Nord Stage
The Nord Stage is a digital keyboard or stage piano, manufactured by Clavia Digital Music Instruments of Stockholm in Sweden. There have been three editions of the instrument as of 2012 – these are the original Nord Stage in 2005, the Nord Stage EX in 2008, the Nord Stage 2 in 2011, and the Nord Stage 2 EX in 2015.
The Nord Stage follows the success of earlier keyboard instruments from Clavia, and contains similar emulations of vintage electromechanical keyboards such as the Hammond Organ and electric pianos as found on the Nord Electro 2, with additional functionality including a weighted piano-like keyboard on certain models, a synthesizer section based on the Nord Lead, a more versatile organ section and extended effects processing. Unlike the Electro, the Stage is multitimbral, which means it can play more than one sound at once, either by splitting the internal keyboard or connecting an external MIDI controller.
The Nord Stage 2 also has the ability to play samples, allowing it to reproduce the functionality of a Mellotron or Chamberlin. Individual samples can be downloaded from Clavia's website, and a community has developed that provides new instruments and sounds.
