Clavia DMI Press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Fredrik Hylvander
Int +46 8 442 73 60
Stockholm, Sweden September 24, 2002

Nord Electro Rack 2

The 19" table top, rack mountable version of the Nord Electro 2 stage keyboard - the Nord Electro Rack 2 - is now shipping! Now, you can have all the exclusive Nord Electro 2 piano and B-3 organ sounds in a compact 19" unit - at a very affordable price! The previously released 5 and 6 octave keyboard versions of Nord Electro and Nord Electro 2 have become huge successes. A lot of keyboard players and studio musicians like to use a master keyboard for all their synths and samplers and a for those, a rack mountable instrument is probably still the best choice. The Nord Electro Rack 2 comes with all the great sounds and features of the Nord Electro 2 keyboard models - except for the key bed.

The Nord Electro 2 sounds

The organ in the Electro 2 is based on a digital simulation of the mechanical tone wheels of the B-3 organ. It offers innovative solutions to mimic the typical B-3 sound, for example:

The piano section comprises five carefully multi-sampled electric piano instruments: a Mk I Stage Piano, a Mk I Suitcase Piano, Wurlitzer 200A, Clavinet D6 (with 64 filter and pickup combinations) and the custom modified Clavia Electric Grand Model G. We also included an acoustic Malmsjoe Grand Piano - in stereo. The Electro features a unique multi-sample playback, catching every nuance throughout the whole dynamic range. The unique piano sample playback engine also made it possible to digitally model the sounds you get when you release keys on a piano instrument. For example, the Clavinet and the Wurlitzer have very characteristic key release sounds. In Nord Electro Rack 2 this is very faithfully modeled. Additional piano sounds can be downloaded at www.clavia.se - free of charge!

Technical specifications

Organ section

Polyphony: Full polyphony
9 electric drawbars with memory functionality: The drawbars of Nord Electro 2 are represented by up/down buttons and LED bar graphs instead of ordinary mechanical drawbars. This gives you a big advantage: when you change presets, the correct drawbar settings are shown immediately by the LEDs. In other words, no need for the regular ’trial and error’ method. It's very easy to get the hang of changing the drawbar settings in a natural way with the buttons.
Drawbar settings presets: 9 drawbar presets in ROM and 9 user configurable drawbar settings.
Effects: Swell (the characteristic B-3 volume pedal function) - Percussion (2nd, 3rd, normal/soft, fast/slow). Chorus/Vibrato (C1, C2, C3/V1, V2, V3).
Split: Makes it possible to play an organ sound with two different drawbar settings (Lower and Upper manuals) on a single MIDI channel.
Dual manuals: The Nord Electro Rack 2 organ section is also designed to receive on two separate MIDI channels: one for the "Upper manual" and one for the "Lower manual". This makes it possible to play the Nord Electro Rack 2 as a 2-manual organ with different drawbar settings for each "manual" without any split point.

Piano section

Instruments: 5 multi-sampled electric piano instruments in Flash memory: a Mk I Stage Piano, a Mk I Suitcase Piano, Wurlitzer 200A, Clavinet D6 and the custom modified Clavia Electric Grand Model G. We also included an acoustic Malmsjoe Grand Piano - in stereo.
Effects: Presence (or Filter and Pickup selectors for the Clavinet D6 sound).

Global features

Memory: 48 user memory locations (6 Banks holding 8 Programs each) in which you can store complete setups, including instrument settings (organ or piano) and effects settings.
Effects: Tube type Overdrive, Rotary Speaker simulation (slow, fast, stop), Equalizer, Chorus (2 types), Flanger (2 types), Phaser (2 types), Tremolo, Wah-Wah (2 types), Auto Wah, Auto panning and Ring modulation.
Connections: 2 Audio outputs, 1 Headphone output, 1 Control pedal input, 1 Sustain pedal input, 1 Rotary Speaker speed switch pedal input, MIDI In, MIDI Out. USB interface for fast and easy download of new piano sounds.
Size: 19" wide and 4 rack units high.