Nero Piano

[Maitane Roderiques]

Ive read good and bad reports on this controller. When I went to check it out I took my laptop and played it for a few minutes with Pianoteq, tried various things on the keys. Then at home, thanks to Pianoteq's continual MIDI capture going in in the background (what a great feature for sussing out a controller!), I went over the MIDI out data and it all seemed good, with none of the inconsistencies and glitches that some owners complain about. So this seems like a good bug free unit.

I'm yet to unpack it and play it (over the next few days; just moving house atm). Wee bit excited. It'll probably go to my partner's private music school (I'll give her the choice between the SL Numa Nero and the Casio PX-160).

I'm too tired/lazy to go searching sorry - I have Pianoteq working great connected by a USB cable to a MacBook Air and some nice speakers from that. Why does one need a controller? What are they for exactly?

"Controller" is short for "MIDI controller" or in this context keyboard MIDI controller, specifically "piano keyboard MIDI controller". The term "piano controller" rather than "digital piano" is used especially for a piano keyboard that has no on board sounds of its own and only generates MIDI output, e.g., Kawai VPC (Virtual Piano Controller) 1.

A MIDI keyboard controller is any keyboard instrument with a MIDI output. Your digital piano was always a MIDI controller. "Controller" is a broader category. My SL Numa Nero is a piano keyboard MIDI controller but it's not a digital piano. Your digital piano or any digital piano with MIDI output is also a piano keyboard MIDI controller. Something like: all potatoes are vegetables but not all vegetables are potatoes.

I used the Nero for a good while until I got my C3XSH, I think it's a very good controller for the price, the action is really quite precise and repetitions are just about ok, not terribly fast though. Some keys got uneven after a while, not sure why, but no biggie. The biggest drawback is the noise the action makes, the thumping is pretty loud and you also get some squeaks here and there, fixable perhaps. I tried the Kawai controller, the VPC1, and preferred my Nero.

No tips to give really, just set up the velocity curve to your taste as you would with any kb, with the "normal' weight on the Nero. i never really liked the 'auto curve option' or whatever it's called on the Nero, it didn't work for me and I lost patience, anyway it's not necessary with Pianoteq.

I will be getting an Acuna 73 for travel, it's a pity the Nero is so heavy...(and 88 keys is too big anyway for travelling).

I've used the Numa Nero for several years now, and I found it to be quite adequate for all of my piano needs. It also has aftertouch in case you didn't know (mono, not poly) so you can push into the keys to send control information.

Recommendations:

(Necessary)

- Get a continuous foot pedal that sends out variable information rather than simple on/off. Pianoteq responds well to continuous data for sustain. I would also suggest getting two since you have a second pedal input that you can use for other things (the mod wheel on the side is too inconvenient imo). I use a Roland DP-10.

I did try out the aftertouch but it was not to my liking: needed a lot of pressure before it triggered and the lack of any movement/feedback makes it difficult to control. But I am not used to playing KBs with aftertouch (except a real acoustic clavichord), so maybe I'll learn how to make use of it.

I'll look at the velocity profile setup - I was not going to; and just use Pianoteq to handle that, but I'll heed the advice, thanks. Thanks for the MIDI-in tip too. I'll be using it with Linux. (I did try it with Linux before I bought it and it worked fine.)

The only thing I would add is a few words about latency. If you find that you have too much of a delay between pressing the key and getting sound you may have to look into getting low latency audio hardware. I don't know how knowledgeable you are, but you can post again when you get to that point if you need more help.

* great keybed, much better than Casio PX-160 or Yamaha P-140 with GH (not GHS) action. These are KBs I have for direct comparison. From memory only, it's also better than Roland's PHA4-standard and perhaps even better or at least on a par with Kawai's ES8 and MP7 (as long as I can sort out the velocity issue, see below).

* repetition rate is fantastic, all this talk about 3-sensor vs 2-sensor keyboards seems to be purely academic. This KB is much better in that regard than the triple-sensor Casio PX or even our Kawai 6.5 ft acoustic grand.

* the KB is very solid and instils confidence: the keys move up and down but nowhere else and they quickly settle down after being struck, without bouncing.

* the keys seem to have a longer throw than the acoustic piano standard, though I have not measured it.

* velocity response is poor: #1 lowest MIDI out is at level 12 and no matter how slowly you press a key; #2 it's too easy to reach max level 127: usual forte and fortissimo playing are no different (I'll have to play around with the settings to see if this can be improved)

All in all, it seems promising for what is a 6-7 y.o. KB. Makes me think that for new piano controller buyers the SL88 Grand is at least worth considering (which is an updated version of the Numa Nero for a much better price; I have not had the chance to try one).

That's what "You Play" is for. Be patient and learn that feature for recording your own velocity curves. I also found that every keyboard I tried had velocity differences between the black and white keys, and the Numa was the only one that solved this problem.

Thanks John! I have tried using it and it does help, but I also found the soft/med/hard velocity settings: on "hard" it's good enough to fine tune in Pianoteq (and I prefer to use something already built in so that when the instrument is moved, it won't forget its settings). The velocity fine-tuning in Pianoteq is a must because even with the most extreme fortissimo playing the lowest "velocity" "You Play" produces is still midi level 8 (out of 127) and it's a threshold trigger (even with zero velocity you get a response, which is not realistic). But that can be fixed with Pianoteq's velocity curve, which means you get just 119 distinct velocities instead of 127. (Actually on "hard" setting 10 is the minimum, so we get just 117 levels.)

The menu system and UI in general is pretty bad but whatever. I don't really care. All I want is a dumb MIDI KB controller anyway. There are some annoying bugs though (e.g., my sustain pedal occasionally jumps from controller #7 to #2 after I access the menu, and it does not register as a sustain pedal in the first place - but Pianoteq can sort that out).

The keys do travel about 2mm deeper than our Kawai grand, so I was not imagining that. It's a bit too much. I've never played a piano with the action that high. It's still a very playable and pretty fast KB but that is a flaw IMO.

Questions for John (or other Numa users): How do I make this silly thing remember its settings? Preferably I'd like it to remember that I've set the velocity curve to "Hard" after being turned off, but even without it being turned off, when I go to some other part of the menu the velocity reverts to "Med". And that screen, is it always on? I wish it shut off when not in use.

Born in Brooklyn, New York,[1] as Bernard Nierow, he started his formal music training at the age of seven.[3] He studied piano under Frederick Bried. By the time he was 14, he was accepted to New York City's High School of Music & Art and won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music, where he later studied part-time.[1][3] He took private lessons from Abram Chasins and Constance Keene.[3] Keene once wrote in an issue of Keyboard Classics "Vladimir Horowitz was Peter's greatest fan!"[citation needed] He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in psychology.[3]

Nero made his television debut at the age of 17, playing "Rhapsody in Blue" on a special hosted by Paul Whiteman.[3] He recorded his first album under the name of Bernie Nerow in July 1957 on the Mode label (MOD-LP117), which shows his technical virtuosity in the jazz genre. Nero recorded Piano Forte in 1961, and won a Grammy Award in 1961 for Best New Artist.[3][4] The next year, he won the Grammy for Best Performance By An Orchestra Or Instrumentalist With Orchestra - Primarily Not Jazz Or For Dancing for his album The Colorful Peter Nero.[4] Since then, he has garnered 10 additional nominations and released 67 albums. Nero's early association with RCA Victor produced 23 albums in eight years. His subsequent move to Columbia Records resulted in the million-selling single and album Summer of '42.

His first major national TV success came at the age of 17, when he was chosen to perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on Paul Whiteman's TV special. He subsequently appeared on many top variety and talk shows, including 11 guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Hailed as one of the premier interpreters of George Gershwin, Nero starred in the Emmy Award-winning S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous, S'Gershwin (1972).[5] Other TV credits included performances on PBS-TV's Piano Pizzazz and with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., on its July 4 special titled A Capitol Fourth. Nero served as music director and pianist for the PBS-TV special The Songs of Johnny Mercer: Too Marvelous for Words (1997) with co-stars Johnny Mathis, Melissa Manchester and many members of The POPS.[6]

In 1963, Nero composed and performed the musical score for the motion picture Sunday in New York.[3] The title song, which was sung by Mel Torme, has been recorded by over two dozen vocalists, and the score was nominated for both a Golden Globe and Hollywood Reporter Award.[citation needed] He also made an appearance in the film (playing himself) which co-starred Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor, Robert Culp, and Cliff Robertson. In the film, Jane Fonda's character gave her brother (played by Robertson) a Nero recording.

3a8082e126