Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Testing beta version of software update v1.29 for the NP88..

I got an email from Tomas Johansson over at Clavia DMI to beta test the upcoming software update v1.29. It's supposed to address the following:

Sustain pedal send MIDI ctrl value zero when pedal is off (up). • Fixed incorrect Piano model in LCD when in Local Off. • Transpose On/Off functionality. Press and hold to set the transpose value with up/down buttons, press once again to turn the transpose off. • Checksum calculation during startup. Progress bar. First start after update may be a bit longer. • When deleting active program in Manager, the settings are left unchanged, not loading a default program. • In Pedal menu, changed name from "NordPiano" to "TriplePedal"

I won't have a chance to test it til I get home from work. The MIDI ctrl is a huge plus!

Blessings,

Congrats Zachary! Give us your feelings about the new OS update. The MIDI ctrl sounds like a good improvement. I've had trouble with the sustain using a Mac. I wish this will be the solution.

I was actually hoping (a lot) that they would've included the Long Release feature to NP88 like in NS2. Maybe in the feature... who knows

Good stuff Zachary - that definitely looks like a worthwhile update!

Yes, did you ask Clavia about the 'Long Release' feature being implemented, or did they contact you out of the blue?

Cheers,
James
x

Well the email I received was attached to the email I sent then back in April when my Triple Pedal broke. However, Tomas never mentioned anything about the broken Triple Pedal, though, that has long since been taken care of. I will send Tomas and email and mention the Long Release feature.

Will keep you guys posted!!

Don't forget to request the Pianet patch too!

(the ones over on the Nord User Forum is pretty good, but limited to a single velocity layer...)

Cheers,
James
x

The Long Release feature will unfortunately NOT be implemented in the Nord Piano.

I asked Tomas the question a couple of days ago, and he said very clearly that neither the release feature from the Stage 2, nor the Clavinet EQ, would be implemented in the Nord Piano, for hardware reasons.

Sounds a bit weird to me that it needs special hardware support, but there must be good reasons for this.

[... and yes, I know my credibility here is so far zero as this is my first post and I don't even have a Nord Piano :-) But I've been playing an Electro 3 for a bit more than two years and am considering replacing my very aging Yamaha P-150 with a NP88, which is why I had been checking with Clavia product management (Tomas Johansson). And then I live in Denmark, which is only a few 100's of km/miles from Clavia...]


-- Per.

Yeah, when I saw 1.29 did not include support for Long Release, I figured there was probably a hardware limitation preventing it, and we won't see it until the Nord Piano 2.

Yeah, that's a little disappointing, but honestly, I really love the NP88 as it is, and when I played the NS2 88, I didn't notice enough of a difference to really get that upset about it.

As far as the update, I installed last night when I got home, and everything that was addressed in the update worked. Sustain now works both on/off with my iMac running Logic Studio. However, I noticed that my volume knob become intermittently unresponsive, and then this morning, I was doodling with the Wurlitzer sound and tried going to one of the C7s and the buttons were unresponsive. So I de-installed v1.29 and reinstalled v1.28, sent Tomas an email, so we'll see if they get the bugs out from here.

What Tomas also pointed out is that compared to the Electro 3, the sympathetic string resonance also impacts the way the sound decays, so I guess the NP88 is maybe "halfway" between the Electro 3 and the Stage 2 with respect to the length of decays.

The Piano does actually sound more natural to me than the Electro 3's decay, even if the Electro 3 isn't half-bad anyway :-)


-- Per.

Yes, it's unfortunate for NP88 owners that this piano-oriented feature cannot be implemented in Clavia's most piano-oriented instrument. It's clear that Clavia are committed to supporting their products fully, with 'added in' value from regular software updates and freely downloadable sample content - if the NP88 could utilise 'Long Release', I expect it would have already been implemented by now.

I previously contacted Clavia to enquire into the possibility of reconfiguring the Electro 3's total memory to facilitate the use of XL-sized piano samples. Tomas' prompt reply explained that this was sadly not possible due to hardware reasons. I was of course disappointed, but grateful for the honest response.

Welcome to the forum by the way (I've recently finished watching the excellent Forbrydelsen so feel something of a connection with Danes...)

Cheers,
James
x

Yes, it is really a pity. It should have been part of the NP88.



Thanks :-) Interesting to know that someone living at the other ends of the world gets to see a Danish series!


-- Per.

It's good that the sustain problem has been addressed, but if 1.29 isn't quite ready, the Midipipe patch (see Nord Forum) fixes this by "condensing" the midi values - but only for Macs.