Nord has introduced the White Grand, a unique new grand piano in the Nord Piano Library.
The White Grand is a semi-concert grand with a “rich, expressive and shimmering” sound, available for free download at nordkeyboards.com.
Concurrent with the new instrument announcement, Nord released a video of musician Rai Thistlethwayte (KNOWER, Thirsty Merc, Oz Noy, Christian McBride) playing the new White Grand for the first time:
The White Grand requires the latest OS Updates and is compatible with Nord Stage 3/2 EX/2, Nord Piano 4/3, Nord Electro 6/5 and Nord Grand.
For more information, check out the Nord website.
I love that Nord offers their downloads at no additional cost. They seem to look a little further down the road with regard to their customers. Purchase a Nord, and a plethora of sounds open up to you at no additional cost and more will be added in the future. This type of goodwill toward their patron base makes me more likely to buy their hardware. Nothing against other companies, but it would be nice if Elektron and Sequential would do something similar.
What is a “semi-concert” grand?
I know you’re trying to be sarcastic but….
A semi-concert grand is a smaller piano, built like a grand for medium size venues. They are usually about 7 feet or so long, vs the 9 feet of a full grand.
They are also the most common size in recording studios.
A lot of people have never played a Kawai digital piano with the real piano keys. I can tell you that this Nord will open an incredible action up to the masses. It will be fantastic to play, as well as being one of the best choices you could make if you are controlling software pianos too.
Considering the weight (46 pounds), it will not have real piano keys. Educated guess: same action as the MP7SE.
OK, I have owned 20 digital pianos. Including KAWAI MP7se and the MP11se. (much heavier) I just packed up the MP7se and it is exactly 46 lbs . ( Same as NORD GRAND) The NORD GRAND is 1 inch deeper than the MP7se. (3″ shorter in top to bottom) According to NORD blogs they are tweeking a bit the KAWAI action. (It would be nice to know exactly what they are doing)…
I am assumingthe NORD/KAWAI action to be the same as the MP7se because of the exactly weight of the total instrument. 46 lbs is extremely managble for me too. The MP11se is 62 lbs., It is quite hard to carry up stairs and comfortably in “tight spaces”, while a joy to play, I had to sell because not practical “live” for me. The KAWAI pianos sound good in the MP series. “BUT” the NORD grand sounds about 39% more accurate to me. The videos that I have seen/studied so far the artists seem to me as if they are playing and reacting and performing with their piano technique. The distinction is they ( to me) appear to be fully relaxing with and into their physiology as if they are playing a “PIANO” and NOT a KEYBOARD. Keep up the great work NORD.