Clavia Nord Electro Keyboard (61-Key)

Clavia proudly announces the release of the Nord Electro 2 - Virtual Electromechanical - stage keyboard. The Nord Electro 2 is the next big step in the development of the Nord Electro series of stage keyboards. Among the things in the Electro 2 you'll find the new Mega Clavinet sound which offers all the filter and pick-up variations of the original Clavinet D6! This means that you'll be able to access no less than 60 + 4 different Clavinet D6 sounds in the Electro 2!

Thanks to the remade piano sample playback engine the polyphony for the piano sounds is now greatly enhanced. The new piano sample playback engine also made it possible for us to digitally model the sounds you get when you release keys on a piano instrument. For example, the Clavinet and the Wurlitzer have very characteristic key release sounds. In Nord Electro 2 this is very faithfully modeled. The new sample playback engine also allows for playback of stereo pianos. In the new factory sound library Clavia has included a great new Acoustic Grand piano - in stereo.

Nord Electro 2 fully supports USB download of Nord Electro piano samples. Now you will be able to download new piano instrument samples using our specially developed Electro Tool sample dump program for Mac and PC! The Electro 2 also features great new "vintage style" effects in the Effects section. They also beefed up the Overdrive distortion to sound more like an overdriven tube amplifier. And much more...

For those of you who already own the original Nord Electro, Clavia offers the V2.0 Software Upgrade which includes all the software features and new piano sounds of the Nord Electro 2 - free of charge! See the Clavia website for details.

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 outstanding 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 they 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 that 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 4 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 4 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.

The chassis of Nord Electro has changed a bit compared to the original design. It has now a more "traditional" look and comes with genuine wooden sides. Nord Electro comes in 2 versions: 61 or 73 keys.

Technical Info

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 2 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 they also included an acoustic grand piano (concert model)!

Effects: Presence (EQ featuring Frequency and Amount controls).

Global
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 (61-key version), 9.4 kg (73-key version)

Note: Specifications subject to change without notice

* Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Clavinet are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated or associated with Clavia. These trademarks are mentioned only to describe the types of sounds reproduced by Nord Electro.

Audio Samples