Nord Electro is Now Shipping
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Electro SixtyOne
(Click for a close-up) |
 |
Electro SeventyThree
(Click for a close-up) |
July 31, 2001
The long awaited stage keyboard from Clavia, the Nord Electro - Virtual Electromechanical, is
now shipping! Originally shown at the Frankfurt Musikmesse last year, its sound and
performance has now been utterly enhanced.
Clavia claims the new Nord Electro to be the
world´s best stage keyboard with an obvious place in every keyboard players rig. Clavia’s goal
when developing the Nord Electro was to create the best emulations of traditional
electromechanical keyboard instruments on the market, and to make the instrument compact
and lightweight. Nothing else. No brass banks, no orchestral sounds. No compromises. Just
electromechanical keyboard sounds with true feel, from fast keyboard response to
authentic sound. To make a great tool you have to put all the focus on a few things, and that’s
what we did with the Electro. Think about it, the best tool isn’t a Swiss army knife.
The organ in the Electro is based on a digital simulation of the mechanical tone wheels of the B-
3 organ. It offers innovative solutions to mimic the typical B-3 sound, for example:
- A complex digital model of the original chorus and vibrato scanner.
- Modeling of the individual random contact bounces for each partial.
- Modeling of the unique frequency characteristics of the built-in pre-amplifier which
forms the ”body” of the B-3 sound.
- Simulation of the energy stealth on the tone wheels that results in the typical compressed
sound.
- Authentic tuning of the tone wheels according to the original B3 design.
The piano section comprises four carefully multi-sampled electric piano instruments: Rhodes Mk
II Stage Piano, Wurlitzer 200A, Clavinet D6 and CP-80 Electric Grand. The Electro features a
unique multi-sample playback, catching every nuance from soft to hard hits. Nord Electro
comes right out of the box with these four legendary electric piano sounds stored in Flash
memory. As an extra bonus we also included an acoustic grand piano (concert model)! The big
advantage with Flash memory is that you can replace instruments with new ones and that no
backup battery is required. The Electro also sports a USB interface for quick and easy
download of new piano sounds in the future.
Nord Electro comes in two different versions: the 5-octave Nord Electro SixtyOne and the 6-octave Nord Electro SeventyThree. Both models weigh less than 10 kgs. The Nord Electro will
certainly set apart on stage, in studios and in shops with its awesome sound quality and striking
design. Simply put: welcome to The Ultimate Stage Keyboard!
Technical specifications
Organ section
Polyphony: Full polyphony
9 electric drawbars with memory functionality: The drawbars of Nord Electro are
represented by up/down buttons and LED bar graphs instead of ordinary mechanical drawbars.
This gives you a big advantage: when you change presets, the correct drawbar settings are
shown immediately by the LEDs. In other words, no need for the regular ’trial and error’
method. It's very easy to get the hang of changing the drawbar settings in a natural way with the
buttons.
Drawbar settings presets: 9 drawbar presets in ROM and 9 user configurable drawbar
settings.
Effects: Swell (the characteristic B-3 volume pedal function) - Percussion (2nd, 3rd,
normal/soft, fast/slow). Chorus/Vibrato (C1, C2, C3/V1, V2, V3).
Keyboard Split: Makes it possible to play an organ sound with two different drawbar settings
(Lower and Upper manuals) on the internal keyboard.
Dual manuals - MIDI Split: Nord Electro is designed to support an extra MIDI keyboard in
addition to its own. This makes it possible to play the Nord Electro as a 2-manual (Lower and
Upper manuals) organ with different drawbar settings for each manual.
Electric piano section
Instruments: 4 multi-sampled electric piano instruments in Flash memory: Rhodes Mk II Stage
Piano, Wurlitzer 200A, Clavinet D6 and CP-80 Electric Grand. As an extra bonus we also
included an acoustic grand piano (concert model)!
Effects: Presence (EQ featuring Frequency and Amount controls).
Global features:
Memory: 48 user memory locations (6 Banks holding 8 Programs each) in which you can
store complete setups, including instrument settings (organ or piano) and effects settings.
Effects: Overdrive, Rotary Speaker simulation (slow, fast, stop), Equalizer, Chorus (2 types),
Flanger (2 types), Phaser (2 types), Tremolo, Wah-Wah (2 types), Auto Wah, Auto panning
and Ring modulation.
Keyboard: 61-key (5 octaves) or 73-key (6 octaves) velocity sensitive semi-weighted
”waterfall” (square front) keyboard.
Connections: 2 Audio outputs, 1 Headphone output, 1 Control pedal input, 1 Sustain pedal
input, 1 Rotary Speaker speed switch pedal input, MIDI In, MIDI Out. USB interface for fast
and easy download of new piano sounds in the future.
Weight: 7.8 kg (Nord Electro SixtyOne), 9.4 kg (Nord Electro SeventyThree).
Specifications subject to change without notice
Nord Electro SixtyOne: approximately US$ 2,000 or Euro 2,200
Nord Electro SeventyThree: approximately US$ 2,200 or Euro 2,500
For more information, visit their web site at www.clavia.se. | 
