Nord Stage 4 88

The Nord Stage 4 88 is the fourth generation of the popular Stage piano in an attractive red colour. With its high-quality workmanship, clearly arranged control panel and rarely used dual functions, the Nord Stage 4 guarantees lively playing and flawless achievement of the desired sound. The beautifully recreated 88-key keyboard with hammer action is equipped with Triple Sensor technology, which ensures sensitive playability and aftertouch. The instrument is seven-times multi-temporal, which means that seven parts, and therefore layers, can be used simultaneously! The parts consist of two organ, two piano and three synthesizer parts, and the number of voices in each section is different. In addition, there is an extensive effects processor with a layer structure, which can enhance and/or deform each sound with up to six effects simultaneously. The fact that the Nord Stage 4 is a real workhorse for the stage and studio is demonstrated by the assigned keys for direct access to programs, three split zones including crossfades for splitting sounds on the keyboard, and stage morphing, which allows for the least invasive changing of sound sets.

Organ
The organ section features excellent simulators from Clavia: B3 Tonewheel, B3 Bass, classic Vox and Faris organs, as well as two pipe organ models. The central controls in this section are nine faders with LED strips. To prevent accidental shifting of the sound on stage, you can switch between Live and Preset modes, with the faders being deactivated in the latter case. Elementary sound nuances such as vibrato/chorus and percussion have their own knobs and are directly accessible without a shift function. The popular rotation effect is sufficiently customisable with the slow/fast/stop and distortion functions, which gives jazz organs in particular the necessary funkiness. Two layers/parts can be played simultaneously.

Piano
The Nord Stage 4 piano section features a new and expanded collection of grand pianos, upright pianos and electric instruments from the exclusive Clavia piano library, as well as new features such as dynamic compression and unison. The piano section memory holds 2 GB of piano sounds, which can be changed on demand using the Nord Sound Manager on your computer. The polyphony has been set to a fairly high level of 120 voices, so even when playing quickly, no decaying note is interrupted. Two layers corresponding to parts can be used simultaneously here. Details such as adjustable velocity, switchable string resonance or soft release, as well as five different sound options, give the player everything necessary to achieve the desired piano sound in the shortest possible way.

Synthesizer
The Nord Stage 4 synthesizer section is deeper than you might think from the minimal control panel. First of all, this section offers three layers according to the parts, which can be used simultaneously, sharing a majestic 46 voices and access to the 1 GB Nord sample library. In terms of sound generation forms, we find here everything that musicians most often need: virtual analog (classic waveforms, including shaper, Hardsync and noise), samples, FM and wave tables. The digital filter sounds simply excellent and offers six filter modes with switchable Drive: Moog lowpass, 12/24db lowpass, bandpass, highpass and combined LP/BP shape the sound as desired. Of course, there is no shortage of classic modulation sources. Three ADR envelopes for pitch, VCF and VCA and an LFO, which can be directed to pitch, Osc Ctrl or filter, provide a variety of sounds. The allocation of voices can be adjusted individually: polyphony, mono, legato or unison, depending on the patch. In addition, vibrato can be triggered from one of five modulation sources. The synthesizer section is completed by an advanced arpeggiator, which, in addition to the usual playback patterns with different patterns, also has a special poly mode and a gate mode, which is ideal for 90s trance/hardtrance melodies.

Effects
The most complete effects processor from Clavia to date has been implemented in the Nord Stage 4. The name Layer Effects almost gives away its purpose: the effects structure can be activated separately for each sound-generating section. There are two effect blocks, which mainly represent modulation effects, such as Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Rotary, Ring Modulator, Spin or Wah. The amp/EQ simulator does its job perfectly, adding Lowpass and Highpass Filter to the parameters instead of the midband. This effect block is essential for characteristic organ sounds! The delay is widely adjustable, can be synchronized with the Clock and even supports very short delays, which were used in vintage effects blocks for Chorus or ensemble effects, among others. The Reverb includes six effects reverb tones, from a small room to a cathedral, and also includes a spring reverb for the iconic Schepper reverbs. The sound character can be switched between Bright and Dark. The effects section is completed by a 2-parameter compressor; percussion sounds and the (global) sum especially benefit from this simple way of adding "impact". With the exception of the compressor, each effect, according to the effects block, is equipped with a variation, which ultimately means doubling the number of effects available.

Key Features

General:

• New control panel design with intuitive layout and LED sliders for each layer.
• Hammer-action triple-sensor keybed with aftertouch.
• 512 programs organized into 8 banks, each with 8 pages.
• Built-in Master Clock with internal, external, and Tap-Tempo sync.

Piano Section:

• 2 GB memory for piano sounds from the Nord Piano Library.
• Dynamic compression and Unison feature for richer sound.
• Advanced string resonance and dynamic pedal noise.

Synth Section:

• Nord Wave 2 Engine with three independent layers.
• 1 GB memory for samples from the Nord Sample Library.
• Advanced arpeggiator with polyphonic and rhythmic modes.

Organ Section:

• Simulations of B3, Vox/Farfisa, and two pipe organ models.
• Physical drawbars with LED indicators.
• B3 Bass mode and enhanced Rotary Speaker simulation.

Effects Section:

• Dedicated effects sections for each layer.
• New effects like Pump, Spin, and expanded Reverb variations.
• Effects synchronized with Master Clock.

Specifications

• Keybed: 88 triple-sensor hammer-action keys with aftertouch (range: A-C).
• Memory: 2 GB for piano sounds, 1 GB for synth samples.
• Polyphony: 120 voices for piano, 46 voices for synth.
• Connections: 4 audio outputs (¼”), headphone output, monitor input, MIDI In/Out, USB Type-B.
• Effects: Tremolo, Auto Pan, Reverb, Delay, Amp Simulations, Compressor, and more.
• Dimensions: 1282 x 121 x 349 mm (50.5” x 4.7” x 13.7”).
• Weight: 19.6 kg (43.2 lb).