The Nord Stage follows the success of earlier keyboard instruments from Clavia and contains similar emulations of vintage electromechanical keyboards such as the Hammond Organ and electric pianos as found on the Nord Electro 2, with additional functionality including a weighted piano-like keyboard on certain models, a synthesizer section based on the Nord Lead, a more versatile organ section and extended effects processing.

The Nord Stage is multitimbral, which means that it can play more than one sound at once, either by splitting the internal keyboard or connecting an external MIDI controller.

The Nord Stage 2 and 3 also have the ability to play samples, allowing it to reproduce the functionality of a Mellotron or Chamberlin.

Individual samples can be downloaded from Clavia's website, and a community has developed that provides new instruments and sounds.

The Nord Stage was unveiled in April 2005 at the Musikmesse music instrument convention in Frankfurt, Germany.

These give the performer much more accurate and responsive real time control of the timbre of the organ sound.

Featuring filter and envelope controls, the Synth section's timbre knob allows users to move through different sound groups.

[13] The Nord Stage 2 introduced the additional capability to act as a sampler, playing back pre-recorded instrument sounds.

Samples can be downloaded from both Clavia's and third-party websites, and installed using a software application running on a PC or a Mac.

[16] Amongst the samples included as standard with the Nord Stage 2 and 3 are those for the Mellotron and Chamberlin tape-based keyboards, which have been exclusively licensed to Clavia.

The Stage adds a delay module, amplifier modeling (Wurlitzer speaker, Fender Twin Reverb and Roland Jazz Chorus),[19] overdrive, and expands the Electro's 2-band EQ to 3-band.

Most of the buttons and knobs on the Stage, such as volume, instrument selection, drawbar levels (for organ) or filter controls (for synthesizer) can also be adjusted by the external keyboard.

A set of screw-in legs are an available option for the 88 and 76 note models[23] and a custom designed soft case is also available from Clavia.

[29] Other notable musicians who have used the Nord Stage include Little Feat's Bill Payne,[30] Scott Kinsey,[31] The Ark's Jens Andersson (who played a Nord Stage 2 on the band's final tour),[32] Bryan Ferry[33] and Elbow.

[13] Performing Musician magazine felt that the piano sound "is a little uneven in places", particularly towards the lower end, and were concerned it wouldn't work well as a music workstation, describing its External section as "useless in any real-world situation", though they did praise the quality of the organ sounds.

[35] Reviewing the Stage 2, Keyboard Magazine criticised the lack of MIDI thru and said "even with dedicated controls for most functions, it can be difficult to grasp at first.