Product: Clavia Nord Electro 61
Price Paid: US $1850
Submitted
09/04/2001
at
06:24pm
by
Asher Fulero
Email: asherfulero at hotmail<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
10
No problems at all. I was able to learn the interface and which knobs controlled which parameters in an hour. If you know how to use vintage keyboards and hammonds, this will all seem obvious. I never even opened up the manual and within 2 hours I had found all the sounds I used to get on my real wurlitzer and hammond.
Features
:
10
No, I'm not exaggerating. There is a fine sweepable mid knob ('presence')after the initial sounds which is quite useful especially on the rhodes and clavinet sounds. Then you can have one mod effect and one time effect (although no delay or verb!) at a time. For example I often use tremolo and phaser on the wurlitzer. I don't mind there being no verb as I use the spring verb on my fender amp, but a simple delay circuit couldn't hurt.
Then you get a nice distortion circuit which reacts much like a tube amp (although not quite as warm), which is followed by the leslie circuit. The leslie sounds great, and you can put either the keyboards or the organ through them. Finally, a 2 band EQ at the end for fine tuning allows for tonal variation (as in the different rhodes sounds).
The only thing missing in my opinion is the ability to split the keyboard between organ and keyboards (simultaneously) which the electro does NOT do, but for good reason (multisamples take lots of processing!).
Wooden sides RULE!
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
Coming from someone known as a vintage freak and real-keyboard enthusiast (I gigged with only a Wurlitzer 200A, Fender tube amp, and vintage Thomas Organ crybaby), I am not overstating when I say the electro is by FAR the most physically and aurally gratifying keyboard I have EVER played (including real EPs). The sheer expressiveness of the multisamples makes up for the tiny imperfections in tone. Don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise- the electro is THE vintage keyboard emulator to buy. Playing sounds that react just like a real keyboard (timbres changing as velocity does- and not in a linear way either) is still a novelty to me after 3 days of playing it all day. There is so much variation ablility here its staggering. I was expecting to be dissapointed since I bought it without ever having played it. The truth is that when I plugged it in to my Fender tube amp and started playing I was more than not dissapointed, I was actually impressed! The more I play it the more I love it; the sounds are pristine and incredibly realistic, down to the reedy wurlitzer tones that are more bell-like at soft velocity and distorted and hard ones (progressively more so, of course). Also the clavinet is unreal- even down to the slight boom of the tip hitting the string. Check out it's low end, too. Very stringy.
When my friend banged hard on a low note in the wurlitzer sound while I wasn't looking, I got that feeling of "ouch, that reeds gonna break". Then I remembered that IT CAN'T BREAK! Wow.
I could go on and on- suffice to say that if you play vintage keyboards, I don't care HOW picky you are about your sounds, the Electro will change the way you gig forever.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
We'll see.....
Customer Support
:
10
No need yet, but I emailed Clavia to find out release info and they were very friendly and timely in their response.
Overall Rating
:
10
I would never let this keyboard out of my sight.
I've been playing strictly real vintage keyboards for about 5 years (LOTS of gigs) and this keyboard changed my mind. I'll never gig without it. I took a chance on this thing and it blew me away. Keyboardists- you will LOVE it, I SWEAR.
