The Organ Section is based on full simulation of electromechanical organs. The Nord Stage contains not only the famous sound of a traditional tonewheel organ, but it also adds Vox™ and the Farfisa™ organ models as well. The complex digital modeling recreates every nuance of these unique instruments giving you the full arsenal of Organ sounds.

The Nord Stage emulates the energy stealth from the tone wheels, resulting in the “compressed” sound that occurs when playing many notes simultaneously. The rotary speaker emulation is the final touch of our rich organ sounds, and is available for the pianos and the synths as well. The key-click on the Hammond organ model is now a user-defined parameter, so players have even more control over their sound.

Controls for percussion, 3 vibrato types, 3 chorus types, rotary speaker, and overdrive controls are found in this section. You can also assign keyboard zones, transpose by octave, and activate the sustain pedal and pitch bend functions here. The digital drawbars indicate the position of the different organ harmonics using bright red LEDs. The rotary speaker, once turned on, can be sped up and slowed down using the panel buttons, or you can use a standard switch pedal to "ramp up" and stop the rotary motion.

The rotary speaker is not only available for the Organ - by pressing the Shift button (located in the center of the panel) with the rotary on/off button, you can route the Piano or Synth sections through the rotary speaker, creating some interesting timbres.

The Organ's volume knob [the lighted encoder] and all the drawbars are controllable using Morph Grouping, meaning you can assign all or some of them to an external control pedal, the modulation wheel, or aftertouch.

The Piano Section is comprised of 6 different sound groups. These groups include the Mega Clavinet™ D6, the Wurlitzer™ 200A, the Rhodes™ Mark I, II, V, and the custom Yamaha™ Electric Grand model CP-80. The Acoustic Piano Group includes a Steinway™ Concert D and a Yamaha™ C7 Grand Piano and two upright pianos. A Miscellaneous group also exists, for any future sounds that Clavia will develop for the Nord Stage.

The acoustic pianos were created using a very advanced sampling technology. The sounds are stereo multisamples, recorded at many different velocity levels. The key-release, pedal down, and pedal up sounds have also been added. In an acoustic piano, the vibrating string will make other strings with shared overtones vibrate, creating its very energetic and full sound. The Nord Stage pianos will produce the sympathetic string resonance when each note is hit with the pedal down. This full sound was attained through the development of a completely new sampling engine, which provides the lushest, most accurate and expressive grand pianos ever made for a digital keyboard.

The piano section is very flexible, allowing the use of any of the Stage’s rich effects, splits, and layers, and in the future Clavia will release new piano samples that can be loaded via the Nord Stage’s USB port.

The multisample engine of the Nord Stage displays subtle nuances throughout the whole dynamic range. Thanks to the carefully designed sound engine, an aura of authenticity is created that can only be heard in a Nord instrument.

The Synthesizer Section is like no other that Clavia has produced - instead of digging through parameters and sculpting your sound with a large array of knobs and encoders, the Stage's synth section features just the essentials for quick and easy programming with amazing results.

Clavia is world famous for synthesizer technology since the groundbreaking Nord Lead from the mid-1990s. For discriminating musicians, a subtractive synthesizer has been built into the Stage, creating opportunities for texturing and layering piano and organ sounds. Here, though, a single knob moves you through various oscillators, glide and unison functions are added, as well as a low-pass filter, modulation envelope, amp envelope, vibrato, and and EQ. The synthesizer unit in the Nord Stage is sonically rich, very easy to use, and has it’s own unique personality.

The heart of this synthesizer is the Oscillator section, where you can choose from basic sound elements. The Analog section recreates all the elements from classic subtractive synthesizers. The FM section recreates the glossy FM sounds that dominated the 1980s. The synth section also includes digital wavetables, which create seemingly organic synth textures. The timbre knob controls them all, varying multiple parameters within the selected oscillator/operator/waveform preset, allowing players to sweep between different characters of the sound in one movement.

The filter section has 12db and 24db filters. You can easily manipulate filter cutoff and resonance, and control them with velocity or keyboard tracking as well. There is a modulation envelope which shapes both the filter and the oscillator, and an amp envelope to control the attack, sustain, release, and decay of the sound.

The External Section gives you control over any MIDI-connected synth module or computer. Since you may need to use non-keyboard-oriented sounds in your performance, Clavia has made controlling them an exclusive and separate function of the Nord Stage.

The rotary knob has multiple functions. You can use it to control the patch volume, change the patch you want to trigger, or assign any MIDI control change number to it. The External MIDI channel can be set and saved for each Stage Program, meaning that you can recall external programs without having to manually change them on the module.

Zone, octave, pitch bend, and sustain pedal functions can be activated and controlled here, and anything the rotary knob controls can be Morphed using the modulation wheel, a control pedal, or aftertouch.

The Stage's Effects Section contains all the effects of the Nord Electro, and adds more.

The Phaser, Flanger, and Chorus effects are modeled from the classic analog stomp boxes that were popular in the 1970s. With parameter knobs for realtime adjustment of effects, all the swirling phasers, metallic flangers, and meaty chorus effects found on classic recordings are here - crystal clear and faithfully simulated. Modulations include Tremolo, three Wahs, and Auto-Pan.

There is a Ring Modulator on board, an effect used by many experimental and electronic musicians. From jazz, funk, prog-rock, and pop to fusion, R&B, and avant-garde, this useful effect has conjured incredibly unique tones for a generation of players. A delay unit has been included to create haunting echoes or slap back effects, and its tempo can be controlled with the Rate knob or using the Tap Tempo button.

The Amp Sim Section extends the Stage's vintage authenticity even further by including carefully-modeled emulations of classic stage amplifiers.

The three simulated amps are the Fender™ Twin Reverb, a Roland™ Jazz Chorus, and Wurlizter™ speakers. You can also set the drive of the amps creating the sound of an overdriven amplifier which works when no amp model is selected.

As with the Effects Section, the Organ, Piano, or Synthesizer can be routed through the Amp Sim, and its sweepable EQ can shape your sound.

Owners of the Nord Electro made many suggestions for improvements, and they were taken considered when designing the Nord Stage.

Thus the Master Effects Section. The compressor gives you dynamic control over your sound, subtle or laden with special effects. The reverb unit has five algorithms that create different ambient atmospheres for your sounds.

The Master effects apply to the entire Program you've created, allowing you to blend with your band whether you're plugged into the PA, or running your sound direct to an amplifier.