Keyboard
Reviews : Keyboard
Combining several types of sound
generation in one instrument, Clavia's Nord Stage harks back to the
multi-keyboards of the 1970s. Is it a funky revivalist, or should it be
considered a thing of the past?
Photos: Mike Cameron
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Cast your mind back to the dim, distant past, and in
particular to the Korg Trident, ARP Omni, ARP Quadra, and Roland RS505
Paraphonic Ensemble. These now-classic keyboards can be thought of as
forerunners of the modern workstation synth. However, they were not the
MIDI-equipped, multitimbral, sample-based, sequencer-driven instruments
we now take for granted. In fact, they were resolutely analogue, and
very much for live playing. The principal factor they shared was that
they were 'multi-keyboards', capable of producing more than one sound at
a time. A typical instrument of this type might have had separate
string, synth and bass sections which could be layered together or split
across the keyboard range and played independently. Some of these
instruments are still considered desirable today, despite having quite
limited options.
It seemed as though the multi-keyboard was a
transitional phase on the way to truly polyphonic synths, and yet new
examples have appeared in recent years; Generalmusic's Promega 3
(reviewed in SOS May 2003) falls firmly into this category, and
now Swedish manufacturer Clavia have embraced the concept. Their
offering is the Nord Stage, a performance-oriented keyboard employing
three totally different and independent sound engines, and based on
technology used in the Nord Electro (reviewed in SOS December 2001) and the Nord Lead 3 (reviewed in SOS July 2001).
The Nord Stage is, like all Clavia keyboards, very
red, with a great many bright lights. Weighing in at 18.5kg, the Stage
sports an 88-note, velocity- and aftertouch-sensitive keyboard,
described by Clavia as 'medium weighted'. Whilst it's not exactly
lightweight, carrying it upstairs to my studio was no problem.
The centrally located Program control section and two-line display.
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The Stage boasts three separate sound engines: a
Hammond B3/electric organ emulation, a sample-based acoustic
piano/electromechanical keyboard engine, and a virtual
subtractive-synthesis engine. These three engines can be layered, split
or played alone, and selectively directed to three separate effects
groups, plus a modelled amplifier/speaker cabinet/EQ section.
Additionally, there's a rotary-speaker simulator to which any single
instrument section can be directed, and a global effects section which
is applied to the combined output and consists of a reverb and
compressor. Finally, the so-called 'Extern' section provides master MIDI
keyboard control of external MIDI instruments.
The Stage's construction is reassuringly solid and
chunky; the casing is made entirely of metal, and is topped off with a
pair of lacquered end cheeks in the standard red Nord livery. Clavia's
hopes of presenting a simple-to-use stage instrument seem at first
optimistic; the front panel is an attractive yet busy-looking affair
densely clustered with LEDs and cluttered with panel legending. However,
this is because many of the controls have dual functions; the Stage
turns out to be more straightforward in use than it looks.
The two main performance controllers are of Clavia's
signature design — a sprung wooden stick for pitch bend, and an angled
'stone-effect' mod wheel, both positioned on the panel's left above the
keys. The mod wheel is fine, but I just can't get on with the pitch
stick. It's mounted at a rather awkward angle that works OK for downward
bends, but feels very uncomfortable when performing the upward
movement. Pitch-bend range for all the internal sounds is also fixed at
plus or minus two semitones, which seems daft in the context of the
Synth section.
The group of controls surrounding the two-line LCD
serves not only to select Programs, but also provides access to the
Stage's various keyboard-management and Program-storage functions, and
System settings. A Program contains all the instrument settings, effects
assignments, key splits and External MIDI settings — in other words,
much like a complete 'Performance' on a regular synth. The Stage's
Programs are set out in 12 banks of six programs each, for a total of
126. This may seem an odd number, but closer inspection of the panel
reveals two grey buttons labelled Live 1 and Live 2. These are 'live
panel' Programs whose settings are constantly updated into Flash RAM,
but not written permanently to memory. The most recent changes you make
to either of these Programs will be retained and can be recalled, even
if the Stage has been powered off in the meantime. These two Live
Programs bring the total to a more 'traditional' 128. All Programs are
user-rewritable, but can be restored to factory settings by reloading
the factory SysEx file downloadable from Clavia's web site.
Of note in this section is the 'Shift' button — I
sincerely hope this is of a heavyweight industrial grade. Due to the
sheer number of dual control functions, this button gets more use than
almost any other on the Stage! Also of note are the two lower buttons
named 'Panel A' and 'Panel B'. At first glance it appears that the Stage
has just the three Organ, Piano and Synth engines. However, the Panel A
memory contains the settings for one 'layer' of these three sound
engines, whilst Panel B is host to a separate, duplicate layer, and the
Nord Electro-like use of LED columns to simulate Drawbars in the Organ
section and Nord Lead 3-like LED 'collars' on many of the endless
rotaries means that you can instantly switch between Panel settings
without worrying about having to physically reset controls when
recalling memories. In other words, you have two Organs, two Pianos and
two Synths, each with completely different settings. Thus you can layer
an acoustic piano with an electric piano, or layer two totally different
synth patches, and of course this is how 'dual-manual' organ settings
are achieved. Each of these engines can be addressed over MIDI on its
own MIDI channel, meaning the Stage can be up to six-part multitimbral
when played from a MIDI sequencer. Not only are the synth engines
duplicated, but the Effects sections are too; Panels A and B each have
their own complement of Effects.
This remarkably good, fully polyphonic Hammond B3
emulation is essentially the same as that featured on the Nord Electro,
but with some changes and enhancements. For example, one criticism
raised in the SOS review of the Nord Electro was that the level
of the key click effect was fixed. The Stage addresses this issue (as
did the Nord Electro 2); the level of the key click is now fully
variable.
As on the Nord Electro and the Nord Lead 3, LED
drawbars and endless rotaries with LED 'collars' are used so that the
controls are instantly updateable when patch memories are recalled.
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Central to the controls in this section are the nine
LED 'chain graphs' and Inc/Dec buttons that represent the nine drawbars
found on a real B3 (see the picture overleaf). Although not quite as
'organic' (sorry...) as physical drawbars, they satisfy the need for
immediate visual feedback of drawbar registrations nicely, as well as
sidestepping the need for motorised physical equivalents, thus keeping
the cost down and reliability up, at least in theory.
On the Nord Electro, the drawbar Inc/Dec buttons
were also utilised to provide eight preset, one 'random' and nine User
drawbar memories. This facility is now gone (which is a shame) and has
been replaced by a single button named 'Preset II'. This provides a
simple, one-click alternative User registration for each organ 'Panel'
within each complete Stage Program. Further hands-on flexibility comes
in the form of
Morphing, whereby the current drawbar registration can be
smoothly changed into another. The drawbar Morph settings are also
stored within each Program (see the box on morphing over the page).
Apart from the Hammond emulation, the Nord Stage
offers two further organ models — a Vox Continental and a Farfisa
Compact Deluxe. If this sounds familiar, it's because Native Instruments
provide the same extra 'tonewheel' sets for their B4 and B4 II software organs. Clavia have aimed for more authenticity with these, especially concerning the Farfisa. Whereas B4's
drawbars offer continuously variable values for this model, the Stage's
drawbars default to on/off values, reflecting the fact that the Farfisa
used on/off 'rocker' tabs to combine various preset registrations.
Similarly, Clavia's Vox Continental model uses six drawbars for
registrations (the seventh is non-functional) whilst the eighth and
ninth drawbars provide a variable mix between sine and triangle waves,
similar to the original. By comparison, NI's B4 offers only sine, triangle or a 50/50 mix of the two waves, as well as nine fully functional drawbars. B4
allows use of the percussion and the full range of B3-type vibrato
effects on its Vox and Farfisa models, whilst on the Stage the
percussion is non-functional for these, and the vibrato types are
implemented as they were on the originals. So while NI's B4 offers extra flexibility with these models, the Stage scores more points for realism.
Without doubt, the B3 model is the flagship of the
Organ section. Despite the cleanliness of the basic tonewheel sound and
the absence of any drawbar leakage effect, it packs a very satisfying
punch. Turn on the rotary speaker simulator, crank up the Drive, and
you'll see what I mean.
Piano Section
This sample-based engine offers a generous selection
of acoustic and electromechanical pianos — there are six basic types
with a total of 13 variations between them. Unusually, the samples are
held in Flash RAM, so individual instruments can be updated or replaced
with ease by means of the supplied cross-platform Nord Stage Manager
software (see the box on the last page of this article). Polyphony is
quoted at 40 to 60 voices, as it's dependent on the selected sound.
The two stereo grand pianos — a close-miked Yamaha
C7 and a Steinway Concert Model D with rather more room ambience — have a
nice wide dynamic range, and are suitable for a wide range of rock/pop
and classical applications. The velocity-split points are well placed —
the most drastic timbral changes occur in the upper velocity range,
which avoids tell-tale timbral jumps at average playing levels — and the
loop tails are clean, and generally noticeable only when sounds are
played in isolation. The multisample splits, too, are all but
unnoticeable, although curiously the volume of both pianos tends to tail
off in the upper registers.
The Synth section.
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Two stereo upright pianos — one made by the Swedish
company Svenska Pianofabriken, the other a Yamaha M5J — offer
substantially different tones to the grands. The Svenska has been tuned
in a 'parlour' style, giving it a very pleasant ringing ambience, and I
could easily imagine it sitting comfortably in a Coldplay track. The M5J
is perhaps the least impressive of the acoustics — its mid range is so
perfectly in tune that it sounds strangely artificial! All four acoustic
pianos have a key release layer, and all but the M5J include a
nice-sounding soundboard resonance effect when the sustain pedal is
down.
The Yamaha CP80 Electric Grand is the first
decent-sounding representation I've heard coming from a hardware
instrument. Add a little chorus from the built-in effects section, and
many famous recordings from the 1980s come instantly to mind. However, I
felt that the tuning was just a bit too perfect — some characteristic
CP80 detuned 'zing' wouldn't have gone amiss. Also, the apparent lack of
a key release layer exposes the existing (uneditable) release time,
which I found rather too abrupt.
Three vintages of Rhodes piano demonstrate just how
different the various hardware models could sound back in the day.
Variation 1, a MkI Stage, has a dominant fundamental harmonic, sampled
with the tines set at a moderate distance from the pickups for a mellow
tone. Variation 2 is a MkII Stage, but here the tines are close to the
pickups, and aimed more centrally toward the pickups' axes, giving a
tone strong in upper harmonics and a rich sound when played hard.
Variation 3, a MkV Stage, has its tines close to the pickups but
off-axis, for a full, clear sound.
The Wurlitzer EP200A electric piano is very
realistic, and immediately recognisable. A real Wurly really rocks when
put through an amplifier/speaker combo with a bit of drive — and this
one does too, if it's routed through the Stage's amp-simulator effect
with a dollop of tremolo. Very nice.
Finally, the Stage's Hohner Clavinet D6 comes with
four pickup variations, just like the original. Not only that, but the
D6's four EQ switches have also been reproduced with commendable
accuracy. Being the owner of two D6 Clavinets, I have to say this model
is absolutely wonderful, and sounds just like the real deal. However,
the lack of a key release layer and the original D6's Damper is a shame —
I would assume this is down to limitations of sample memory, as the
current piano sample set uses 99.8 percent of the available Flash RAM.
Attempting to recreate either effect using a simple envelope shaper
would have been a desultory solution, and it appears that Clavia thought
so too.
Apart from such small niggles, these are all
excellent sounds. The restricted key ranges that especially dogged the
61-note Nord Electro are no longer an issue — all the sounds now span
the full 88-note range.
Synth Section
The Synth hosts its own set of programmable
memories, divided into three sound categories: Synth, Pad and Bass, each
of which has 99 memory locations. At its most basic level, this is a
16-voice polyphonic, single-oscillator subtractive synth featuring a
single switchable 12 or 24dB-per-octave low-pass resonant filter and two
simple AD/R envelopes, one for the amplifier and one for assignable
modulation duties. The single oscillator is also capable of oscillator
sync effects, courtesy of a 'hidden' sine-wave oscillator dedicated to
this purpose.
The waveforms are divided into three categories:
virtual analogue, sampled digital and up to three-operator FM, providing
between them a wide range of waveforms. These waves can be further
modified using the Timbre knob, which controls pulse-width modulation,
oscillator sync and FM intensity as appropriate. Apply a modulation
source such as Morphing or the mod envelope to the Timbre control, and
dramatic time-based harmonic changes are possible. As this section is a
single-oscillator synth, the Unison detune knob provides a welcome means
of thickening the source waveforms.
The far right section of the control panel.
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Despite a number of compromises reminiscent of those
old multi-keyboards of yesteryear, Clavia have aimed to squeeze as much
as they can out of this synth, given such a basic structure. However,
these compromises throw up some interesting problems. For example, there
is no dedicated LFO for modulation duties, which begs the question 'how
do you apply cyclic modulation effects, such as pulse-width
modulation?'
The answer lies with the mod envelope, although it's a
rather unconventional solution. The mod envelope has three modes:
Attack/Hold/Release, Attack/Decay, and Repeat. By assigning the Pulse
waveform to the mod envelope and choosing Repeat mode, the envelope will
cycle round the attack and decay slopes indefinitely, thus providing a
pseudo-LFO-type effect. The advantage is that you can sculpt irregular
'LFO waveforms' using different values for the Attack and Release knobs,
but the downside is that you can no longer use the mod envelope to make
one-shot filter sweeps.
Whilst it is not possible to modulate oscillator
pitch with an proper envelope, a compromise is provided, but it's
available only to the oscillator's analogue 'Sd' waveform. This sawtooth
waveform is 'split' to behave like two oscillators, and if you rotate
the Timbre knob, the 'second oscillator' detunes against the first, and
this relative detuning can be smoothly modulated using the mod envelope.
The bad news is that the level balance between the two oscillators is
fixed at 50/50, and detuning via the Timbre knob is restricted to
semitones only, so the two oscillator 'halves' cannot be fine-detuned
against each other, and at unison pitch, they simply sound like one
oscillator. If the mod envelope had an additional sustain-level
parameter, this could be used to work around the fine-detuning issue —
but it hasn't. The only possible solution is to Morph the detune value
manually, using a very narrow Morphing range, but then the detune value
has to be set by hand every time you select a 'detunable' synth Program.
The implementation of pitch vibrato is also
curiously limited. Three types of delay vibrato can be selected, each
with a preset delay time. The rate and depth of delay vibrato is set
globally in the Sound System menu, and applies to every single Synth
Program. At least the depth is variable when Vibrato is assigned to the
mod wheel or aftertouch, but the rate always remains fixed, regardless
of the Program selected, which is rather silly. And because you cannot
fine-tune the oscillator, you cannot detune a Panel A synth against a
Panel B synth, which makes numerous classic synth sounds impossible to
achieve. All of this is very frustrating.
Effects & Global Effects
The Effects section consists of four independent
sub-sections: Effect 1, Effect 2, Delay and the amp simulator/EQ
section. Effect 1 offers tremolo, auto-pan, ring modulation and three
flavours of wah-wah. Effect 2 deals with pitch-related effects such as
chorus, flanging and phasing. The Delay can be mono, or be switched to
stereo 'ping-pong' mode, and features a tap-tempo button, which is very
handy for spontaneously setting delay times in a live situation. The
AmpSim/EQ section, as its name suggests, offers three amp/cabinet
simulations, three-band EQ, and a Drive effect.
Each instrument type can be directed to one or more
of these effects sub-sections, but again, there are limitations. For
example, if the Piano section from Panel A uses the delay, no other
Panel A instrument can use that delay. In this case, though, another
Panel A instrument could still use an effect from Effect 1 or Effect 2,
as long as nothing else was already using that effect! To assign two
instrument sections to the same effect type, one of them would have to
made using the Panel B settings, and use the Panel B Effects group. The
effects themselves have little in the way of editing facilities,
offering only Rate and Amount controls, and whilst they're not sonically
revolutionary, they're perfectly adequate for their intended uses.
The Rotary Speaker simulator, despite having no
editable parameters (except fast/slow/stop) sounds excellent, and is the
Stage's most impressive effect. The Drive control adds just the right
colour, from a gentle growl to full death-metal shredding. Its one major
drawback is that only one instrument section at a time can use it.
The Global reverb and compressor are the final
sound-sweetening tools, and are applied across the combined output of
all the instrument sections. The reverb offers Room, Stage and Hall
settings, and apart from the dry/wet mix, has no editable parameters.
Frustratingly, you cannot selectively apply reverb to one or other of
the instrument sections: everything gets it to the same degree.
Similarly, the compressor only has On/Off and Amount controls, and when
it's switched on, it's applied to everything. But I guess that's why
they're called Global effects!
This section provides control of external MIDI
instruments, though the facilities on offer are fairly basic, comprising
only one assignable rotary encoder knob which is switchable between the
assigned controller, volume or program change messages. As well as the
active/mute status and key range, each Stage Program recalls its own
'Extern' settings for assignable MIDI controller number, plus initial
values for the assigned controller, volume, and Program Change number,
and these can optionally be sent to the external MIDI instrument each
time you select a Program on the Stage. Frustrations abound, however.
The external MIDI transmission channel is set in the MIDI System menu,
and applies globally to all Programs, so realistically you can only
control one external synth from the Stage. Directing control to a
different instrument necessitates delving into the MIDI System menu.
What's more, the Panic (all notes off) button works only with the
Stage's internal sounds, and is not transmitted to external instruments,
which is where it's likely to be needed most!
Finally, the transmitted key velocities have an
incredibly heavy response curve — even playing vigorously, levels only
average in the upper 50s, with Herculean strength being required to hit
velocity 127. And the curve can't be altered. Until these issues are
addressed with an OS update, it's unlikely anyone will be using the
Stage expressly for its master keyboard facilities.
About Key Splits
Each instrument section can address the full
keyboard, or be assigned to zones. You can define Lower, Upper and High
zones, the split points being indicated by LEDs above the keys, and the
splits apply globally to Panel A and Panel B sounds. The Octave Shift
buttons found in each section operate only when a particular section has
been 'zoned' (that is, when it's playing less than the full key range).
A 'Dual Keyboard' facility enables you to play the
Panel B sounds from an external MIDI keyboard. This is useful if you
wish to create a dual-manual organ setup where the external keyboard is
the 'upper' manual (Panel B) and the Stage's keyboard is the 'lower'
manual (Panel A). This also has the benefit that each manual can play
across its full key range.
On one level, the Stage is a very desirable musical
instrument, but on another, it seems to be a mass of compromises, and at
times, there are rather too many 'either/or' decisions to make. For
example, which sound gets the rotor effect — the piano or the organ? You
can't do both. Want reverb on the synth only? Sorry, it has to be
plastered on everything, or nothing at all. Similarly, choosing whether
to sacrifice the filter envelope in favour of pulse-width modulation in
the Synth section can be wearisome. Clavia's goal in designing the Stage
was to make it simple and quick to use in a live context, and indeed,
the Piano and Organ sections are straightforward and easy to use, but I
feel that the simplicity of the Synth section is its own worst enemy,
providing only just enough to justify its inclusion.
Whether the Nord Stage functions well as a master
keyboard is also in question — it's hard to imagine a way in which you
could independently control more than one external MIDI instrument, and
even then you'd be using a frustratingly reduced set of facilities. That
heavy external MIDI velocity curve doesn't help matters, either.
Personally, I would keep the Stage as a stand-alone keyboard, and use a
different dedicated master controller keyboard to play any other MIDI
instruments I wanted to use.
Lastly, there is the all-important factor of cost;
at £2200, the Stage is certainly not cheap. I know we're looking at a
high-quality instrument here, but it's amazing what you can get for your
money these days.
On the positive side, the functional compromises
I've highlighted may not bother you personally as a player. If so, and
if you're prepared to bear the cost, the Stage is absolutely on the
money as a stand-alone instrument that covers a range of classic
acoustic and electromechanical keyboards in highly competent fashion.
I'd advise that you find time to try out the Stage before you make your
purchase decision, think about your playing needs and how you might want
to use it, and see if its great sounds seduce you.
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