Nord Grand 88-key Stage Keyboard Reviews

The Nord Grand Piano has superior action and has a very realistic grand piano feel and very realistic piano sound including pedal noise and projecting realistic echoes that naturally come from the inside of a real acoustic grand piano The Nord Grand Piano is an instrument in a classification by itself just like the invention of the Rhodes Piano and the Clavinet the Nord Grand Piano isn't exactly a grand piano or a Rhodes piano or a Clavinet the Nord Grand Piano is a hybrid of all three instruments in one the Nord Grand Piano is a completely new generation of musical instrument a new type of musical instrument Nord invented a new instrument of its own when they created the Nord Grand Piano if Luke Skywalker played the piano this would definitely be his instrument new owners of the Nord Grand Piano should be aware that if they purchase the pair of mountable monitors that are designed to go with this instrument they do not reproduce the true sound of the instrument as it sounds when digitally recorded especially the White Grand sound to hear this instrument in all its glory you must listen to it though a pair of really high end near field studio monitors to truly hear the quality of sound that is being digitally recorded that being said the pair of monitors produced to be mounted directly on the Nord Grand are very easily mounted and removed as needed and the pair of monitors fit very nicely in the soft carrying case designed to go with them for transport I was also surprised how light weight just the actual keyboard is without all its components making it a excellent choice for setting up and breaking down at performances I was also very impressed with how nicely the soft carrying case is designed to go with the Nord Grand and how snugly the keyboard fits in the case and is well protected for performance applications one would be wise to use a folding metal keyboard stand for performance and only use the factory wooden stand in a permanent space as the wooden stand once assembled is not really intended to be taken back apart and put back together again and it is a very elegant looking instrument when it is put together with all its components including the factory red wooden keyboard stand and red wooden music stand and it's pair of factory red monitors making it an excellent choice to put directly in one's living room looking very nice with decor especially if one wants a red accent piece for their luxury furnished living room it does have quite a few wires necessary for connecting all its components so tying the wires up nice and neatly helps make its appearance in a nicely furnished space a must and the instrument comes with approximately 6 or 7 black Velcro cable control ties it should be noted that with the factory pair of monitors mounted on the Nord Grand the instrument is a bit top heavy and slightly inclined to topple over forwardly so if the configuration of your home space permits especially if the instrument is going to placed permanently in its final position one should place it against a wall to discourage it from toppling over especially if the factory pair of monitors are mounted on it considering how difficult it is for many keyboard players to have a real acoustic grand piano in their home location the Nord Grand Piano is an excellent option and much less expensive than purchasing a real acoustic grand piano this instrument really inspires creativity and freedom of expression of musical ideas and should definitely be considered a brand new type of instrument all of it's own I have never owned a finer more elegant electronic keyboard in all my years as a musician and the Nord Grand Piano is definitely something every virtuoso pianist should own thank you Brook Floyd and thank you Sweetwater for helping me make my dream of freedom of musical expression a reality my life has a musician has been changed forever by the purchase of the Nord Grand Piano Happy Holidays and Happy New Years may 2024 be a year of prosperity health and happiness for all who seek truth freedom and human understanding through musical expression. Dave Soletsky

Simply fantastic. The action, the build quality, the SOUND. Really amazing, easily the best electronic piano I've ever played. If an acoustic grand isn't available or is impractical on a gig, this is my go-to every time. For a pianist, it's perfect.

If you are looking for a keyboard that does not sound like a keyboard piano, this is the one. It sounds very real, and the best sounding stage piano I have ever heard I do not understand why it's so expensive but maybe the realism of the piano samples is the reason. The action is very good, much better than the piano 5 I tried.I don't think the piano five action should be considered a weighted key action. The NordGrand Sounds real ! If you want a real piano sound, this is the one to buy,PERIOD!

I have had a Nord Grand for about two years, and all I can say is the thing is magic. Used with the accompanying Nord speakers, the Nord exudes some indefinable quality of sound and texture that satisfies like no other instrument. I have an acoustic grand piano, and I still turn to the Nord to find that happy place or sound and vibration that I normally find in only acoustic instruments. The Nord Grand just pulls music out of me. It's incredible. I am in love with it. So much so that I took the time to comes back here to the Sweetwater website two years after buying to write this review. Just pull the trigger already. Life is too **** short. You will love it.

I'm not a pro player. I've never made a dollar from playing and have no ambition to do so. I play. For fun. For myself.

For several years I've used higher end yet still consumer grade digital pianos. I wanted to move (back) to a real piano. But looking at the eye watering prices and space requirements and even availability of pianos, I decided to look for a better digital piano.

The Nord Grand fit the bill. The keybed feels to my (again, amateur) senses almost exactly like a piano. It's astounding. The controls are easy to learn although about all I use is the instrument list dial and master volume.

The cabinet looks fantastic although it may not be to everyone's taste. The flat top is great for a slim keyboard and trackpad. The triple pedal is responsive and feels good.

I also picked up the Piano Monitors which look and sound great and keep the footprint small.

In full disclosure, I did have some problems out of the box, which Sweetwater quickly rectified.

All around, thanks to Mark @ SW for smooth purchase.

When I was learning the piano I was fortunate enough to get to play my piano instructor's Bosendorfer Grand 200 during lessons. Since then it just seemed there was no substitute for a real grand piano experience in a digital piano. That is until I purchased my Nord Grand. This is a close as you can get to playing a real grand piano (or any acoustic piano for that matter) in the digital piano market. The feel, the sound and the aesthetics are all there. And it is a beautiful instrument as well. The red finish on the wood casing is absolutely stunning. It took me awhile to save enough to purchase mine. But it was more than worth the wait.

My experience purchasing from Sweetwater was great too! Andrew and all the sales staff were great helping me along in my purchase. My Grand arrived neatly packaged and in excellent brand new condition. Couldn't be more satisfied.

Classically trained pianist, this keyboard is really worth all the hype. I don't think I'll be able to play another stage keyboard after gigging with this thing. Previously I'd been using a Kronos, which I really did like a lot. But I never LOVED it. It was really overkill for most gigs I do. The Nord Grand is lighter and easier to carry than the Kronos, and it FEELS like an actual piano, or about as dang close as you can get without actually hauling a piano around. I cannot say enough how impressed I am and happy that I moved to this instrument.

That said, I did try to gig with my band only using this keyboard. It does about 90% of what I need it to do using the easy sampling software and getting my Kronos programmed synths into the Nord Grand. That 10% though is really about the organ. It won't support a leslie switch, so it's really not great for organs unless you are doing simple stuff. Also the key bed is not ideal for organ riffs. So I'm going to be bringing my Montage to support the Grand.

One other point. The White Grand I had to wrestle with. I was very frustrated at first because it is literally out of tune (unisons) in certain notes and registers. However the sampling is so unbelievably good (and the intonation is not that terrible) that I had to play 4-5 different piano for my band mates (who are also classically trained). They all hands down chose the White Grand as the best sample. I tried it with my fiancée as well who has zero musical background and it was hands down the White Grand. Really pissed me off because I wanted to hate it, but it is my go to sound now. Dynamic range is second to none. This is not an all in one keyboard, but if you are a serious pianist stop looking elsewhere. Your fingers and ears will thank you.

I studied and studied all keyboards available..and kept coming up with this keyboard as my choice. So I came to Sweetwater and I bought one. I simply can't say enough good about it...

As a super discriminating pianist, This fills the bill. It looks great in my home and sounds even better! Not quite as satisfying as my Baldwin SD-10 but an excellent choice for a practice piano. Has great nearfield sound and the sennheiser HD 800S headphones are just ear candy!

This instrument is the closest thing to a Grand piano, touch and sound I've ever felt. I grew up on a Steinway. I own a Korg SV1 88, Fatar Studio Logic 990 88 and a Yamaha 88. I highly recommend the Nord Grand. Yes, it is expensive but worth it.

I've had this beast for two weeks now, this Monday( I'm in college) I played a 9ft steinway at my school for the first time in months( because of this pandemic, I haven't touched a real piano in ages), and my first reaction was not that my Nord feels somewhat like a piano but rather the steinway feels like my Nord. I don't know why people are saying that this is a toy instrument or something. Go get this beast honestly, it's not gonna fail you.

Watched some YouTube videos on this and took the leap of faith and ordered it without getting to play it first. I already owned the Roland RD-2000 but thought the Nord Pianos sounded more realistic. I wanted an electronic piano that had realistic touch and looked nice as a piece of furniture in a small 10x10 room. Prior to the release of the Nord Grand, Nord didn't have a keyboard with true piano action in it's lineup. Contrasting the Nord Grand and Roland RD-2000, I'd break it down like this:

Nord Grand: More realistic piano sounds, hammer action is lighter (plastic) but still great, no organ drawbar functions, less sounds in memory

Roland RD-2000: More sounds, better piano action (wood keys!), has organ drawbar functions, good piano sounds but not great, more affordable


So it's all what you want based on those tradeoffs above. If you are going to go with the Nord Grand, I'd recommend the nice matching red wood stand, the monitor speakers that mount to the back, and the music stand. It's not cheap but it is amazing...

It's the kind of keyboard for me, that feels comfortable to play and sit at. The interface is extremely intuitive. I play mostly EP and AP sounds combined with a split Bass - but I've also used the synth section quite a bit. (Keep in mind this board has a very simple synth section that would not satisfy someone who is looking to get a board with an extensive synth section). Easy to adjust levels for individual split parts. Has a great effects section.

I also own a CP300 and a CP4. I love those keyboards too. However, the Nord Grand is basically now my main keyboard. It is the most versatile in terms of its ability to feel right when playing EP / AP. Not too heavy (although perhaps for some it might be).

No keyboard is perfect. Again, it could be a bit heavy for some - for me not. And it also could have used headphone jacks coming from the front as opposed to the back. Balanced outputs would have been nice but I have mine running through a Radial JDI Stereo.

When Nord announced the grand on April 2nd, I first thought it was an elaborate April fools. But I"m really glad it wasn"t. The Keybed on my prior Nord Piano 4 felt ok but had issues. The Grand that arrived finally yesterday (thank you sweetwater for shipping the very first unit as soon as it came in from Stockholm). The new keybed feels excellent. The "bounce" in the key is exactly what I"ve come to expect from well designed hammer action keybeds and the surface treatment of the keys feels nicely ivory, almost a tiny bit mat. Having all the controls and the display on an angle makes them easier to see for sure when sitting down playing. Having that Nord red piece of wood all around makes the Grand look amazing.

The note stand as well as the foot stand EX that I had left from a prior Nord Piano 4, worked perfectly.

The sounds, need no further introduction. Playing the Nord library of pianos has never been more satisfying.

As far as I know, this is the only keyboard in the world with this action and this sensor setup and these sounds. It's a home-run on all that it sets out to do. But each of us puts a different weight on how important action is. (Pun intended!) And frankly, Nord knows this and have asked us to give up a lot in exchange for this action. So if you are used to the flexibility of a Stage 3, you might be disappointed in the Grand. But, if great action is very important to you (as it is with me) you will be highly satisfied with the action while also mildly disappointed in flexibility and lack of an organ section. Hopefully you will have already thought about how you are going to use this instrument perhaps in combination with others to make sure you've got all your bases covered. This strikes me as a true instrument more than a toy, like most all other keyboards. Frankly, for the price, I do think they should have included an organ section. I think they should have allowed more flexibility with effects routing. I think there should be 4 outputs too. This would allow stage performers to use this fantastic action without supplementing it with an organ clone or other keyboard. I'll be using this for home recording, local gigs and sessions. I have a different rig on the road. The Kawai MP7SE has this same action, but a different sensor setup, for much less. But that was not a good option because I don't care for the Kawai sounds as much, and I was curious how the Nord Grand's sensor setup performed. And it performs beautifully. I am excited about having this Grand and I hope this review helps you make a good choice. I expect to be making music on it for a long time. My personal conclusion is that it was the right choice for me. It brings out everything in my playing that real piano does with a crisp, detailed response. I jotted down some random thoughts and I'll put them below. This is pure honesty:

The top is flat. I am typing this on a keyboard atop the Grand. It's a little to short to fit a mouse pad on and have full usage of it. But that's what I'm doing anyway and it works okay.

The action does not feel graded. All the keys are the same weight. Not a big deal to me once I realized how it was affecting my playing. I was avoiding the high notes. Once I intentionally made myself play up there for awhile, this was not an issue. Apparently, my hands enjoy the break on the higher notes on a graded action. So, no breaks.

I was considering a Kawai VPC1 and to this day, I've never put my hands on one. But it weighs 65 pounds. The top is curved. It has no sounds. It is intended to control piano software. It may feel better but it would be impossible for me to transport this. However, the Nord Grand gives me great control over Pianoteq for instance. So I have the best of both worlds.

The instrument is causing me to do great things musically. I don't know why, maybe the action plus the detailed samples… but it does bring out some curiosity that my Steinway also brings out. You may call it a waste of time, but for instance, if I play a root position C triad, it makes me want to bring out the E. Then bring out the G. It responds to voicing a chord extremely well. It's inspiring to write on. I wrote a couple songs last week with it. First time in a long time.

I have yet to accidentally change a patch while playing. So far, I don't need the panel lock. I've read that the panel lock does not entirely lock you out though. If you really want to change something, with a few functions, you can just hold those buttons longer and it'll change.

The velocity labels seem backwards to me. "Heavy" seems like if I play lightly, it will sound like I'm playing heavy. But what it really means is if I play heavy, it won't sound like I'm playing that heavy. So the label does not mean how I am playing… it means how the keyboard is responding. So if I play lightly and it sounds anemic, put it on "light" and it'll sound like I'm digging in more than I actually am. I'm also finding that different pianos seem to want a different velocity setting. I'm a fairly light player but I do dig in at times. Generally speaking, Medium works for most things.

Timbre button in the piano section is a little redundant for piano sounds because I can get the same sound using the Equalizer section. But it does come in handy in certain situations I'll address later. The Dyno 1 and 2 are super fun for Electric piano sounds though.

Soft release is really interesting and I'll have to play with it more. It's very subtle. I'm actually considering using it most of the time because it seems more natural.

The string resonance is just incredible. It sounds perfect to me.

The pedal noise also seems spot-on. I'll probably turn this down or off for sessions with bands, but for solo piano, I love it.

You can assign a pedal to control the wah effect if you want. For Clav this is great.

The Sample Synth section is great for me. I don't do a lot of sound design and there are a few easy tweaks I can make to any sample to adjust basic parameters. It also has a button where you can make any sample respond to velocity, and you can make it so a filter opens up more depending on how hard you hit it. Very cool.

There is a transpose button and I don't like this. This is the purist in me. It may be useful to others. But really? Maybe I'll use it one day and eat my words. But I would think most people buying this can play in all keys and transpose with their brains. The good news is, if you do transpose, the LED comes on so maybe that'll help you remember to un-transpose before the piano intro to the next song. Not that this has ever happened to me.

The effects… if you have a Nord you already know these and they are all great. The ones that are new to me: There are now 3 tremolo effects. Each one seems a little deeper and slightly different in some other way. Maybe EQ. There are also 3 Pan effects. The third one is my favorite.

The EQ is great and I'll be using that a lot for sessions and gigs.

The Delay… Well I'm a little confused. It works fine. But if I'm using any delay, I need to set it in relation to the song tempo. Well, I can't. It goes up in increments of 2 or 3 BPM. And sometimes it jumps up to 750 when I'm scrolling around trying to set it. But if a song is at 147, too bad. I can do 146 or 148. Hopefully this will be addressed in a later update.

The Source buttons for the effects, eq, delay, amp/comp sections can only process either the piano section OR the Sample Synth section. Not both. And certainly not both, with different settings. At least not that I can find. So if I have a piano/strings layer and I want to brighten both up I could not do this with the EQ alone. What I'd have to do is brighten the piano with the Timbre button in the piano section. Then send the strings to the EQ. So, it's a work-around.

The reverb, however, is global. But here, if you wanted reverb on the piano but not the strings… you can't do that.

There is no B3 on this keyboard or in the sample library. But I made my own using the sample editor. I sampled my clonewheel at a few of my favorite drawbar settings and transferred them to the grand. I could get through a gig this way, but not a session. So for sessions, I'm bringing the Grand, and my clonewheel.

The bag to put the dust cover in is too small to encourage regular usage.

There is a slight jarring feeling in the action when you hit the bottom of the key travel. And an audible thump. This is when I have to remind myself this is a keyboard, and one I can take to gigs or sessions. So I'm a little disappointed about this, while at the same time, realizing that I can play this keyboard just as well if not better than my real Steinway L. Everything is crisp in the way it sounds and feels. And if it's a little jarring, well, it's a keyboard. So I go in this mental circle a few times and then I'm okay.

The triple pedal: It comes with a rubber mat you can put on if you want to rest your heel on to keep the pedals from running away. This works great once assembled and there are directions and some included screws. You take off a couple of screws from the unit, then you put the mat on with some other screws provided. But they are not phillips-head screws. They also aren't allen wrench screws. I don't know what they are but I ended up stripping out the heads with a phillips head and they are in there pretty good. I'm not very handy and maybe I made a mistake here. Hopefully they'll stay.

I'd recommend getting the soft case that goes with it if you plan on transporting it yourself. I'm glad I did. It's not too bad to pick up and put in the case. I'm 54 and in decent shape. I do have lower back issues from years of picking up keyboards the wrong way. (use your knees!) I'm doing just fine picking this up. The bag is pretty big, so you'll just have to make sure you clear a run-way to get it out of the house and into the car.

Over the years I've had Korgs, Rolands, Yamahas, Kurzweils, Nords, Hammonds, an upright Kawai and a Steinway Grand. And probably a few I forgot about. I love keyboards and pianos. This was a difficult choice for me. The Stage 3 covers more bases for a chunk more. The Piano 5 might have also worked for me. But at this point in my life, I'm just not going to compromise on action anymore. I don't care what a keyboard can do if it feels like mush. The Grand will always feel great and have great sounds. I can bring an organ clone to sessions, or on the road if I want to. If signal routing becomes an issue I can MIDI the Grand to my Electro 4D and use that as a sound source as well. I can't answer your question: "Is the action worth it?" I don't know if you'll love it like I do. And I don't know if your playing would benefit from this action as much as mine has. I can rip off arpeggios on this better than on my Steinway. My guess would be, if you work on your technique a lot because you want to be free physically to pull off whatever you want to do musically… this might be the best keyboard for you. (Or if you just have great facility naturally). But if you can play just about any keyboard and play just as good, you may not need this. I see young kids today playing fantastic music on un-weighted midi controllers. I wish I could do that! But I get a lot of joy in my life from how a piano feels. Thankfully, I can have that in a keyboard for the first time. And I can take it with me.

I included a link to a video. I recorded that into Studio One. I mixed a little bit of the phone audio in there too. There's a little reverb from the Nord Grand. That's it.

Thank you to Delvin Wolfe and Account Coordinator Maya Nicevski for the great communication and service, as always.

Scott Joyce

This is the best yet in portable pianos.
The action plus the sampling outshine nearly everything else.

The Yamaha S90ES is a close second (yes I have one).
The Nord Stage 2 HA88 is very good - but not this good.
The Korg Kronos 88, sound-wise, is comparable to the Stage 2, but the Stage 2 action is better.

Not as good as a Steinway ;-)
And it's been quite a while since I demoed a Yamaha Avant Grande but I think this is a close thing.

OMG the top is flat !
You can put your glasses on it. You can put a metronome on it. You can put a pen and paper on it. Wish other manufacturers would emulate this.

I have learned to lock the control panel while playing, since a couple of times I did bump into a button accidentally.

The Nord piano speakers are a nice near-field solution, if a bit expensive.

I've had my Nord Grand for over two years now, and although I love playing it, I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

Pros:
•Very realistic piano action, sound samples, touch sensitivity, and dynamics. Super-satisfying to play.
•Massive and customizable sound library.
•Control panel is slanted and located right above the keyboard for easy access. And there's a lock button to keep you from changing all your settings with a careless flourish.
•Onboard software is easy to customize and upgrade via USB Internet connection.

Cons:
•Technically portable, but still rather bulky and heavy for gigging without roadies.
•No built-in rhythm engine, not even a metronome.
•Headphone jack and power button are on the BACK panel and hard to reach when the music stand and stereo monitors are mounted.
•Nothing comes with the keyboard. No monitors, legs, or bench. Not even a music stand. And Nord accessories aren't cheap. When I bought my Nord Grand two years ago, the keyboard alone cost $, but the total price came to $ with the necessary add-ons.
•But here's the real kicker: I had to replace a set of worn-out contacts after just two years of ownership at a cost of nearly $. What's more, the tech who replaced the contacts told me that they'll probably need to be replaced every two years! That seems unreasonable considering that I only play about an hour per day.

Everything I've read about the NG, says it is the best of the best, so I bought one. I also bought the wood stand to mount it on. There was a bit of work involved to mount the keyboard to the stand, but it really looks nice and is the perfect fit in my small house.

The first time I listened to it was through some closed-back headphones and I was not happy with the sound. I purchased a decent pair of open-back headphones and that improved the sound but I was disappointed with the acoustic sounds of the keyboard, regardless which "piano" I was using from the White Grand to a Baby Grand, an Upright...there appear to be a thousand iterations of acoustic pianos at one's disposal with the turn of a knob.

To try to determine what might improve the acoustic sound, I consulted a Nord forum of users of all things Nord. One person mentioned that it sounds better through monitors. The Nord monitors are quite a hunk of change and I was not about to take a chance on spending that much money so I searched and read several reviews of near-field monitors and finally purchased the PreSonus Eris 3.5 monitors and some acoustic pucks because I needed these to go on top of the NG...not have separate stands. Small, small space,remember? For me, it is not about volume, but about sound. The monitors work fine but there is only a little improvement in acoustic sound. All the other non-acoustic instruments you can generate on the NG sound fine to my ears. The problem is the "acoustic" piano sound is not where it should be for the cost of this good-looking piece of equipment. Advice: Try before you buy!