Just a quick post to let you know that the new look of NordUSA.com is up and running.

I decided to go with a white background instead of a black one since it made everything pop out a little more - I think it looks better, and I hope you do, too.

A lot of work still needs to be done, but I've laid the foundation for it in a way that will make updates easier to do, and thus more frequent.

Anyway, let me know what you think ....

http://www.nordusa.com/index.html



Jason / Nord USA

Musikmesse 2008

I just returned from a brief, but intriguing trip to Frankfurt, Germany for the Musikmesse 2008 fair. I was invited by Clavia to celebrate their 25th Anniversary in business at a banquet held for their international distributors Wednesday night. At the banquet, their new announcements were made, which are detailed on Clavia's home page.

In summary, though, Clavia announced a new Nord Lead Anniversary Edition, which is a Nord Lead with black & white keys reversed; only 299 of them are made, and each comes with a certificate signed by Hans Nordelius. The NLAE will be shipping in May in the United States (check with your national distributor if you live outside the USA). Clavia also announced OS v3.0 for the Nord Stage, which will introduce several improvements, not the least of which are new wavetables for the synth, a librarian function for the Stage Manager software, and the eagerly anticipated Mono Mode which gives users the ability to run the stereo samples in mono. Clavia also announced new piano and harpsichord samples for the Stage.

[Details will come later at Clavia's website, Nord USA's site, and here as well.]

Here are a few pictures from Musikmesse. The first is of the Sound Service (Clavia's German distributor) booth, the second of a small stage where Nord was being performed on against a backing track of electronic and pop music, and the third picture (sorry for the quality) is of Clavia's Tomas Johansson holding up the Anniversary Edition Lead for the distributors at the Clavia banquet.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Nord USA blog.

Eventually this blog will be moved to one hosted directly on the Nord USA website, but for the time being this free version will suffice.

The purpose of this blog is to offer news, reviews, and commentary related to Nord products, users, artists, and keyboard/synthesizer topics in general. It will also serve as a means for Nord USA (well, me, Jason) to introduce interesting things related to the wold of keyboard products and performance.

Check back often, and feel free to include any comments.

Until next time ...