New to the Nord fold for 2010 is the extraordinarily lightweight (18kg) Nord Piano, an 88 key stage piano with weighted hammer action. Needless to say, the build quality follows the normal Nord high standards and the piano can be used with the new Nord piano pedal that provides the functionality of all three pedals found on an acoustic grand piano. The standard panel to the top of the instrument provides a well designed user interface, which allows the player to store settings for later use or alternatively to use the sounds and effects as they go along. Velocity response can be adjusted as can key transposition. There is also the Nord Resonance Ready pianos feature that can be activated from the panel, creating a wonderfully realistic acoustic vibe to the Nord sound. Although the piano comes equipped with its own sound set of acoustic and electric pianos and harpischords, other piano sounds are available as free downloads from Nord’s website. If you wish, you can even discard all the loaded sounds (not that you’d want to!) and replace them with a downloaded set. The Piano also comes with an effects bank, which includes tremolo, auto-wah, a phaser, a flanger and a lush chorus. And there’s even a choice of various speaker models and if you’re into extreme sounds, a Drive knob for powerful Tube amplifier distortion. Currently the market is awash with good stage pianos and it will be interesting to see how the Nord Piano squares up to the competition – particularly the new Korg SV1. For more go to www.soundtec.co.uk