From clonewheel@snc.co.uk Thu Oct 18 02:17:48 2007
Subject:Re: Nord Stage experiences - Help me evaluate

You are absolutely right. On balance, I am definitely happy with the
weighted Stage 76 as that connection between the action and the sounds
(for me at least) is just so good. In general, people are probably
pickier about weighted/piano actions than synth/organ actions, so it is
probably easier (and probably cheaper) to add one one of these to the
76, than a weighted action to the compact.

Also, size does matter! The majority of 76 note keyboards have the
pitch/mod wheels or joystick at the left hand end of the keybed, which
obviously adds a couple of inches to the overall length of the board.
The Stage 76 has them placed above the keybed, making it just that bit
shorter overall.

If you particularly want a 76 note weighted action, then your choices
are severely limited. The only ones I can think of are the Kurzweil
PC1se, and the aforementioned Studiologic VMK-176 Plus (which
extempor63 said didn't provide such a good linkage to the sound engine).

The other observation I was going to make is that as keyboard players,
we obviously want to get the best possible piano or organ sounds from
our keyboards that we can. I know people (kb players) are often
critical of mono piano sounds (esp. the Stage), but I frequently have
to remind myself that probably 90% plus of your audience are unlikely
to pick up on all those little nuances of tone, particularly in a
typical band setting with guitars and drums, through a typical PA in a
typical venue.

The way I look at it with the Stage is that I can thoroughly enjoy
practicing at home in Stereo on headphones or on my studio monitors,
and when I get to the gig, if I lose a little bit going to mono, the
likelihood is that the punters are either not going to notice, or not
care about it. What they will notice however, is if your rhythm /
timing / groove is not together! If going to mono affects your
own performance badly (and I'm not knocking anyone if this is the case),
then simply monitor in stereo and send a stereo (or mono) feed to the
FOH and let the sound guy worry about it. Quite often, you'll be lucky
if the sound guy even mixes you loud enough to be heard over the guitars
anyway, so what is the point worrying about all those little nuances
and details?

Bottom line - I think if the sounds that the Stage can make (i.e.
non-rompler) meet your needs, with all the hands on control it offers,
with the convenience of a single board, it is definitely a winner.

Papa J
(very happy Stage 76 user)

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:45:00 -0500