER". I made strings with the first "Super Wave Saw". Roland's SuperSaw in many models can be changee the amount of detune. But Nord Stage 3 allows choice between 1 and 2 only. Still, it sounds good without complaint.

The Oscillator section of Nord Stage 3 synth has a waveform category called "WAVE", which contains many waveforms including piano. Here, "Wave EPiano 1" was selected, the oscillator configuration was set to "12 FM 1", and FM modulation was applied. I set Unison to "2" to give it a stereo feel. You can apply FM even if it is not a classic waveform. It is amazing! The FM electric pianos in Nord's piano library are not good enough (it's better than nothing), so it seems better to add by the synth section.

The Oscillator panel of Nord Stage 3 synth section has a waveform category called "FORMANT". I tried using the first "Formant Wave Aaa". I set the oscillator configuration to "1 Pitch" and added a rise with MOD ENV. It seems that the envelope cannot be reversed, which is a bit disappointing. I wanted to apply a lot of vibrato, so I applied it with a modulation wheel.

A song made during playing "E:11 Velvet EP Wheel" on Nord Stage 3. The Velvet Grand and EP8 Nefertiti are layered and can be balanced with the modulation wheel. I changed the EQ, compressor, and reverb a little. I also applied EQ and compression with dbx Quantum.

Solo performance of the first preset "A: 11 Royal Grand 3D". However, I'm not sure if I haven't changed the tone at all from the initial state. I did MIDI recording to sequence software without metronome, success in one shot. At first, I thought it would be okay to have no reverb, but I added "Home Room" program of t.c.electronic Reverb 4000.

A song made by playing the Nord Stage 3 preset "K: 54 Supersoft Vocals". In the summer, we hang some wind chimes on the windowsill (indoor side). The chimes make a "clinking" sound, but when the wind is strong, they keep making a loud noise. In such a case, we adjust the way to open the window less. The day I wrote this song, It rained a little in the morning, but it gradually recovered and the blue sky through the clouds was beautiful.

I used "Royal Pad Pedal H". It is the sound of Soft Pad 1 overlaid on Royal Grand 3D and made it possible to adjust the volume of the pad with the 2nd expression pedal. Reverb was off. I did MIDI recording to Sonar. With metronome and no quantize. Later I raised the tempo a little. I played in same tempo when I returned from B to A, and later wrote the tempo with the mouse. The last ritardando was played ignoring the metronome. When recording with the MR-2000S turned, I stepped on the 2nd expression pedal a little and layered the pads at the middle of the song.

Even if it's polyphonic, it doesn't seem that an LFO is prepared for each voice, and the chords are similarly LFOed. That's interesting. I was playing the score, but I gradually increased the number of notes. While recording to a sequencer and playing it back, I messed with the Nord Stage 3 knobs. First applying an LFO modulation to the filter, and then applying it to the oscillator pitch in the middle. I also shake the pitch stick. At the end, I slowed down the tempo, stopped the LFO modulation, and ended up with a clean sound. I'm not sure if I really did that. The effects were a built-in ping-pong delay and a little reverb.

The sound was created by imagining Joe Zawinul's electric piano in "Milky Way" that was released at the beginning of Weather Report's debut album "Weather Report". 2nd expression pedal changes the wow effect. I recorded without metronome. No MIDI editing. I put the MR-2000S recorder in the recording state, started the sequencer, and tweaked the late and amount of the phaser and the dry / wet of the reverb.

I initialized the program to initial piano. I played the first grand piano "Royal Grand 3D". I'm recording on a sequencer, but I'm playing it without a metronome. No MIDI editing. I added "Soft Hall" on t.c.electronic Reverb 4000, but it's not a lot.

Played "Royal Grand 3D" with "Large Hall" of Reverb 4000. I played it without a metronome, and it didn't work in one shot. So I started over from the middle and made corrections on the piano roll and event list. It's pathetic because I can't play something like this in one shot.

I chose "Royal Pad PedalH" in Nord Stage 3 and turned off the pad with the 2nd expression pedal and played it only on the piano. "Royal Pad PedalH" is at the beginning of my own programs, so I use this when I don't care about any tone.

"Royal Grand 3D" solo. I cut some high frequencies a little. I added Eventide Eclipse "Reverb 8". Except ritardando at the end, I played with metronome and quantized with 8th note. I wrote tempo changes at the end of melody B for some pause.

Nord Stage 3 preset "A: 51 Royal Pad MW" solo. I recorded MIDI data on Cakewalk. I didn't stop in the middle, did not quantize notes, and did not modify notes with the piano roll window. I was worried about tempo fluctuations and rough velocity, but I didn't fix them. I edited the tone slightly. The reverb is "Reverb 8" of Eventide Eclipse.

Nord Stage 3 preset "B: 52 Tight Tines MW" solo. I switched the phaser to chorus, deepened and shallowed the reverb, and cut the low. MIDI recording on Cakewalk. I quantized in 8th note except for the last ritardando. Before returning to the first theme, I added a tempo change to make space.

Edited the Nord Stage 3 preset "Nordic Overland" and performed solo. The right-hand lead was originally a sine wave, but it was weak, so I changed it to triangle wave and adjusted the cutoff and resonance. I turned on the compressor, adjusted the pan, balanced the left and right, and so on.

Nord Stage 3 "Royal Pad Pedal H" solo. The synth pad on the back is ringing a little. I added Eventide Eclipse "Reverb 8" to the built-in reverb. After recording on the MR-2000S and transferring it to my computer, I'm trying out the Ozone 9 I bought the other day. I'm at the stage of choosing one of the presets and trying it out.

Nord Stage 3 "Saw Strings" solo. This tone is a simple tone that I made by myself. Simple sawtooth with unison. This time, I recorded MIDI data from the movement of the filter knob and the on / off of BFX (Beat FX) of Roland AIRA MX-1. If I try hard, I may be able to produce a similar sound even in a live solo concert. Well, I will not have a chance of live performance.