From sevush@rcn.com Mon Aug 04 14:25:56 2003
Subject:RE: Electro 2 reviews

Not sure how to address your concerns, since many points are so subjective.
I don't think the Voce and the Electro are comparable at all. The Voce
requires an external leslie or leslie simulator. Most people agree the
percussion and V/C are not "right". I think Nord has done an excellent job
on these points. Tweakable? I don't care. How tweakable is a real B3 or
Leslie? Yes, there are mods, but they require a soldering iron, needle nose
pliers and some guts.

The Nord pretty much works out of the box for me. The only mods I made were
EQ, volume and FX setups. I have a basic 8 (all on the A bank) I switch
between. I think EQ is critical and the Electro really lets me dial it in,
using sweepable mid.

I am in the minority here but I LIKE the piano in the Electro for rock &
roll. It's not a smooth solo instrument, lacks sustain, but it cuts like a
knife and does the trick for me. I've pointed to the Electro (straight into
the mixing board) on www.HardTimeBlues.com and people on this forum and the
Electro forum have asked what I used for piano - TaDa!!!

My own approach to this is if I'm on the fence, but there are distinct
advantages, I'll buy the thing and try it for a few weeks if I can return
it. The Electro replaced my CX3 and S30, made my life simpler and I'm not
looking back.

> While investigating getting an Electro 2 73, I surfed all over the
> internet reading reviews. What surprised me was the uneveness of
> reviews, i.e., players either loved the keyboard completely or,
> although not giving bad reviews, had negative comments. The main
> hardware negatives were: no reverb, short keys, only organ split, no
> midi into a second sound to play with a controller. Sound issues
> from some reviews were also surprising, out of the six pianos
> available the negative comments only found some were usable, either
> the clav or the wurly or the rhodes was great and the others poor,
> the electric and acoustic grands not making the grade; several
> comments about uneven tone quality range and volume falling off at
> some point from high to low, and too bright on top. There were also
> some quality control issues, the leslie effect getting stuck on fast,
> key action didn't feel right for instrument selection, too loose and
> moveable etc. I wonder if Clavia has a quality control problem?
>
> Generally on a good piece of gear, review comments are similar and
> mostly positive; negatives relate to nit-picking, not sound or
> hardware quality - of course one person always hates whatever it is.
> Seems like the agreement was that Electro's a good all-purpose single
> keyboard, not an all-good-sound-quality single keyboard.
>
> I don't feel as positive about buying an Electro after a weekend of
> playing, talking with other musicians, and looking for more info on
> the web - even downloaded the pdf manual and looked through it, seems
> easy. It needs a separate reverb unit, and I'd still need to carry
> another sound module to play with a keyboard controller to get two
> keyboard sounds. Also, listening to the mp-3's before finding out no
> reverb, they seem 'sweetened' up to sound good in headphones or
> computer speakers.
>
> The organ isn't better than my V5; simulation isn't better due to
> lack of tweakability (plus has glassy/shimmer effect like Dynacord).
> I still want the Clav (autowah?), Wurly, Rhodes, and great acoustic
> piano Electro promises - maybe another manufacturer - a module? I'm
> disappointed, didn't expect to find any negatives (except for
> that 'one guy'). If Electro got all high marks, I was going to buy
> today :-( fooey!
>
> Walter 'jake'
>
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