Clavia Nord Piano 6

Now in its sixth iteration, Clavia’s stage piano remains the one to beat.

Over the years, the engineers at Clavia have developed digital piano technologies, organ emulators and a range of physical‑modelling, FM, wavetable and sample‑based polysynths, and they’ve mixed these in various combinations to create a range of instantly recognisable keyboards. Combine all of them and you get a Nord Stage. Combine the pianos, organs and sample synth and you get an Electro. Combine just the pianos and sample synth, and you get a Nord Grand or a Nord Piano. The most recent example of the last of these — the Nord Piano 5 — combined two piano engines drawing upon 2GB of sample memory, and two polysynth engines drawing upon another 1GB. It also offered an extensive set of effects including two modulation effects units, amp simulators, an EQ, a delay, a compressor and a reverb, and appeared in two versions — 88 keys and 73 keys — both with weighted hammer‑action (but escapement‑free) keybeds. But then the powers that be at Clavia wanted to improve it. What were they to do?

Firstly, they increased the number of program memories, increased its compatibility with a wider range of sustain pedals, and updated the synthesizers by adding more response options and a couple of other minor upgrades. But, while useful, these were small potatoes. Much more significantly (and notwithstanding the global reverb), they took the effects from the Piano 5 and, rather than offering one chain for the whole instrument, added three more so that each of the four virtual instruments had its own effects chain. Next, they added a bunch of new facilities within the effects units themselves. Finally, they built everything into a different chassis with a better 88‑note Kawai keybed and called the resulting instrument the Piano 6... except that they didn’t. They called it the Nord Grand 2.

But what of all of the company’s customers who like the ‘big flat red Swedish slab’ approach? Let’s face it... the Grand 2 is a superb instrument and lovely to play, but its target market is revealed by the dedicated stand that makes it better able to fit in with the furnishings in your drawing room. (What do you mean, you don’t have a drawing room?) This means that Nord Piano users — and especially those who lean toward the 73‑note variety — may have spent the past few years feeling a bit unloved. So it’s not surprising that Clavia’s designers have now turned their attention back to them. Mind you, they didn’t have much to do. They simply included all of the Grand 2’s advances but ditched the sitty‑uppy control panel and Kawai keybed in favour of the physical design of the earlier Piano models. The result is a giggable Grand 2 in a Nord Piano case that, with impeccable logic, they’ve now called the Piano 6.

Well... almost. While sticking the Grand 2 tech in a Piano 5 case would seem obvious and straightforward, there are differences. For a start, the Piano 6 is a couple of pounds heavier and has very slightly different dimensions to the Piano 5. What’s more, the Piano 6’s control panel is different from that of either of its predecessors. Indeed, there’s not a single section that’s identical. I find this to be quite weird. One would expect the designers to use the same boards underneath the metalwork, or else take the opportunity to make significant changes. I can only assume that there were good engineering reasons for the ‘nearly, but not quite the same’ approach.

What’s New

Delving more deeply, the changes are not just cosmetic; there are some unexpected operational differences too. For example, there’s now a Group mode that links the effects in Layers A and B for each of the piano and synth sections, and the global FX on/off function now has its own button. More significantly, the string and sympathetic resonances of the larger piano models can be switched on and off in the Grand 2, whereas they are permanently enabled on the Piano 6. What’s more, the resonance level parameter has disappeared from the Piano 6’s Sound menu and the Soft Release function has gone walkabout. Elsewhere, the Attack and combined Decay/Release knobs in the Grand 2’s Synthesizer section have evolved into individual Attack, Decay and Release knobs, which means that you can now obtain a slightly increased range of contours. In contrast, the Soft and Bright settings have disappeared.

I asked the chaps at Clavia why these seemingly arbitrary changes were made. There’s no space to relate all of their response here, but they told me that, “removing the string resonance was because the pedal‑down samples are such an integral part of a realistic piano sound that they are very rarely turned off,” and that “the benefit of having soft release was not large enough given that we want to keep complexity down.” In addition, they explained that “while the Soft/Bright settings work slightly differently than the regular EQ, it’s a fairly quick manoeuvre to add or remove brightness using the individual EQ units per Layer.” All of these explanations make sense (especially the one regarding the EQ) but I have to wonder why this reasoning wasn’t applied to the Grand 2.

The Nord Piano 6 73 measures 1069 x 349 x 121mm and weighs 16.2kg. To misquote Henry Ford, it’s available in any colour you like so long as it’s red.

Notwithstanding these changes, just about everything that I wrote in 2024 about using and playing the Nord Grand 2 — with the exception of its excellent Kawai keybed — remains the same. (That’s not to say that the Piano 6’s keybed is substandard; its triple‑action mechanism remains as it ever was. It’s just that the Kawai is better.) Consequently, I’m a happy bunny. The Nord Piano range produces some of my favourite acoustic piano emulations, electric pianos and sample‑based sounds, and its robust construction gives me the confidence needed to pound away on it without feeling that I’m going to commit perfidious harm to its keybed or lightweight chassis (not least because it doesn’t have a lightweight chassis).

I programmed several of my own setups during the course of this review and quickly became comfortable with the revised control panel (indeed, I suspect that it’s the best yet on a Nord Piano) and was soon creating lovely‑sounding four‑part performances. Of course, there are niggles — for example, I remain frustrated that I can only select one of Clavia’s pre‑determined split points rather than choosing my own when setting up performances — but these are minor. My only major concern was one that I mentioned in my review of the Grand 2. A single, unbalanced stereo output pair is fine on an instrument that generates one stereo sound at a time and is not expected to be used in the highest‑quality situations. But the Piano 6 has four stereo sound generators with individual effects chains, and I expect it to be used in many of the top studios and on the largest stages in the world, so it’s crying out for four, balanced, stereo output pairs. I’m therefore surprised that Clavia have again failed to extend the output options to match recent upgrades to the sound generation. This wouldn’t stop me from using a Piano 6, but I much prefer to be able to monitor each sound independently when playing live. I’m also going to suggest (again!) that Clavia’s engineers add a multi‑channel digital audio output to the next revision.

To Buy Or Not To Buy, That Is The Question

Finally, we come to the issue of the price. Nord Pianos have never been cheap, but £3000+ seems like a lot of money for a couple of digital pianos and a couple of sample playback synths in a box. This persuaded me to look back at the prices of the Piano 1, 3 and 5 when they were reviewed and, when I converted these to current UK prices, these turned out to be £3173, £2951 and £3099 respectively. So, the differences are small, and it remains as good (or as bad) value as it ever was.

There’s something about Nord Pianos that I find more engaging than the alternatives.

But that doesn’t answer the question, ‘is it worth in excess of £3000?’. After all, it’s far from the most fully featured digital piano, nor is it the most affordable. Indeed, the equivalent statement could be applied to almost all of Clavia’s keyboards and modules over the past 30 years or so, which doesn’t read like a sound basis for a business plan that has delivered decades of commercial success. So how have Clavia achieved this? I think that the answer lies in a concept that can’t be justified by referring to specifications, pricing, or bangs for the buck: it’s the feelgood factor. While I could play a similar instrument that offers much more for much less, I’m not sure that I would enjoy the experience as much; there’s something about Nord Pianos that I find more engaging than the alternatives. So perhaps the answer to the question is, ‘yes it’s worth that much because it sounds great and it encourages me to play, and play well.’ On the other hand, you could counter this with the equally valid, ‘no, it’s not worth that much because there are alternatives with far greater facilities that I can obtain for far less cash.’ Into which camp do you fall?

One final observation... Despite their current success, Clavia need to keep their corporate eyes on developments elsewhere. There are more high‑quality products filling this space than ever before, and the stage piano cake is getting sliced ever more thinly. There’s a lot to be said for being a premium brand that sits at the top of the pile but, like some sharks, the company must keep moving forward if it is to survive. If it does, I suspect that we’ll be seeing and hearing these big red Swedish slabs for many years to come.

Information

£3099 including VAT.

www.headlineaudio.com

www.nordkeyboards.com

$3999

www.nordkeyboards.com

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