Nord Piano 5 vs Nord Grand vs Nord Stage 3 - John Mayer Inspired Shootout!

hello and welcome to anthony's tv my name is jeff ducksbury this is tate i'm just loki flexing here using

nord

s as armrests but the

nord

s i have under my arms are the nord

piano

five which is brand new i made a video about it i'm sure will be linked below, a lot of questions came up from that video saying I was an idiot for not comparing it to the great one and you were right, I was an idiot because I figured someone if you don't know much about the Nords or these

piano

s, what are the differences between the

grand

piano and the piano?

But I'm also a big Nord Stage user, so I have a Stage three. Here we are going to talk about the different actions. I'm going to try to communicate to you what the differences are and this will all be through the lens of John Mayer's latest song, Last Train Home, so I'm going to play a piano version and we're going to move up the ranks and add more sound design , so in this video, hopefully, you should learn why you might want to choose the

grand

piano instead of the piano five or the

stage

and even learn how to play the last train home and how to make that noise, so let's get into it in the video.

Greetings, this is the Nord Grand. Why would you buy the Nord Grand instead of the Nord Piano Five? They are very similar in price right now. The North Piano Five is brand new. It's gone out a little. Think two years, year and a half, let's address the obvious, look at the size, the difference when we have the piano here, you'll see, but we have a much taller product here in terms of height, much more weight, right? Taylor is much heavier, so check the specs on weight, which will lead you to the conclusion that this is the Nord product for someone who maybe wants that Nord sound, loves it, maybe has seen it on the

stage

but you know I'm I'm not really a playing guy or girl, I'm just at home and I want the best sounding electric piano I can get and this is the Nord product for you because it's not made to be moved or played per se.

I would definitely skip to the next part if you think I'm doing gigs, eh, unless you're picky. That's why I did that version at the beginning of playing a piano-only version. Say you are someone who makes piano music. just and you're an evil classic gamer which I'm not the big headline about this product is the action so the action is from a different brand called kawaii and it was the first time you could get a triple sensor action which means it's I have three sensors in there which means you can do very light stuff, really beautiful actions to play, even when I was playing, then I have a lot of reverb in there so you can see the sample that was something that came up quite a bit.

I will still stand by it because I have proven it several times. If you're a wave-hand guy like me, maybe you're not a wave-hand guy, but I just pressed the tremolo without even knowing it, but you can lock the panel. but that again, guess what gig, all those flat controls mean you know if I'm there to drink gin and tonics or just get numbers from the girls, no, um, that's why we have the flat controls, this is all for advance, which is to lend that person who is at home or the pianist considered stick with the jack point is the best action you can get if you want to buy a nord and you are a serious pianist a little about the other aspects that you could overlay another sound with this sample synth section, so I can turn it on, it already has some strings in there, so let's listen to that, put a little more release on it, attack a little slower so you can layer the sound, so if you're into that concert solo piano, you're a wedding or a recital, this is the keyboard for you, you won't get into it too much, we have other videos and if you want a great video, save the time watching this one. go to the sound technology youtube channel rob wallace has made a very concise video on all the differences of the product this is just my opinion so let's fast forward let's put on the piano five which is the next level of the latest train. at home and the reason I play that sound is that it matches what I think is the type of person, maybe you should stop looking at the grand piano and look at the new ni piano five, so what are the components, what are the new things about piano five? that maybe can because it's essentially the same price as the nord grand, right now things obviously change, but there are some new things here.

Check out the other video I made on the nor piano five where I go into more depth, but we're just looking at the differences right, this keyboard action first on the back has the triple sensor like the kawaii action, but we don't have that feeling of ivory and to the touch people have asked me to communicate actions and I have been Be careful in other videos when talking about action because it is very personal and you know that what is good for someone is bad for another person and I understand that I am not the most educated, so sometimes people who are really interested in stocks are a different type of player.

For me, in all honesty, I don't care, it's a bit like the table everyone talks about is wobbly. I don't even realize it. I just don't care, maybe because I've done so many bad things in my life than this. Anyway, this action is a pleasure, let's go to the sound of the piano, which is the white grand piano. One point to make all the keyboards I play today can have exactly the same sound, which is why I'm not talking in piano terms. it has the same sound on all three because you can go to the website and choose which pianos you load with a big difference between the grand piano and this one has double the memory so you can bring many more sounds to your concert or have many more sounds to your layout without having to go to the computer, the other big technical change here is that this is the only keyboard of these three that can use the new Nord sample format and I did this in my other video, so check it out essentially when we get into the sample synth section where I put some strings behind the piano, let's find a string sample that maybe shows me that which may seem crazy to you, which is a new feature, but it's built into a beautiful vibrato in the sample and since it is not synthesized it really feels beautiful to play it and that alludes again, this is the type of person that if you were going to do a concert and you needed to cover many more sounds, this really is the piano five, many people have told me: Is it worth getting piano five?

Is it worth it if in that little example of the last train home in my brain that first the grand piano is like the person who is playing for the drinks at a wedding when you walk in and I'm just playing piano covers and then this is the keyboard for the guy in the band later that night and people expect it to sound a little more like the record, so let's do the patch that I did at the beginning like that quickly. You've got what I was thinking and hopefully it demonstrates the differences that just a layer, a piano layer, a sample synth layer has.

Here we have two layers for each section and I used them on that little fragment, so let's do one last train. homie type thing my homie tap thing so I'm in the sun everything is off this is what I love about Nord also everything is on and off by function so I'm going to activate this layer and I want to find a synth sound so I'm going to flip through the classics here, yeah, and to my ear on the record it sounds, I mean, it sounds really total, and to me they often go for an analogue speaker type sound, so listen to that nice one.

A lot, you're already winning, that's a cool new feature again, we have unison, so look at this, you hear it getting thicker. I love it because it's different from the chorus, if I use the chorus it sounds more natural to me. That's again something that is Unique compared to the great, we have that real unison vibrato here, but we also have multiple layers, so that's more than enough for me synth-wise, I listen to it, and when you watch the video , you feel that the profits are there, maximizing it. with the two synths in my ears I hear something useful and exciting analog and then with a kind of 80's digital piano sound, so let's go to the piano section and find something full digital that I think will blend together very well and then. the other layer let's find another digital one and go for it that's what I love, that puts me in a good mood and I can put them here, boosh, bring in the synth, I can even finish, get a little release, maybe put in some chorus. in the dx7 sound and I'll play the part like in a band, I won't play the left hand so maybe a touch of reverb a little less release so that's the next level that's the nor five piano you should buy Yes You're the kind of person who is a demanding pianist, but you're going to do cover gigs and also, if you want to do a solo with that new sample format, not only do you get true unison vibrato, but they also managed to make a synth bun.

It sounds very playable without a full synth engine, remember these are samples from since, look at this, so if someone said, oh, I've broken a string, you need to do a dodgy solo, I can copy it now on the old Nordic piano . I should be rocking out to a piano sound so I love running out of organ with no pitch bend mod but this is aimed at pianists the three are the ones that focus on the piano let's move on to the stage I'll show you the end Kind of of final countdown tattoo, let's do it, third and last keyboard.

We will go through northern stage three. I'm ready on the 76 key version. I said I was going to talk about actions and differences. What is interesting? about this one and the reason we have this one on the table is because this is the hp action, they call it uh, I'm not sure what it means, I have a pause, but it would be impossible to do anything, this is the lightest. and one of the new things with the piano five was that the 76 key version and the 88 key version share the exact same action, which is awesome, but if you want to save weight and weight is a big deal, say you get on the train every time and me.

I know a lot of people are interested in 76-key keyboards because I get asked a lot, is there a cheaper alternative? Unfortunately, it seems to be one of those things you only get on really fancy keyboards and that you can get on 76-key versions, again. go to the sound tech website where they really break down, I think Rob Wallace said he took pictures of the action so you can really see the inside of what's going on, but simply put, most of the stocks have the weight here in this part of the keyboard and in this key base they put the weight on the piano at this end and that has saved weight in some ways, so it is much lighter but also gives it the feel of a Rhodes piano.

If you've ever played a Fender Rhodes it just has a different feel to it, so again if you're a traditionalist you might want to get the 88 key version of this or if you're a very cold classical person and don't want any of the material. synthesizer, the base is for you sonically, what was it? I continue with this patch I made yesterday thinking about what would happen if John called me for the concert. Many viewers like Larry can't do it. Larry can't do it. We need you to come and that's why I love stage three and I just wanted to show you how good it is and what you get extra because some people maybe thought why would I buy the stage because apparently we have a similar sound to what we did on piano five there, which is, I have a layered sound on panel a here I have the, let's start turning things on and off and I'll show you how I built it on panel a, we have this ballad ep now the second panel b I have this sound which is the digi connected and what you're hearing there is that I've detuned one of the layers to give it more amplitude, almost like a chorus, but I'm not using any chorus.

I love the unison feature on the synth sections, it just seems to have a bit more solidity to the sound and I think if I was playing or if there was a musical director or John asked why he went for that, that would be my answer. So that's what we did on the piano side. I also used the soft release feature because I just wanted the note to have that powdery ending, not so abrupt. Let's turn it off on both and you can hear the difference. Look again just a little bit, these little guys, this is what stage three allows you again, maybe you've left the wedding fans behind or you're a really demanding wedding keyboard player and you really want to achieve the stage 3 sound . allows you to do that, so we've done the piano part, what did I do in the synth world?

I'll turn them off so we can hear what's happening on the Synth Town panel. I have this sound that I'm looking at. the panel that's what I love about Nord. I can't really remember what I did yesterday, but I can see that pretty much everything doesn't work, so I can guide you to what I did there instead of using a sample. I am generating it using. the synth engine is a big difference, so I can change the core nature of the sound, whereas in the other two we were looking at they are obviously focused on the piano, it's in the title, no piano, no pianotail, no stage, but I just want to convey these points, not a sample, this is using the synth engine, so I have two saw waves there and I have a mix of them, I change the waveform, listen and the I have combined, I am using the unison function listen how powerful the unison function is, it really spreads, thickens the sound, another thing is that I have options on the filter, so I used a 12 db per octave filter.

This is the 24db moog type, a little more metallic, but I like twelve, I can too. Choose the amount of keyboard tracking I get meaning when I play louder for example I hear it light up because the keyboard tracking essentially opens up the filter the higher I turn the keyboard up so I can hear them, imagine if you only had one setting filter for the entire keyboard, as I went up maybe these wouldn't sound right, so the filter tracking intelligently expands the filter range so we can hear those notes. I also have a little bit of boost in there, so let's turn this off and listen to that boost bit, if I max out the boost, you can hear how much that changes the character again live.

I would probably tell John that I'm going to put a little bit of momentum into it because I want him to go through it. the mix a little bit, I adjusted the filter to try the other thing I was trying to demonstrate in the intro and maybe let's move on to the next panel, let's turn that off because this is one of those guilty pleasures that you can start. Now look at this sound, now it's low in the mix, what have I done there? If I ever look, I put it through a Roland JC chorus amp.

If I turn it off, I give it a little boost. The other thing I have. I put a little bit of chorus on it, a little bit of chorus, essentially a little sound to give it a little bit more sizzle and when I put them together just the panel alone gave it a little bit more dirt, made it feel a little bit. More vintage for me, I put them all together and we have this with just a pinch and a reverb to taste. Now, the next thing that none of these can do and that I showed a little bit is to say that I go in. and I listened to the record and for me that matched the brilliance, you may find it a bit boring, but I put it next to the record I thought it was quite spectacular and when I do a concert I always start with a record. because that's what they pay you to do to replicate the album at the beginning, if I go in and a little like people kept the guitars, maybe at home you were playing it on the internet, but you got to the concert and you realized that no one could hear him, so you moved him towards the bridge.

I have these pitch bender mob wheels here and now, everyone morphing. Now morphing can is essentially using the wheel after touch or a control pedal to control almost anything in the north. and down and anyway, all at once, things have gone down, things to go up, in this case I thought well, if I went into that essay it's too dark, so what I did was assign the cut filter to this wheel. I also put some. I did this ping pong wet and dry mix control with a high delay and you'll hear it come in and it's me again thinking: how can I make a good impression?

How can I give myself options? in the moment and that's what the setting gives you, so look, too dark, ah, cool, and it also means that towards the end of the song, I saw Kimmel's performance and at the end they're like going between two. swinging on a or something I think, so I can kick without it, oh cool, but we're at the door, I've got fucking Steve Jordan, there, give me some of that retractable ring on the cymbals, I wanna match it and be like get I, my gin and tonic, I go to the club, that's what this can do a little bit, um also with stage three, I've got the whole organ in there, so maybe it was even like, oh, you know, we've got some.

I have a choir today and we want it to sound a little more gospel even so with the wheel I say I wanted them to come back I will do it wheel hold it down choose where my drawbars are now when I'm up I still have that delay and the drawbars are out and that kind of ping-pong ender gig, yeah, but if I want to take out the drawbars, everything slows down smoothly, I see them fade out so I can get things going. up going down I could have two control pedals other things we have four outputs so if the sound guy says hey jack that organ I want to treat it differently you know we have a really fancy sound guy that's cool man I can send my organ one output different and everything I played today I played using the triple pedal.

You get this included with the grand piano and you get it with the piano five. You don't get it with stage three, but you can recognize it. This and what it does allows you again, if you're a good pianist, you can use the other two, but it also unlocks the soundboard noise feature, which is really nice when you're just playing an exposed piano. own, that's all, I also want a call to arms. I made this patch yesterday. I have uh Instagram which doesn't really have any because I'm a little old when it comes to that, but if you go find it there we have a link below just message me.

You don't even have to follow me if you want this patch. I have it. I'm sure there will only be about three people, so it's okay. I can handle that, I'll email it to you and this is the patch we'll leave off the organ, but this should help you if you have to cover it in a functional band and you have this and hopefully that gave you enough idea to build the sound yourself if you want a full tutorial on how to play it and all the different parts, let us know in the comments. We could do it another time, but thanks to Teite as Eva for touching us.

I'm going to play the patch I made in nord stage 3 over a backing track Danish Pete made for another video on the guitar channel where they try to match the guitar sound. Check it out too and watch Danish Pete all his backing tracks. they're great to play uh I might open the cut fill a little bit and remember if you want the patch message me on Instagram and I'll try to send it to you thanks guys come on dj and me. I'll give up when I give you up