Those Scandinavians!

2012-05-09 We just had the pleasure of having the wonderful people from Luthman and 4Sound Norway, Finland and Denmark over for a day dedicated to the red stuff and just to hang out! Great feedback from the people selling our products and hearing them play was a blast! Click the picture for a little slideshow!

Welcome Melody House!

2012-05-02 We are very happy to have distributor Melody House on board to handle the GCC region in the Middle East; Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates! Here's staff member Jerry John in the Nord booth at the Palme Music trade event thats taking place May 1-3 in Dubai.

Dry The River - No Rest

2012-04-27 Here's a great recording of UK folk band Dry The River performing the song "No Rest" from their AllSaints Basement Sessions, with some sweet organ sounds coming from the Nord Electro 3. Check out more of their music here!

Brilliant review of the Nord Drum in Future Music/Musicradar!

2012-04-23 The first reviews of the new Nord Drum are in! Here's some great quotes from the Future Music/Music Radar review:

"Playing the Nord Drum via a set of pads is a riot, and I can enthusiastically report that it unequivocally qualifies as an 'instrument' in every sense of the word, being responsive, dynamic and expressive. The range of sounds it can produce is quite amazing, from the authentically analogue to the suprisingly 'acoustic', the bangin' to the delicate, and the stridently industrial to the lavishly organic".

"Verdict: A superb drum synth for drummers, percussionists and programmers alike…"

Read the full review at musicradar.com.

Carmassi One Man Big Band

2012-04-13 The absurdly talented multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi just finished a new live-studio video where his newly aquired Nord Stage 2 plays a central role (and his approx. 38 other instruments do the rest). Most of the arrangements are improvised, read more about how he recorded it here.

Nord C2D now shipping!

2012-03-27 The Nord C2D and the Nord Drum are now both shipping and here's a jolly roll out picture for you all! Cheers!

Visit Canada!

2012-03-27 Today, Peter Patrick and Steve Knowles from our Canadian distributor Erikson Music stopped by to check out our new stuff and hang out! Click the image for a mini-slideshow!

Nord Achievement Awards 2012!

2012-03-26 The Musikmesse is an outstanding place for us to meet all the great distributors we're working with and this year we handed out the Nord Achievement Award to no less than 7 distributors for their great work in 2011!

Click the image to see photos of the Award winners!

Nord Piano 2 'Best Stage Piano' at the MIPA awards!

2012-03-23 Last night the annual MIPA Award ceremony was held at the Musikmesse and we are very happy that our new Nord Piano 2 won the MIPA Award for 'Best Stage Piano'!

Click the image for a photo of the Clavia crew receiving the MIPA award! See all the winners here. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Mister Barrington - Running Away

2012-03-16 Check out this great live video of the group Mister Barrington featuring the ridiculously groovy drummer Zach Danzinger, Owen Biddle on Bass and Olie Rockberger on keyboards, including a very familiar looking red one!

Nord nominated for THREE MIPA awards!

2012-03-12 We are honoured and thrilled to be nominated in THREE categories for the prestigious MIPA Award! The lucky winners will be announced at the Frankfurt MusikMesse March 22nd, 2012.

See all nominees for the Musikmesse International Press Award here.

Rob Gentry - Such A Good Feeling

2012-03-02 UK electronic pop act Rob Gentry sent us a charming video of him performing his catchy tune "Such A Good Feeling" in a studio. Rob's self-produced debut EP Not Like Me also features heavy use of the Nord Lead 3 and Nord Stage EX. Check out his SoundCloud page for more of his music!

4 Hands on the Stage 2

2012-02-24 Chuck Gilmore sent us this beautiful original piano composition he made with his Nord Stage 2 and features both the Imperial Grand and Grand Lady D pianos at the same time! Enjoy!

Nord Piano 2 now shipping!

2012-02-22 We've now begun shipping the new Nord Piano 2 and we'd like to share a photo of the happy Clavia crew taken at the product roll-out!

Click image for bigger version!

Jon Cobert shredding the Electro 3

2012-02-10 Check out this great video of Chris Fox & Mojo Monde featuring Jon Cobert performing a groovy version of "Hey Pocky A-way" by The Meters.

Future Music "Best Music Hardware Award" for the Nord Stage 2

2011-12-1 The Nord Stage 2 was announced as the winner of the "Future Music Best Music Hardware" at the MIA Show, as a result of a public voting at the MusicRadar website. A big thanks to everyone who voted for us!

See our In the press page for more reviews and awards!

The new Bright Grand sounds great live... and I'm using the small size sample in my Stage Compact Classic!
...Thanks again for providing keyboard players with what they need - solid instruments with great, useful sounds as opposed to a bunch of sound effects and gadgets that distract the end user.
-Peter Kadar

Just did 10,330 miles on summer tour and my Stage EX worked flawlessly! Love my Nord.
-Tom Salyers, The Laurie Morvan Band

''I've owned many stage pianos in the past and the NP88 is hands down the best''...
''The pedal up and down modeling, the string/sympathetic resonance modeling, it's all so well done. All the sounds are just first class. All the imperfections are there, so it really feels an organic/authentic experience.''
- Zac Forbes

News archive

You can find our archive with selected Nord World news here.

Everything but the Drawbars!

2012-05-14 The new C2 OS v2.00 update will give your Nord C2 the same B3 organ engine and rotary emulation as the new Nord C2D. This includes the improved B3 Key Click (with an added Key Bounce menu setting, and an extra high Key Click level available in the Sound menu), improved B3 Percussion behavior, improved B3 bass response and the new 122 Rotary model from the C2D (in both close and normal mic-positioning).

Important Note: In order to fit the new features we had to take away the old "Rotary B" model, the “original Clavia rotary”. If this is your preferred Rotary model this update might not be for you. The old “b” setting has been replaced by the "122 Close" Rotary model.

Get the Nord C2 v2.00 OS Update in the Download section.

Important bugfix for the new Sound Manager!

2012-05-04 The new v6.14 update fixes an unfortunate bug that could lead to missing files and incorrect order of sounds when restoring from a Sound Manager backup file. The update is recommended for all Nord owners.

The new Nord Sound Manager v6 introduces a new approach to the way a program relates to pianos and samples in the Nord Stage 2. Instead of referencing to a location like before, programs will now know their source pianos/samples by name. This lets you move piano or samples around without it affecting the dependent programs. The Nord Stage 2 must be updated to version 1.60 and all programs converted by the Nord Sound Manager to the new format in order to benefit from the new features.

Other new features include a new Info pane that gives detailed info on which programs use which pianos/samples and vice versa and there's a handy Relink feature for assigning new sounds to existing programs. There's also a great new feature called Bundles that lets you pack together all the ingredients of sounds (programs, samples and pianos) into a single file - perfect for a selective backup and for sharing sounds with Nord owners with compatible instruments.

Read more about the new Nord Sound Manager here and download it here.
The new features are only compatible with the Nord Stage 2 and Nord Piano 2.

Assorted retro drum goodness for your Nord!

2012-05-04 Dutch composer/sound designer Roland Kuit has put together a comprehensive set of old school drum sounds created using his Nord Modular synths. Roland is also known for having written the interactive e-books SoundLab I & II interactive e-books about sound design on the Nord Modular G2.

In addition to a sample instrument containing all the sounds for auditioning purposes, you also get all the individual .WAV files and the Nord Sample Editor project file available so you can rearrange the sounds any way you want.

Download the sounds here. The Nord Sample Library is compatible with the Nord Piano 2, Nord Electro 3/3HP/4D, Nord Stage 2 and the Nord Wave.

Read more about Roland Kuit's SoundLab-books here.

Support for the new Nord Sound Manager and bugfixes!

2012-04-25 The new OS v1.60 adds suppport for the new location-independent program features introduced in the Nord Sound Manager v6.14 and also fixes several bugs! Your exisiting programs will need to be updated to use the new features, and you will be asked to do this when launching the new Nord Sound Manager. For a complete list of whats new, see the update history page.

Get the new OS update in the Nord Stage 2 download section.

Listen to the sound of the new C2D!

2012-03-30 We had the privilege of having the swedish B3 legend Pierre Swärd over to do some demos of the new Nord C2D! Check out the recordings in the player to the right. Pierre is playing the Nord C2D together with the Nord Pedal Keys 27.

The recordings were made from the line-out of the Nord C2D with no external processing. The new 122 Rotary Speaker simulation was used on all the recordings.

See the Nord C2D product page for full details!

Brand new bass and updated brass!

2012-03-30 There's now a new set of versatile bass samples for free download in the Nord Sample Library! The new samples include upright bass, picked and fingered electric bass and even a Chapman-stick, all licenced from Bornemark Broomstick Bass. Get the new bass samples here!

We have also updated the Brass Section samples that we released autumn 2011.
The new Section samples have been edited to allow them to sound without any instruments folding back in pitch. This leads to a more natural and predictive way of playing them on a keyboard. Adding separate Section Sustain and Section Fall samples, without any split functionality, has also expanded the Nord Brass samples. Get the new Brass Section samples here!

Musikmesse 2012 is over!

2012-03-26 Thanks to everyone that visited our booth at the Musikmesse! We hope to see you again next year!

Click here for pictures of some of what we saw at the Messe! Now Updated!

PS! You can follow Nord Keyboards on Flickr too!

Introducing the new Nord Electro 4D at the Musikmesse!

2012-03-21 In time for the 10th anniversary of the very first Electro we proudly introduce the new Nord Electro 4D SW 61. The ultra lightweight (7kg) Electro 4D sports a 61-key Semi Weighted Waterfall key bed and the sturdy, great feeling drawbars found on the Nord C2D for full hands-on control, as well as support for both our constantly expanding Sound Libraries.

Sound-wise the Nord Electro 4D has a number of improvements under the red hood: The Organ section features a brand new tone wheel engine derived from our flagship organ Nord C2D. The Click-modeling has been improved and there’s a brand new Rotary Speaker simulation with an amazing new Drive.

The Nord Electro 4D supports Long Release suitable for legato playing and selectable String Resonance. Handling programs is easy with 4 Program Banks and 4 Live Locations. The Effect section now includes a flexible new Delay Effect with tap-tempo, rate, amount and a stereo Ping-Pong mode and the USB port doubles as an USB-MIDI interface. The Nord Electro 4D will be shown at the Musikmesse Frankfurt, March 21-24 at the Nord Booth B90, Hall 5.1

Additionally, renowned swedish organist Pierre Swärd will be demoing the new Nord C2D on stage in our booth friday and saturday. We hope to see you there!

Minor bugfixes

2012-02-15 The first OS update V1.02 for the new Nord Piano 2 is out and fixes two bugs. It is recommended for all Nord Piano 2 owners.

Get the new OS version in the Nord Piano 2 Download area.

New in the Nord Sample Library!

2012-02-06 Since its launch in 1976, the CS-80 is still considered one the fattest sounding analog synths on the planet. With its 8-voice polyphony (with two independent synthesizer layers per voice), split functionality, patch memory storage and polyphonic aftertouch it was a real powerhouse (but also weighed like one).

In addition to playing a pivotal role in Vangelis's classic soundtrack for Bladerunner it has been used by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Jean Michel Jarre, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Brian Eno and Toto.

Head over to the Nord Sample Library to download the new sounds now!

The Nord Sample Library is compatible with the Nord Piano 2, Nord Stage 2, Nord Electro 3 and the Nord Wave.

Nord at the 2012 NAMM Show (updated!)

2012-01-25 The 2012 NAMM Show is now finished and it was great experience with a lot of lovely people visiting our booth, and we got the privilegie to hear so many of amazing musicians playing our instruments! Here's a little slide show from our booth and some random discoveries from our days at the NAMM show!

Click here for the slideshow!

PS! You can now follow Nord Keyboards on Flickr too!

NAMM Booth Virtual Analog Drum Synthesizer

2012-01-18The Nord Drum is a revolutionary 4-channel drum synthesizer. With an amazingly vast sonic palette and astounding level of playability the Nord Drum is guaranteed to change your perception of what’s possible with synthetic, sample-free percussion.

Create classic retro-futuristic percussion with analog waveforms or use the harmonically complex waveforms together with different colors of noise for results that both sound and respond stunningly organic. The Nord Drum is designed with the performing musician in mind and its extreme dynamic range and super-fast triggering add to the feeling of playing a real instrument.

4 high-sensitivity inputs and MIDI lets you play the Nord Drum with a wide range of Electronic Drum Pads, Acoustic Drum Triggers and MIDI-pads/Sequencers for easy integration into any existing drum-kit or the starting point for something completely new…