From carl@vanselman.com Sun Mar 28 00:27:57 2004
Subject:Re: nord electro action - sorry, long post

Hi, I had an Electro for about 9 months before selling it and buying my Roland V-Combo. I had several issues with the Electro although with the latest velocity curves in the new OS update some of those issues now seem to be resolved. As I have not played the new OS my comments can only refer to the older V2 OS.

Before buying a 'modern' clone I was using my Hammond B250 for gigs but it was still a backbreaker to move about. I also have a Hammond L122 and Leslie 110 at home so I multi-sampled all my favourite settings and loaded them into my Korg Trinity. I was very happy with these organ sounds in the Trinity as it also has a Korg G4 Leslie sim built in. But.... I was not happy with the piano samples and there was not enough memory to load piano and organ samples plus I was using the other sounds much less so researched very carefully and bought the Electro as a 'all in one' gigging keyboard. I'm telling you this so that you know where I was coming from.

I was very happy with the organ sounds and the Leslie sim is excellent. The electric piano's are all very good but the acoustic piano sucked big time. I found that to get that 'sweet spot' from the piano's required me to play the keyboard very hard. I play lots of dep gigs and picked up a mini tour, three weeks/16 gigs, playing acoustic piano in a rock n roll band. By the time I was halfway through my forefinger and middle finger on my right hand were beginning to hurt for some hours after the gig and by the end of the tour my fingers were hurting all the time. When I got back home I saw my doctor and a specialist and was told I had RSI and not to play at all for 6 months and take it gently after that. I know this was caused by the way I was playing the Electro. I think that the slightly short length of the actual keys played a part in this also.

Needless to say I sold the Electro (which had also been back to the supplier twice with problems but that's another story) and bought the V-Combo which also had good organ sounds, much better acoustic piano sounds and although the electric piano sounds are not quite there with the Electro they are plenty good enough for me. I always found the Electro piano sounds hard to play and get the feel I wanted and although the organ sound is great I found that I stopped playing with the drawbars (drawbuttons?) during songs and simply flicked between various presets that I had previously set up. This is not as smooth as grabbing a handful of drawbars and changing your sound by touch and by feel. So, bottom line. The Electro velocity curve issue has long been debated and the latest OS gives users a whole bunch of curves to suite your playing so maybe I'd be much happier with it now but I didn't really get on with the drawbuttons or the awful acoustic piano sample so I made the right choice for me and got the V-Combo which I have had now for 9 months and I still love it.

As for my fingers - I have had to change the way I play, I can't lay into the keyboard for any length of time, my fingers hurt after gigs for hours (real pain, brings tears to my eyes). I try to play more organ, substitute piano solo's with organ solo's, I can not take on tours any more, I have to use steroid creams on the fingers three times a day, it has changed the whole way I approach playing. Maybe it would have happened with any keyboard and it was a result of playing to hard for too many years but I know that I never had any problem before and now it is with me for the rest of my life and the only event between the two was a 3 week gig on the Electro.

Carl
----- Original Message -----
From: adamlutley2000
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 7:27 AM
Subject: [CWSG] nord electro action

I havent had a an opportunity to play an Electro.
I live in a small city in Australia and there a none on display.
I'm really sensitive about the actions I play... am I going to be
disappointed with the action of the nord?? is it a synthy kind of
action.
I find that my abilty to groove and play solid is greatly affected
by the feeling/action of a keyboard.
It can have the most mind blowing sounds but if the playing surface
aint right, forget it!!
I play a cheap ep on jazz gigs.. technics P30... cheap piano but a
very responsive groovy action... maybe I'll just use it as a
controller... although it only transmits one channel at a time.
Need feedback from people familiar with the action of the Nord.

To unsubscribe, send email to: CloneWheel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links

a.. To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CloneWheel/

b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CloneWheel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]