Nord Stage Midi work arounds

[Tonysounds]

Ok, you Stage users, I'm trying to integrate this into my midi rig. Here's what I CAN"T seem to work around: using the externals, they have to be active for them to send program information (in other words, they can't be "dark" in the intial stage of the panel; they have to be ready to use).

 

This is a pain in the behind. Let's say I was doing a song where I needed mellotron in the left hand and a guitar patch on the right (that means I have the externals for both panels being used); but only for later in the song. The intro and first verse require organ in the left hand. And the second verse requires piano across the board (easy, just select panel B). Now for the solo section I need mellotron in the left hand. Since the Panel B external needed to be "dark", it didn't send program change, so whatever song I was at before is still up on that external. How do I work around this?

[cheezeejazz]

Hi Tony

 

What you're trying to achieve is quite complex and bear in mind that the Nord isn't a controller really (it'd be easy to achieve with a controller!) It is a great board with a little controller feature added for those simple uses that are needed sometime.

 

However, i think you can achieve what you want by setting the play state of the 2 EXT modes to on but not assigned. You can tell when its on this mode as the lights will be on for the voume knob funtion, yet none of the green lighs for the key splits will be active. To change into this mode hold down SHIFT and press the ON/OFF (Key zone) button until it cycles through to this point.

 

By running in this mode you should in theory be able to transmit the patch change required and still use the volume knob, but you won't have any active notes on the keyboard so you won't hear it when you play. So you'll have to think cleverly about how to make it work for you - ie) at some point in the song you'll have to press SHIFT + ON/OFF for EXT to make it active, and also press ON/OFF for other patches (piano and organ for example) so it's only of use if you have a few bars gap somewhere.

 

HOpe that helps! Pete

[Tonysounds]

Yeah, not practical for live use unfortunately.

 

My A90 is the best controller I've ever seen or used, but even My Motif has more midi funtionality than the Stage.

 

Thanks P!

[Moonglow]

Tony,

 

I'm not sure there is a workaround for this issue within the same program. What I do for instances like this is to use one of the "Live" programs, although I use them more as "favorite" programs for go to sounds. That is, I have "Live 1" set to my favorite piano patch, and "Live 2" set to my favorite organ patch. So for your particular problem, instead of Panel B, you could use a Live program for the piano you need for the second verse. This would then free-up Panel B in the original program for the mellotron/guitar thing. BTW, I sent Nord an e-mail over the weekend requesting an OS upgrade so that MIDI channels for the Extern section could be stored at the patch level. We'll see what happens.....