I've only played on this twice, but even the first time ever playing one, it took a couple minutes to figure out how it worked. It's really simple and straight forward. And it has great patches. Everything is split up into different sections which you can turn on and off individually which is a super nice feature. My favorite part is probably the effects which operate globally. I own a Triton Extreme, and it's not as nearly as easy to add or change effects on patches.

I bought the NS88 two years ago. The electric pianos have realistic tone and are very expressive. 10 out of 10. It's easy to make them growl and purr. These and the auto-wah clavinet fit right into my funk cover band, and most importantly into my car without breaking my back. Love having separate piano and synth sections- can easily fade in the string layer when the song calls for it. Don't need to program 100 patches- only have needed to make 3 or 4 in the 2 years I've owned it. Almost everything is reasonably readily adjustable on stage. The organ has ok tone but still sounds dry and digital when compared to other clone wheels like the XK3 or CX3. However, the NS88 organ blows away non-clonewheels. Sounds best when run through the rotary channel of my Motion sound KBR3D. The dual keyboard feature is great but slightly complicated to set up. DualKb lets me play the NS88's organ from a remote keyboard while having the NS88 itself set up for piano. I can control the organ's drawbars from panel b on the NS88 while I'm playing piano.

Version 2.0 pianos were ok. I emailed the company and told them I liked the NS88 piano tone but that it lacked the dynamics of the Yamaha p90. In a few months they had a software upgrade (2.1) that included a new piano with improved dynamics! Talk about customer service! I must not have been the only one that mentioned this. 2.1 pianos sound great through the stereo channel of my motion sound KBR3D, especially with the "expand" feature activated, but not so much through the PA. Nord came out with a mono piano this year which sounds much better through the PA. Can't wait to see what the next upgrades are. And I love the screw-in legs. Get an SKB 76 note hard case- it fits but you'll have to trim the foam a bit, and it will be protected more than in the stock soft case.

I've been gigging with this thing for a few months now. If you're an old school guy that doesn't have a crew of roadies and repairmen, this is THE board for you. Whirly, Rhodes, Clav, piano, synth, Vox, Farfisa, and B3 in one light-weight package. "FER-REAL"! Well, real enough for me anyways. I think they're all pretty spot-on.

This is an expressive instrument with bells and whistles that are intuitive and convienient.

Once you're familiar with all the many knobs and buttons, you can make adustments very effectivly on the fly. However, reading the owners manual IS a worthwhile activity to get the most out of this board.

TIPS This thing takes 4 peddles. Use them all. The organ swell and sustain peddles are pretty standard, but the control peddle can be assigned PER PATCH. Route it to to the Wah effect on a clav sound. OH YES!

There's three velocity curves on the piano section sounds. If you want a sharper attack in the piano, set this to curve 3 (the default is 1, and you gotta REALLY pound on the board to get a brite sound).

If this thing was thousand bucks cheaper it'd be a no-brainer. Otherwise, if you're a gigger and can afford it, buy one.

The Nord Stage 88 is perhaps the best standalone digital piano on the market. It is not a "workstation", but has an acoustic/electric piano engine, an organ engine, and an analog synth engine. All engines are dual, meaning two sounds from each can be used. The keyboard has 6 zones, so you can layer up to 6 sounds at once. Meaning two different Pianos, Organs, and Synths can be used at once.

On the fly editing functions are for getting a cool sound fast. This board sounds incredible. You can get so many great sounds. WOW.

The addition of Vox and Farfisa organs is really fantastic and they sound great. It is also great to have an onboard synth. The piano sounds are greatly improved. I found the old ones to be completely useless and the new ones here surprised me. The electric grands and clavs sound great too. The theremin sound is GREAT!!!! Very expresive and sounds like Good Vibrations. There is now a 76 key model and I think they ought to do a 61 so you can fit it into a cab. The controls are not too bad but they will take a little longer to learn than say a Triton to get the best sound. This is a fantastic gigging keyboard- all in one and lightweight. It will be intersting to see what happens now that Rhodes is back and abuot to start selling newer and lighter electric pianos (The new Mark VII)