Clavia Nord Stage 88

I've used this board live for the last 6 months and found it a joy - the onboard sounds are easy to tweak and set up using REAL KNOBS. At first I looked at this and thought 'where's the display?' - it's there but it's tiny. But after you've played this thing for a while you realise you don't really need it. Manual is excellent. Personally I don't like the pitch bend setup and would prefer the traditional 2-wheel arrangement.

Apart from my acoustic piano, this is the most I've spent on a keyboard instrument and it has (on paper) the fewest features. Compared to a Korg Triton or Roland Fantom you might think it has very few features: no sequencer, no sampler, no drumkits. But that would be to miss the point of this thing - it's a *musical instrument* in the way that a Triton (and I have 2) could never be. Many people have complained about the keys but I personally jump between this, a Yamaha S90ES (weighted), Triton (unweighted) and Yamaha acoustic piano and find I just adjust.

As I said - while the Triton is a brilliant tool for achieving certain results, the Nord Stage is an instrument that you sit down at and really get into. The sounds are outstanding - especially the Rhodes and Hammond. I find I can easily get the sort of sounds I hear my favourite players use. The layout of effects and amp sim is like having a set of floor stomp-boxes so the whole thing really feels like a retro setup with modern convenience. My only gripe is the acoustic pianos - the bass and treble ends are decent enough but they all get 'soggy' between C4 and C5. Might just be my preference, but it doesn't come close to a Yamaha motif in this department. That's why it only gets a 9!

Had it 6 months no problems so far.... Then again NONE of my keyboards or modules have ever broken down. Gear is just very very reliable these days.

Not had to deal with them.

This is my favourite board by a long long way and I would definitely buy it again - in fact I am planning to get my hands on the Nord C1 organ soon. However like other reviewers I find the prices of the accessories very expensive - case and legs set me back another GBP300. It's expensive but not as expensive as buying a Rhodes and a B3.

I bought this keyboard new in August 2008. It came with the latest software v2.26 pre-installed.

In terms of ease of use there are lots of knobs and buttons to play with but I still found it very hard to get the instrument to sound how I wanted.

In general I found this machine unintuitive and very fiddly to use.

Anyone ever played a cheap Fatar/Studiologic keyboard?

Well, that's what you've got here, the action is Fatar/Studiologic. Feels very springy, not properly weighted, the keys are too long (Clavia's excuse is that action is supposed to be halfway between an organ and a piano). My fingers ached after playing, this is not acceptable from an instrument in this price range - surely an 88 note stage piano should feel like a piano?

Other poor design features include only 4 velocity curves, limited split points, inadequate midi implementation (you'll need this to control an external module because you won't want to use the onboard piano sounds) and a tiny LCD screen. The USB connnection is for OS updates and can't be used for midi. No external screen editing except to organise the infrequent sample updates (external samples, AKAI etc, cannot be used in the Nord).

PIANO:

The Yamaha C7 is unusable. The sampled instrument is out of tune! I downloaded the much bigger XL version which took up most of the flash memory but there didn't seem to be any noticeable improvement.

The Ambient Steinway was poor too - sounded very distant like I was playing a piano remotely in a different room. In the end my workaround was to download the Close Miked Steinway and have that up to the C above middle C, then the Ambient Steinway up to the the top.

The other pianos were even worse. A joke. The Svenska pianofabriken sounds like a bad pub piano (maybe that's the point, but not when the other pianos are so poor).

All the pianos sound harsh, boxy and unrefined.


RHODES:

Why would anyone want to sample a MK V Rhodes? They never sounded great when new (listen to some mid 80's Chick Corea), they just don't have the "x" factor in the tone that MK I's up until about '77 did.

The MK II ('81) Rhodes sounds horribly nasal, pickups set WAY too close to the tines.

The MK I ('78) is clearly the better of the Rhodes sampled, though an earlier MK I would have been a better choice (in reality this instrument is more similar tonally to the MK II's of '79 than the MK I's used on those classic Herbie albums from the early/mid '70's). Again, this instrument is not properly set up, the tines are set marginally too high so it sounds dull with not enough colour. And try to play hard any higher up than the Bb above middle C then forget it - there's a velocity layer missing.

So, like with the piano, I had to find a workaround which was to have the MK I Rhodes up to the C above Middle C then the MK V up to the top. (I would have split the keyboard at the Bb but this is not possible - on this instrument you can ONLY split at C or F). Splitting the Rhodes sound meant I was unable control Auto Pan on upper/lower at the same time - i.e. had to adjust speed/intensity on lower, then again on upper. Very frustrating.

HAMMOND:

For almost ??2000 WHY no drawbars? And WHY only one set of virtual ones. Presets for upper/lower awkward to select quickly on the fly. There's no "phut" to the start of the note like a real "B", nowhere near as good as NI B4.

OTHER SOUNDS:

Didn't spend much time with the Clavs and Wurlys. Synth section far from intuitive

EFFECTS:

Leslie Sim ok but not outstanding, not as good as NI B4. Rhodes Auto-Pan is sine wave, schoolboy error this as should be square wave.

3 band eq is harsh and very limited, no visual display to see where rotary encoders were when you saved the patch.

Infrequent OS and sample updates, with an arrogance that they're the best and you're lucky to own one of their products.

The concept of having really good Hammond, Rhodes, Piano sounds all in one unit seemed worth the high retail price.

One by one my hopes were dashed. This turned out to be the worst keyboard I have ever owned. I persevered for about 3 months on numerous gigs before finally admitting defeat and putting this lemon on eBay.

Clavia promise the earth on their website. The truth is that upgrades appear rarely; you get the impression that once they have your money they'd rather spend their time on energy on new developments such as the Nord Wave than sort out the numerous faults inherent in the Stage 88.

I am using OS2.6...the presets are really good, but I have found that I can very easily "salt and pepper" them to my own personal tastes. Editing patches is much easier than any workstation that I own...no need for deep menus. The manual is fairly small by workstation (Motif and Fantom) standards.

This is where I disagree with some of the previous reviews...I find the action to be wonderful (i.e. VERY FAST). As a benchmark of keyboard response, try playing the intro to Billy Joel's "Angry Young Man" on the keyboard of a Yamaha Motif XS8 or a Roland Fantom G (I own both)...I know that this may just be me, but I cannot play this on either one of these, but I can on the NS88. No sequencer...no sampling...just a great stage piano with KILLER organs thrown into the equasion. As far as expansion goes, Clavia is phenomenal about updates and new sounds...although OS 3.0 has been some time in coming.

The NS88 has a limited range of instruments/sounds, but it no doubt excells at what it does have. I have found that I can tweak the pianos to fit any need. Onboard effects are really good (the organ rotating speaker effect and overdrive are PHENOMENAL !!).
One thing that I have to comment on is the electric piano (Rhodes) sounds. One of my benchmarks here is the "grunt and belch" of a real Rhodes when you spank it hard in the lower 2 octaves...none of my workstations do this (although maybe the yet to be released ARX SuperNatural electric piano card for the Fantom G8 will address this)..but the NS88 has it nailed !! And the Wurlies are awesome as well.
The acoustic pianos are a matter of taste, and are very subjective obviously. I have found that the pianos of the Motif XS and Fantom G are really great, but for some reason the grand pianos on the NS88 just seem to "fit" better when playing live...maybe it's because the piano is more raw and less processed on the Nord.

Every Clavia product that I have ever owned (NL2x, NL3, NE73-2, and NS88) have been totally dependable and trouble free...and I would never feel the need to take a backup instrument.

Clavia has always answered me within 24 hours (because of the time difference in Sweden, you would expect a delay). And Jason at Armadillo Enterprises, the American distributer, has always been quick to answer all my phone calls/emails immediately.

If something were to happen, I would immediately replace this with another NS88. Even though I own a lot of other 'boards, this one does what I need for my jazz gig impeccably...and it weighs 20-30 lbs less than they do

Lots of knobs that do a lot of things. I like things simple but overall very easy to figure out. Very easy to do keyboard splits and combinations such as the oh so popular Rhodes/Piano combination. Also has a great compressor on it which is key to me and what a lot of other keyboards are missing out on.

The reason why I love this keyboard is because its based off of simple standard sounds but does them better than any other keyboard out there. You won't be able to create complex pad sounds that use different temps of delay and combine it with a dark stereo reverb or anything but thats not really my style of music. When I bought this I wanted a good piano and rhodes sound and that's what I got.

Pretty standard features. The Polyphony is more than enough unless you want to combine 3 different sounds and smash down all of the keys. If you needed more polyphony then you are probably a bad keyboard player and should stop.

One complaint that I personally don't have but would agree with other users is the amount of memory that you can use. There aren't any sound/memory cards to store saved patches on and you find that you end up saving over old patches or pre existing patches. Kind of annoying for what you pay but nothing is perfect.

However a long the same lines my complaint is that I haven't found a way to transfer saved settings into a computer. We do fly in dates and I sometimes have to have a Nord backlined for me and end up spending 30 minutes setting up all of my patches.

This is why I bought this, then bought a second, and got a Nord sponsorship for a third. Some people don't like the Nord piano sounds and some fall in love with them. I am in the latter and can't use anything else. I guess it's like the difference between a steinway and a yamaha grand piano.

My favorites are the upright pianos. Nice and dark like my favorite studio piano. Also a big fan of the rhodes although if you like Mark I percussive clean rhodes sounds this may not be for you. Most of the Rhodes patches have some bite to them. Especially great when played through a tube amp like a fender bassman. You get great crunch and bite.

The Organ on this Keyboard is more functional than any other keyboard hands down. I don't care if you like other Organ sounds better than the ones Nord puts out you won't be able to find one that you can tweek better than this. It's very easy to adjust harmonic content, rotor speed, percussive quality and power.

Also great effects section that is very usable. Tap tempo delay is my favorite although I also enjoy the tremelo on the Rhodes.

I've really had no trouble with these keyboards. I said I've got 3. An 88 Stage, 76 Stage, and a good old 63 Electro. Unless you drop them down stares without a flight case they will last. You see these things all over the place on national tours and there is a reason why.

Easy to upload new patches from Nord. They have some really high quality ones online that are updates from version 1.

Never dealt with them except for sponsorship. Nice people.

Ok a little expensive. I can't tell you what I get for them but the MSRP sounds a little much for a stage piano. I'm sure that everyone who sees the price is going to expect the bells and whistles but I honestly believe that if your looking for good piano rhodes and organ sounds you can't find a better keyboard.

I've never used them but my friends have said the optional legs are weak and unusable so I would go with a good stand.

It's extremely versatile and easy to setup for what you want it for. I would suggest using in conjunction with some line 6 pedals (DL4, MM4) if you want to get really crazy with it.

And PS my sponsorship says nothing about me promoting them. I chose to ask for a sponsorship because I use them so much and needed 3 keyboards.

I'm a big fan of Nord's interface, and the Stage is no exception. Everything is transparent and easy to use. The synth panel was took a little getting used to, but still sounded great.

The manual, too, is clear and even entertaining.

I was extremely disappointed with the action of the Nord Stage 88. The keys are weighted but it doesn't feel comfortable in the slightest. The touch is marshmellowy. For lyrical passages, it's wonderful, but any more complicated rhythms were near impossible to pull off.

As a result, I ended up trading in my Stage 88 for the Stage 61 compact, which has the Waterfall keys. Nord's weighted keys just aren't as well executed as those on the Yamaha P-x series.

Other than that, all the features are lovely and work well.

The C3, the Wurlitzer, the CP80, the Clavinet and the Rhodes are all perfectly executed. I did the Pepsi challenge by contrasting them with the real thing, the differences were miniscule.

The big C7 acoustic piano is OK, but in the end, I preferred the dirtier sound of the emulated upright... which you can also find on the much cheaper Electro series. The massive C7 and Steinway's are good, sure, but not really worth the 2x price and weight of the Electro.

I found the inclusion of the Synth panel kind of unnecessary, although most of the sounds are fairly good.

Most of the post-effects are excellent and useful. The Leslie is surprisingly convincing, and the tremolos and pans and choruses are all very good. The amp emulators weren't all that useful.

All in all, the only reason I'd give this piano a lower score is because all the best things about it are already on the Electro, and at much less cost.

No question, a very reliable keyboard.

Never had to call.

It's a good keyboard, but I'd recommend a Yamaha P-series for those looking for the weighted keyboard, and an Electro (or a Stage compact) for anybody looking for the sounds.

The Software on the keyboard is 2.16. To update is very easy.
The preset sounds are a basic material. You have to work with the instrument. This is very easy. You don't need a patch editor.
The manual is helpful and good enough.

The polyphony is good enough. You have 3 instruments on board. Piano, Organ and synth and you can double layer each machine. This is not really done on the preset sounds. Therefore you have to work with the instrument and to program your own sounds. The effects are great and easy to use. The advantage is that you can edit alot of things directly which you find on no keyboard on the market.The MIDI capabilities are standard if you work with an expander, but there is not a lot implemented. The RAM Memory for the samples are limited and if Clavia will offer more in the future for that instrument it could be a problem. Maybe they have a solution. The keyboard action is very good for Rhodes and Clavinet. For piano a little bit to light and for organ a little bit to strong. But it is a very good compromise.

Velocity and aftertouch is good realized. The Fender Rhodes, Organ B3 are fantastic sounds. The advantage of the Rhodes is that you can layer 2 sounds. This is great and something what the Electro doesn't have. The preset sounds are not layered. So if you buy the instrument you should work on the layering of sounds. The clavinet is good, you don't should layer it. Acoustic piano is ok. Wurltzer is a little bit unrealistic for me and for the Electro Grand there is no need. The synthesizer section is fine. Layering of two sounds makes it great. You have to work on that. The presets are only a basic help.

I use the Nord Stage 88 at home and for gigs I use the Nord Stage Compact which has a lighter weight. The Outputs are connected directed to the main speaker system and I have monitor speakers from d&b audiotechnik (2 x E3 with 2 x EPAC). This is very small and light weighted. All this is easy to carry.

This is very good. 3 years ago, I had a problem with a Nord Electro and the repair station got very fast a new pc-board to repair it. Also if you call them, it is very fine and they are fast.

If it were lost or stolen, I would buy it once more. I play since over 30 years on stage. I have a Hammond B3, in the past I had some Rhodes, two clavinets, Mini Moog, Prophet 5, Yamaha CS70, SY99, Kurzweil K2500, etc.
In the last 4 years I had a Yamaha S90, a MotifRack and a Nord Electro. One year ago I bought the NS88, which is for me great, beause this instrument sounds realistic when you play live. The Yamahas I had, have a lot of sounds, but the most don't sound good on a live gig. A lot of products need an effect processor that the basic sounds are good. In the NS88 the basic is good and that makes a difference between a NS88 and others. I play soul-jazz and fusion (TOP, AWB, EW&F, etc.) and for that you need organ, Rhodes, Moog and Prophet sounds and Clavinet. I can give everybody the information that you can get amuch better sound on the NS88, if you work on it and you create your own sounds. To go into a music shop and testing there, makes no sense, because from the first impression a sample player from another manufacturer sounds better first. But after two days I had the NS88, I created sounds which are fantastic compared to other products in the market.

version 2.00
Many presets are impressive but i wouldn't know how to use them. Editing patches is easy if you know what to do. I only read the manual on the first day.. and when i wanted to update the OS version. No problem.

I use my keys 99% live on stage, so the the NS88's polyphony is more than enough for me. I HATE MIDI. I rarely use it. So i cannot say anything about that. A good arpeggiator (like on the Nord Lead) would be apreciated!

The organ section is one of the best on the market. The best non-original Rhodes ever is featured on this instrument but there's something about the classic pianos that bothers me. Although the samples are impressive, they lack of natural sound when playing. I haven't figure it out yet, but i assume that the problem is the keyboard response on velocity cause i've used Kurzweil's PC88 keyboard (via MIDI) and got a totally other sound out of NS88!
The effects are one of the things i wouldn't buy the NS88 if they were NOT present.

Had no problems yet and i have used it without backup already.

I've been playing for about 10 years live now. And all this years i've been playing with Kurzweil's PC88. Last year i added clavia's NS88. I play jazz-rock-funk so all i really need is a GOOD natural piano, a GOOD B3 sound and a GOOD Rhodes. In other words these 2 instruments are more than enough.
I'm thinking about buying an amplifier from motion-sound. Friends who used it with a Nord Electro said that it's almost better than the "real thing".
In this price i would like to have at least a sustain pedal and the legs. Why doesn't clavia built a hardcase? And why does clavia's softcase cost more than other's hardcases?

I?ve played the Nord Stage for about 4 hours and could do anything I wanted without reading the manual. This is truly a performer keyboard.

Check the Clavia site (www.clavia.se)...

This is the most important part of a keyboard although it?s always very subjective. So don?t trust any review but your own ears and feeling. I think the B3 and Rhodes simulations are incredibly good. If you play these sounds you can?t stop playing. They are very expressive and inspiring. The wurli, clave and cp80 are ok. I was a little bit disappointed by the acoustic piano sounds. They are just above average and sounds a bit unnatural to me. The synth section is the least interesting part of the keyboard. It?s ok for layering with pads but don?t expect fat, analogue sounds.

When I saw the announcement of the Nord Stage I really thought this was the instrument I was waiting for years. An acoustic piano combined with quality vintage simulations and on top of that a synth section. Although I liked concept I was disappointed by the overall sound quality of the keyboard. It?s a fine instrument but for 2999 Euro I expect more, I don?t think it?s worth the money. After all I?ve bought a Yamaha S90ES, which have an excellent acoustic piano. The S700 samples are incredible. I?ve extended it with a Nord Electro 2. With this combination I?ve everything I want; a) a great acoustic piano b) top B3 and Rhodes simulations and c) a fine synth section (The S90ES has the same engine as the Motif ES). In this case you will have the best of all for the same price. Nevertheless, everyone who?s looking for a great stage piano should listen to the Nord Stage. After all, it?s just a matter of taste.

(with no claim/opinion that my very subjective view is valid in any way) I'd like to hear from the very few of you out there that 1)bought a Yamaha S90 a year or two ago as your new primary gigging board 2)after really wanting to love the thing, to now use the fairest words you can muster: you weren't dissapointed -- you were horrified by the results: by an amazingly unusable piano, laughable organs, tragically honky brass. No help from the eq, no help by changes of venue, changes of amp and speaker, the thing was just terrible, nearly every patch annoyingly problematic/unplayable, weirdly resistant to real time tweaks too. Tantalizingly brilliant -- the best Rhodes ever done maybe --but that's all you can use it for, period...If you know that feeling and have played the Nord now, do you think I should buy one? Thanks

This keyboard is very logically laid out. I drove directly from the store to a gig and used it without looking at manual. There are about 100 predefined patches & synth voicings... editing, saving, layering, splitting, morphing and applying effects are trivial. The manual is well organized... a quick look at it and you find deeper details and appreciate the logic of this red beast.

The Stage has all the essential keyboard voices and effects rolled into one keyboard. Polyphony is 40 for piano... I have heard some artifacts goofing around, but not in 'real' playing. The keyboard action is brilliant, providing more control over the piano dynamics than I have experienced on an electronic instrument. In each patch, there are 2 complete sound sets of voicings that can combine organ, piano, synth, and effects. You can create some incredibly fat and expressive voices. This is a live performer's keyboard, not an audio workstation.

I love the expressive pianos (C7:10, Steinway:9, others:6)
The Wurlies & Rhodes are sweeter than Electro (and you get more of them). Clav is perhaps not quite as strong as Electo, but this is likely due to the action. Organs are at least as good as Electro (great). The Stage is most at home in a live band where it's clean sounds float above the mix (without pounding the crap out of the keys). This is by far the most expressive electronic keyboard I've played. There are a few clicks/pops when you switch sounds/effects while playing.

I hope...

Have not needed.

I know I could buy a few keyboards for this price that might combine to beat the Stage in some areas... but an important goal for me (and my back) is to get the most spontaneous, authentic, and expressive sound from the most portable and convenient rig. I've been playing piano for about 35 years, the Stage action compares well directly against the Steinway grand I learned on (recently completely rebuilt)... I also have Roland RD-700... the Stage is much more hands-on and expressive (but lacks 100's of sampled voices... 5 of which are useful). Compared to my Electro... the Stage is much, much more of everything and much more playable as a piano. This is a wonderful musical instrument for just about any style of live music.