http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2008/Nord-Introduces-the-Electro-3-Keyboard.html

Nothing on their own website, yet, I think...

This is pretty significant... the C1's Hammond sim and Leslie improvements, and the ability to import any of the gorgeous pianos from the Stage's library (or anything else in the Wave library). Plus a bunch of other stuff...

No arranger is giving me the hots these days, but this one is going to be hard to resist.

For the live player, this is one blockbuster keyboard. If I was rich I'd switch out the Hammond for one of those - well, maybe not. But maybe I'd buy one.

It has a 73 note model for those who can't deal with 61.

Wonder what the key range would be, and if it went down to the all important low "E"?

Even the Nord Stage's 73's only go down to the F... I'm not sure why.

I would imagine, though, that were the E to be essential for a particular song, you can always transpose the keyboard down a half step and play in F!

Personally, I don't mind the missing E on this one, as it can't be split, so losing the open E off a bass sound isn't really going to be something you do much. It's been quite a while since my Rhodes days (do it all with sampled sets for the K2500 or the G70 these days) so maybe it ain't the big thing for me, whereas others coming directly from a Rhodes are more likely to want the Stage's 76 fully weighted to get the feel right, and that elusive E, anyway

I can't wait to try this out! Got my pre-order in at my local dealer, I'll get a call as soon as one arrives (I'll probably go for the 73, but possibly, if they release a rack, that might be OK, too - and I'll get back the E!)....

I haven't been this excited about a keyboard since my G70 came out. Thanks, Nord, for reviving my gear-lust!

Not a lot of 73/76 note keyboards sold in my area...especially here on Cape Breton Island.

There's a lot of Celtic/Scottish fiddle music, and the keyboardists want the low "E" as well as octave "A's", as most of the time there is no bass player.

Nice and clanky.

Perhaps Nord will make an 88? Or use the keybed from the Stage 76.

Ian

Diki, I'm still using my C-1 and old style Electro as my "go to" combo (Electro on my right hand when playing traditional "B" style).


You'll LOVE IT!

Let us know.


R.

http://www.nordkeyboards.com/main.asp (click on the picture of the Electro3)

Finally some direct factory info... (no demos, yet)

They talk as if this is NOT a replacement for the Electro2, but a product that straddles the price point between E2 and the Stage.

Whatever... It still looks like a winner. No news of a Rack model, yet. That would be my preference, I think, but it's early days.

See, that's what I mean. I'd rather be that guy and starving to death (yeah, wife and kids starving too), than singing KARAOKE to a bunch of drunks, and rich. Just a personal preference. No slight intended. And yeah, he's playing to a backing track; in his case, so what. He leaves no doubt that he is a REAL (and talented) musician, fully capable of playing with other accomplished musicians. Good video, Donny. But it also shows that if you're over 50 and haven't yet reached that level, you're never gonna' get there.

Love those Nords.

chas



[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 11-19-2008).]

Terrific Rhodes sound...good player, too.

he has a few more videos on there also....

You're right, Chas. The guy's a player. He'd be fun to jam with. And the Nord sounds great!

Playing like this is part of the joy of being a musician. The only thing missing is other players of comperable skill and attitude.

Now that's where it's at, for me, at least.


R.

Yeah... good player. Sounds like he could dial back the vel sensitivity a bit (probably those light keys!) when playing with a track, though.

Same thing we talked about on another thread... it helps to have the drums and bass rise a bit once we start spanking it! Having them plough on as if nothing happened is a bit TOO mechanical, for me.

Has anyone tried to use sidechain expansion on backing tracks? With a REALLY long release, it might help to get audio tracks to pop a bit more in response to frisky live playing... just a few db, not much.

But all in all, I guess if he had just got the rhythm section up in the first place (it sounds very much like him playing ON a track rather than IN the track) it wouldn't have been so bad.. (not that it was bad, just could have been better).

It's a fault we almost ALL fall into, playing ON the track, as if we were listening to a monitor mix, rather than IN the track, as if we were listening to a playback. It takes courage to play so quietly we can hardly hear ourselves, which is often where we need to be when comping! I don't think I can remember the last member demo that didn't sound like the solo and even the comp (if one is ever played!) could easily go down a few db to sit in the mix better....

Only recording ourselves constantly, and then being this critical can fix this... you just have to dial down the patch until it sounds right on playback, and to hell with how it makes you feel while you are actually playing

I have often thought, when listening to the incessant whining about how poor the OTHER players were, in bands that OMB's used to play in, what does this say about the quality of the whiner himself?

Great players make up for a lot of day to day niggles (if you are into playing music, that is!), but you seldom get to play with them if you can't cut the mustard yourself. So, all too often, these guys are playing with the B or more likely, C team players, and that's how they get their attitudes. But the problem rests with themselves, not the poor players that were all they could get!

Me, I'd rather play with a strung out Bird than the most punctual, soberest 'entertainer' out there...

"Me, I'd rather play with a strung out Bird than the most punctual, soberest 'entertainer' out there...
"

WOW!!! Not I....

I have zero respect for dope heads...It is a choice you make....and the wrong choice at that..I don't care how good you are..or think you are.....give me the sober guy...at least he will remember he had a good time..

And that's it in a nutshell.

Genius often comes at a price. Are you happier to have never played with it, and avoided it's little problems (or big ones) or would the opportunity to work an play and learn from the best in the business make putting up with the baggage some of them carry worth while?

Let's put it this way... were any of us here fortunate enough to have jammed with Parker, Miles (the list goes on forever) etc., do you think we would be bitching about them the way we do some slacker stoner that CAN'T play worth a damn, sober or not..? Hell NO! They'd be bragging to their grandkids till the day they died...

Not too many of us saints around here, anyway (unless the drugs have made us forget our peccadilloes!). And even fewer capable of hanging with the greats!

Sorry, Fran, but I'll take Miles or Bird bombed over you sober, any day! At least they always played what they did

Yes, the genius players often carry baggage, but what a delight to listen to and learn from.

When I was in high school, I had the honor of playing upright at a local facility which was called NARCO. It was a narcotics treatment center, and over a three year period, sadly, I got to play with the "who's who" of the jazz world of the early 60's. It was a sad but life-changing experience. A few years later, I ran into some of the same players in LA. They regularly made trips into Lexington to "dry out".

You've heard of and even heard recordings by many of the people I ran into at NARCO. To name them would be disrespectful.

To have met and heard them was an honor.

R.



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 11-19-2008).]

Definitely NOT my style. I've never enjoyed someone playing rhythmic scales. Where's the connection to the melody? IMHO, anyone who move that far away from the original song for that long is just playing for themselves.

OK, start throwing the arrows. I know that that's what great jazz is all about, but as I said - It's not MY style.

I hear you Diki, but I'm gonna meet Fran half way. It's a lot more fun playing with a great player who is clean, sober, and ego-free than a great player who has had a few brain cells ah, chemically removed. Sadly, it too often goes with the turf. I think it may be the stress of seeing glorified karaoke machines manned by pushbutton 'musicians' take all the good-paying gigs . Or a public that prefers a 'Madonna' to a 'Sarah Vaughn'. Or hamburger to filet mignon. Or Fundamentalist religious principles to uh, common sense. Oops, getting off topic here.

chas

Hey Cass, some people will look at Picasso's Guernica and think it's weird. That doesn't mean it's not good, it just means they don't get it. That's not a putdown, but depending on your exposure, your taste, and especially your musical sensibilities, some will hear tasteful, well-thought-out, melodic explorations, and others will hear uh, scales. Jazz is definitely not for everybody, but for those who have taken the time to study it, to learn it, to understand it; it's a beautiful thing.

For the record, I've never heard anyone say that they didn't like jazz who could actually play jazz. Must be some kind of connection there.

chas

[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 11-19-2008).]

Cass, jazz is an acquired taste. There's no foul saying that someone doesn't get it. And those who do (the players) often dig in so far that they play themselves out of a job.

The most unhappy of the lot have to choose between starving on the pay a "journeyman" jazz player makes or "selling out" and playing something else, which, to many hardliners, is unacceptable.

A year before he died, Ray Brown asked me what I made as a communications manager at a Fortune 100 company. Turns out it was a little more than his average annual salary, and he was a guy at the very top of his game and pay scale. There are 100's; maby thousands of people who have my skill-set in the communications business.

The saddest people I've known are jazz players who live and breath jazz 18 hours a day. They blame the public for not accepting what they do and become bitter, withdrawn and
often dependent on alcohol and/or drugs. They don't realize that the general public just isn't that involved in the art form.

In many forms of music, adequate players can find work. In jazz, only the "cream of the crop" has any chance of success. I know lots of people who are just shy of the ability to succeed in jazz, but can't commit to anything else.

A sad reality for me is that I'm a "sell-out". That extends to more than music. As it is in music, in art and photography, the money is in corporate projects, not fine art. That level of work pays around $1800.00-2000.00 per day.

As a producer of collateral materials (brochures, packaging, etc.), the compensation is in the $200.00 plus range per hour when you work for large organizations. Producing a publicity release runs $750.00 per page. Adding a mark-up to the printed pieces increases the gross. One on-going job is a 40 page catalog for an Italian company. Lowes goes through several hundred thousand a month. Mark-up on the printing is 15%, or over $13,000 a month in income.

I'd like to be a fine artist/photographer and only do creative work. I'd like to be a top jazz player. I'm not. Instead, I've located a place where I get to work in the fields I sincerely love.

And I'm always grateful I get to do that.

Russ

Points well taken, Russ. I certainly am not knocking jazz. I'm not a student of the art, but I can appreciate all the hard work, desire and dedication it takes to play and understand good jazz.

As our good friend chas said, "some people will look at Picasso's Guernica and think it's weird." Well, I can't even picture it in my head, let alone critique. I guess I must be more of a realist (is that even an art term?).

People see and interpret things in millions of different ways. I'll just return to my original statement - It's not for me.

God bless all. Peace!

I hear you loud and clear, guys... Point one, OF COURSE it's better to play with a great who is sober than jacked up... but I'll still take one of those over a lump that can't play sober or not

And point two... Nothing wrong with being a sellout... as long as you realize it All to often we get sellouts that won't even acknowledge it, then it's all kinds of excuses to justify it. Own up to it (I do mine!) and recognize it as it happens, and you are a LOT better prepared for it's consequences, good OR bad...

But, all in all, as per my original post, I just worry about how much self-justification goes on here by belittling those some of us may have played with in the past... Without any acknowledgment of PERHAPS we are not the saints we would like to make out. Either in our playing skills OR our personal and professional habits. Oh for the forum where we could go and listen to these guys talk about US!

I'd be surprised if it was anywhere NEAR as good as we bill ourselves...

Really fine rendition of "Blackbird". You can do so much with tunes like this. The guy uses some really nice chord inversions.


Russ

http://www.artnewsblog.com/famous-paintings/guernica/index.htm

chas

I understand that COMPLETELY !!! ... but then, I HAVE been taking art lessons ...

t.

Ever hear Joe Cocker's version?