Clavia Nord Electro Rack 2

OS 3.00 reloaded by myself from factory 2.00. Be aware this action needs a MID interface, USB is not used for it. USB comes to application only later for sounds dealing since after OS reloading sound memory slots are empty.
Do not use presets but tweak with knobs&buttons on the fly which is so easy that no patch editor is needed. Manual is excellent, after each major OS update (like from 2.0 to 3.0) Clavia places the updated PDF version on their web - appreciate!

It should be told here the instrument runs either in Piano section mode or in Organ section mode. You switch the two modes there and back by one touch of a solo located 'mode' button, a good user oriented solution. After one year of using haven't experienced any limitations in polyphony yet. Built-in effects are very practical (also because not too many) and easy to use. The only point I am withdrawing is due to lack of reverb. Expansion is not possible but the six internal piano section sounds can be alterned or substituted. This can be done best using a USB equipped computer with Clavia's dedicated software tool. Sure, the USB cable was not packed in the box but it's cheap to buy. MIDI connectors are IN and OUT, no THRU. No problems with MIDI yet. Have no info about aftertouch/key pressure recognition.
No onboard sequencer.

Pure 10 for all the piano section sounds. There are six internal memory slots open for these but more than six of them are available on Clavia's web. You need to select 'your' six-set of them. There is one D6 Clavinet sound, one Wurlitzer, one CP-80, several Rhodes ones and several acoustic pianos (one upright and couple of grands). Especially the acoustic pianos were improved after implementing of OS 3.00 (they were taken over from newer Nord Stage product). Before the acoustic pianos were critisized but I have no experience with older OS. Now all the pianos sound realistic.
Speaking of Organ section I can only repeat my preceding reviewers - it's an almost perfect emulation of Hammond A100/B3/C3 sound. I give 9 because of two minor lacks: absence of reverbation (original A100,B3,C3 have it) and of the sound leakage (tonewheels cross-talk). I wish it would be taken over from the latest Nord C1 Organ which uses a 2nd generation tonewheel organ model. Will Clavia guys hear me?
The Nord Electro 3.00 works best for rock, rhytm&blues and country music. Cannot speak of classical or dance.
Onboard effects are also perfect IMO. The instrument reacts very well to my playing on Roland A-33 controller. An excellent feature in the Organ section is the keyboard split - if You have 76 or 88 keys there is space enough for playing like on a two manual organ.

I feel very well with my Nord Electro Rack, it looks very solidly, carefully manufactured. I go gigging without a backup. It's shortly a "Swedish steel".

No experience, no need. Clavia's got generally a very good and valuable web site. All the various updates are there, good description of new features, know-how to do it etc...

If it were lost or stolen I wish to replace it by a not-existing-yet Nord Stage Rack. This is my message to Clavia - uncover it, please. And even better if such a Nord Stage Rack would be equipped with 2nd generation tonewheel organ model.
The instrument is worth the price paid, no doubt.
I've been playing piano and synths with some interruptions for more than 30 years. I own Roland A-33, JX-8P and XP-80.
I enjoy playing Nord Electro Rack and do recommend to everybody at least to test it, that's all.

OS 2.0. Editing is very simple: no menus, just select and tweak the effects. Manual is nice, very informative about the histories of the emulated instruments.

Organ: full polyphony, piano section: dunno. No problems whatsoever. The thing is monotimbral, which is sad. Double organ manuals is possible, but no organ and piano playing at the same time... The thing is velocity sensitive (opposed to what the person below wrote), but not for the organs, because organs never were velocity sensitive. No expansion capacities, no sequencer, very nice and easy-to-use effects: flanger, phaser, overdrive, chorus, wah-wah and autowah, tremolo, etc. Only missing effect is a reverb. Leslie sim is very good! I turned heads with it at gigs.

Sounds are top notch. Hammond B-3 (actually they modelled an A-100, which is essentially the same, so I was told), Clavinet, Wurlitzer, CP80, a couple of Rhodes variations and an acoustic piano. Very nice, very realistic!! A 10 for that! Exception: the acoustic piano sound. If this sound is played stereo and with outboard reverb, it's OK, but not as good as the other sounds. I heard it's a lot better than the ac. pianos in the first NE version. Because of the ac. piano, I rate it a 9 (which is a good mark as well, isn't it? :) ) Sounds way better than the Viscount DB9 I tried. I tried a Roland VR760 and VK8 once, which sounded very good as well. VR760 was too expensive, VK8 didn't offer the high quality piano/clav sounds. I think the Rhodes and Wurly pianos in the NE are better than in the Roland products.

I play it from a RD-700 or an RS-9 (both Rolands) and it's nice to play! Works great for jazz, funk, soul, etc, etc. I don't play rock a lot, but a nice overdriven organ sound can be obtained.

I guess it's dependable. Looks OK to me. I don't gig extensively, though.

My other synths do have Hammond/Rhodes/etc sounds, so I carry a back-up, but it hasn't failed me yet.

Mailed them once ore twice, very kind people, with helpful answers.

Yes, I'd buy it again! Perhaps a keyboard version, perhaps the rack, but this is a nice instrument! The best vintage keyboard emulation I own. Clonewheels are personal things (like digital piano's), so others might like another hammond clone more.

But it's appr. as expensive as other clones, and this thing has so much more than a good hammond emulation.

It ain't perfect (monotimbral, more memory space for more instruments, on board reverb, better ac. piano sound), but it's very very good. Hence a 9.

Couldn't be simpler. Compared to the other keyboard gear that I use, this thing is a breath of fresh air. Truly, plug and play. Getting used to those digital tone wheel sliders hasn't been a problem whatsoever.

The only thing is missing is a reverb, which you might need for certain things (I use it with the Rhodes). I added the Boss Stereo Reverb pedal, and now nothing is missing. It also doesn't respond to pressure, but I don't know of any B3 or a Rhodes that does either. The rest of the effects have a real vintage feel to them, and are awesome.

It took me a bit to get used to the idea that the Electro is what it is. It isn't a swiss army knife, it's an emulation of a Rhodes, B3, Wurly, D6 and a Yamaha grand. That's it. But what it does, it does extremely well and is very musical. Actually, I find myself playing the Electro almost exclusively whenever I just feel like playing. Live, it sounds amazong through my Barbetta SE-41. The B3 absolutely rocks!!!!. I use Yamaha ES7 as a controller, and the action works fine for Electro. The rotary emulation is outstanding.

Looks and feels solid. I'd manage without a backup, just using similar patches on my other boards, even though it definitely wouldn't be the same.

Didn't have to deal with the support yet. The web site it pretty good.

I love this thing. It is a real musical instrument.

I don't want to say too much about this module, because you just have to try it yourself. Like the Volkswagon Passat Turbo Deisel is the best car I have owned and enjoyed driving, the Electro Rack is the best musical item I have owned and enjoyed playing. And just like the car, you have to try it for yourself to fully appreciate it.I just can't imagine parting with this thing. I use a separate midi drawbar controller. The drawbuttons are not the classic way to control drawbars but even they have their strengths as the LEDS change from preset to preset and are always showing the correct drawbar configuration. Clavia chose midi cc# 82 to control the rotary fast/slow. No problem for me, but I think cc#1 would have been a better choice so that a mod. wheel could work the ramp up/down.

The organ is fully polyphonic. I don't know the polyphony of the epianos but I use all my fingers and two thumbs and it doesn't rob a note ever. The effects are spot on for the task, extra marks for the clavinet ( total marks should be 11 ) It is two channel multi-timbral for the organ and one channel for the ep's. You can't mix the the organ and pianos; it's either one or the others. You can however hard pan the organ to one mono out and the pianos to the other mono out. ( The mono outs are the L & R stereo outs under normal use. )This is handy if you want to run the straight organ through a Leslie cabinet. The velocity curves depend upon your controller which is bonus compared to the keyboard versions, which have received some adverse comments regarding the built-in velocity curve.
Expansion is not possible except that Clavia put up new sounds on their web-site from time to time so you can load in new voices ( into any of the epiano slots )via usb. Their accoustic pianos are getting better each time.

This is the business, top gun, this thing rocks. The Hammond and Leslie emulations are immaculate. I run it through a Speakeasy Classic stereo tube pre-amp and it screams and grinds and sounds sweet all at once. It does what it says on the tin. The epianos are phenomenal. OK the accoustic piano is not the greatest, but this is a bonus preset and is still usable but an accoustic piano is not the raison d'etre of the Electro which sets out to emulate electro-mechanical instruments and an accoustic piano is hardly one of these.

I've had no problems at all. There was a issue with some version 1 motherboards on the keyboard 61/73 versions, but this doesn't affect the Rack 2. I think that problems have been properly resolved for any-one affected.By the way, although it's called the Electro Rack 2, there never was a Rack 1.

I wrote to clavia and had a fast reply. I have heard that they are extremely helpful They also have a great web-site with a good number of mp3's to download.

It won best stage piano award and also best of anything award in a UK mag readers' poll. It should never go out of date. it's an instant classic. It isn't cheap but in the mid eighties Dynacord brought out a top Leslie simulator which sold at #700+; the built-in sim on the Electro beats the old Dynacord and then some. So to have the tonewheel organ, great Rhodes, Wurlies and Clavinet and a superb Leslie sim in one fairly lightweight box, is terrific value.
This is quality gear.

Very simple, no menus etc... perfect for stage use.

Everything you need. Very nice analog-old-style effects, a really good overdrive/distortion, and a wonderful lesley sim. (I used to have a H&K Tube Rotosphere for overdrive and Lesley because i never liked the built-in oderdrives and lesleys of the hammond clones, but with this unit I don't need it anymore.) I really like the flexible sample management. You can customize the box with the samples you need.

No bells & whistles - but you don't need them anyway. Excellent Rhodes & Hammond-Sounds is what you pay for, and that is exactly what you get. Connect that thang to a good controller and take off ! Use the Rohdes 1 sample with a little tremolo and/or chorus for the slow stuff... for rock 'n roll, switch to the wurlitzer, crank up overdrive and volume, and blow away your lead guitarist :-) And for the hammond part, if you know how to how to use a B3, you can get everything you want from this box. Simply amazing.

The case, buttons etc. look very stable. I bought mine abt. 3 months ago, mounted it in my keyboard rack and hit the road. No problems until now.

Didn't need any support up to now. I have downloaded new samples and software and transferred them to the box via the usb port. Worked fine.

OK, the rig is not all that cheap (at least over here in europe), but compared to the other Hammond/Rhodes-clones around, you get a really (really!!) good sound for your bucks. I would buy it again anytime. (Actually, I'm thinking about getting a 2nd unit as a spare unit and for the bass pedals. Let's see what St. Claus has in his bag for me :-)

I had the 73 electro first. It was awesome!! Now I have the same thing in a rack. The presets are cool, but I didn't buy it for the presets.

I use the Yamaha S08 as a controller since it has the same weighted action as the 88 key Motif (which is the best action on the planet). This allows me to strike the keys at get the chimey sounds for the rhodes. I was able to easily interface this via USB with my laptop to get other sounds from the website.

This is the highlight of the unit. I have to admit the rhodes on version 1 is a perfect 10, and this one is about a 9 without any effects. But when you add prescence, tremelo, and eq, it takes the version 2 sound to about an 11!! No lie. This is the only simulator whose tremelo function is tighter than the pan tremelo!! I now have the Carvin kb1015 (you know the new 1000 watt amp for keyboards) amp, and when I run the rhodes with the tremelo effect through the Carvin the rest is history!!! I can't even begin to describe how phat the sound is!!! A bass player once told me the better the amp, the better the sound. In order to really enjoy the sound fo the nord electro, you do need a good amp. That is really the case for all keyboards. We as players take for granted always playing through "the house" not really getting the full capacity of our units.

If you want a bonafide portable Wurlitzer, Rhodes, electric piano, and organ then get it in a 10 pound box called the Nord electro rack.

Lastly, the ORGAN. This is truly the best simulated sound of the hammond B3!! I've had and played everyone out there. Ironically, the best sounding b3 clone before this one was the VST B4 plugin, but you can't take it with you. The raw sound of the organ on the nord is about a 6, but when you turn on the internal leslie, it's all over!! I am currently running a VK8 through the motionsound pro3t and low pro, and listening to the nord organ through headphones yet alone the Carvin runs circles around it.

The only downside is that you can't run bass foot pedals through it. I guess this is why we live on earth, because if it had a bass pedal input then I would be in heaven. I know everyone has their own view, but this is the only simulator that can do it right out of the box. Many people don't talk about the organ simulator because it's recognized as an electric piano emulator. Go out and buy. Take it from someone who has spent over 15 grand trying to find that "perfect portable rig".

Yes, yes, yes.

I called customer service because I was having trouble downloading the software to my computer, and the tech guy spent an hour and a half on the phone with me free of charge until it was fixed.

Let me give you a small story. I recently did a gig where I used my motionsound pro3 and low pro, the vk8, s08, and the nord electro rack. After sound check which was early in the morning, I left everything at the venue in trust with the roadies except the nord rack. I took it with me (especially since it was under my arm). I love all of my pieces but I would have opened up a major can of "whip-ass" if something happened to my nord. That is my true MVPiece, and I have tons of other stuff that I didn't mention.

Very Intuitive right out of the box. All functions plainly labeled.
Some functions like Midi will require use of the manual

The rack module has removable rack ears, so the 4-space module is only 17 inches wide. It will sit nicely on a flat surface at a slight angle either on a keyboard or close by. It is very light weight.

The Hammond B3 sounds are very good. The chorus is the best I have heard on a B3 synth. The Wurly sounds are very good along with the Rhodes and Clav. I control the module with a Midiman merge box and I use a Roland RD700 for the piano sounds and a Hammond XK2 for the B3 patches. A great sounding module for live or recording.