Who has played a Nord Stage 2 Keyboard?

[keyman27]

I made a pilgrimage to Gand Music, north of Chicago, last week. I got to play a Nord Stage 2, a SV-1, a Numa organ, an XK-3c, and a XK-1 running through a Ventilator. They're all great keyboards. I want them all.

[Lord_Nord]

I'm a long time NE2 user strongly considering adding on the NS2 to my rig. I don't have a strong MIDI knowledge, but I'm wondering if it's possible to assign my NE2 or another keyboard as a controller just for the NS2's organ or samples while at the same time using the NS2 for pianos or other sounds. Essentially, I'm asking if it's possible to make the NS2 perform like 2 separate keyboards when adding on another manual.

 

Also, is it possible to maintain the program assigned to my controller (i.e. the NE2) while switching the programs on the NS2? If so, this would be a really good compromise for NE2/3 users who want to keep that waterfall action for organ, but like the weighted action of the NS2 for piano.

[Tobias Åslund]

The Stage 2 is very good for a dual manual setup like you describe. It has a couple of different way to do this and it shouldn't be to hard to understand. The manual is quite good at describing this.

 

As for your other question - I guess what you mean is to have one Stage program assigned to your Electro all the time, with all sounds coming from the Stage, the Electro would just be a MIDI controller, right?

This is unfortunately not possible. Changing the Stage's program will change the sound played from the Electro as well.

On the other hand, assigning sounds to either manual is very simple once you understand the basics.

To complicate things further - the answer to your question is only partly no... because within in a program you can easily select another sound in the synth section - it has presets of its own. It's just as easy to change to another piano sound. But once you select another program all sounds change.

 

The Stage has a lot of flexibility and possibilities, but it is structured very different than your average ROMpler, so I would suggest spending some time with the manual. It might give you a better idea of the whole concept of programs, panels and sections.

The manual can be found here.

[Lord_Nord]

Thanks mr Tobbe, I will check out the manual, and let you guys know if I still have any questions. And yes, I intend to use the NE2 just as a controller for synth and organ sounds coming from the NS2. I guess I'd have to setup patches in advance depending on my setlist. i.e. setup NS2 for piano and controller for organ or setup NS2 for piano and controller for brass/strings etc.

 

Thanks,

[Lord_Nord]

Oh another NS2 question!!! Does it cutoff sounds when switching programs? The Kronos enables you to sustain tones even after switching to another program.

[AnotherScott]

The NS2 typically does cut off when switching sounds.

 

There is an exception: You can set up a patch with two "slots" (in effect, layers), and you can set it up so that, at any given time, you're playing one slot, the other, or both. If you're only playing one slot, you can switch to the the sound you've set up in the other slot without cut off.

[Lord_Nord]

Thanks Scott... yeah it would be nice if the NS2 had no cutoff, but actually that loophole would be a reasonable compromise for me I think. Does that work...say if in one slot you have an ARP synth going and then you switch to a second slot for piano or something? It keeps the ARP going if you sustain it?

[Lord_Nord]

Thanks Scott... yeah it would be nice if the NS2 had no cutoff, but actually that loophole would be a reasonable compromise for me I think. Does that work...say if in one slot you have an ARP synth going and then you switch to a second slot for piano or something? It keeps the ARP going if you sustain it?

[AnotherScott]

I've never used arps, so I can't specifically answer that, sorry. But I will add that each slot, itself, can have up to 3 zones (i.e. different areas of the keyboard playing different sounds), so there may be more than one way to address the kind of thing you're talking about.

[mate stubb]

Each panel has 3 engines available simultaneously - organ, piano, synth.

 

So yeah, you could switch seemlessly between any of those 3 sounds using a single panel.

 

If you wanted to switch between 2 piano, 2 organ, or 2 synth sounds, you would have to put one on Panel A and one on Panel B.

[FJR]

If you haven't yet watched it, this is a pretty good video:

 

 

Its a good example of the NS2's real-time capabilities.

[Lord_Nord]

The Stage 2 is very good for a dual manual setup like you describe. It has a couple of different way to do this and it shouldn't be to hard to understand. The manual is quite good at describing this.

 

As for your other question - I guess what you mean is to have one Stage program assigned to your Electro all the time, with all sounds coming from the Stage, the Electro would just be a MIDI controller, right?

This is unfortunately not possible. Changing the Stage's program will change the sound played from the Electro as well.

On the other hand, assigning sounds to either manual is very simple once you understand the basics.

To complicate things further - the answer to your question is only partly no... because within in a program you can easily select another sound in the synth section - it has presets of its own. It's just as easy to change to another piano sound. But once you select another program all sounds change.

 

The Stage has a lot of flexibility and possibilities, but it is structured very different than your average ROMpler, so I would suggest spending some time with the manual. It might give you a better idea of the whole concept of programs, panels and sections.

The manual can be found here.

 

Mr Tobbe, I found this in the manual..."The internal keyboard will control Slot A and the external keyboard will

control Slot B. It is not possible to activate both Panels in this mode. This"

 

Does that mean it is not possible to play NS2 sounds on the NS2 and a controller at the same time?

[mate stubb]

No.

[Dglavko]

No it is not possible, or no it is possible?

 

[mate stubb]

I have played piano from an external keyboard while playing organ from the internal keyboard of my stage classic.

 

No, it is possible.

[Lord_Nord]

ok that's good news...that might've been a game changer for me.

[Tobias Åslund]

The Stage is very flexible with it's 2 panels with 4 sections each. So once you start using it with an external keyboard you will discover many different way to set it up.

 

If you, as an example, only want to play piano from your external keyboard. Then you could assign the whole panel A to the external keyboard, but it might be a better idea to match midi ch of the Stage and external keyboard so the ext keyb only controls the piano section of panel A. Then on the Stage you enable the piano section of panel A, but with no keyboard control (not assigned to any of the keyboard zones). That way you have the Stage keyboard free to play any of the 3 + 4 sections now left available on panel A and B. Of course, you could still assign the piano of panel A to a zone or the whole of the Stage's keyboard as well - playing the piano sound from both keyboard. If you do it this way, you will always have a piano sound on your external board (as long as panel A's piano section is enabled) and you can use the Stage for other sounds and/or another piano sample.

 

This might not be the best explanation, but I hope you can understand what I mean.

[Lord_Nord]

Yeah I think I get you. So I assume you have just as much flexibility with an external keyboard setting up zone B? For example, can you setup multiple keyboard zones on a midi controller with different sounds? If so, how does it setup the split points on the controller? I'd want to setup my boards so that I could have the NS2 dedicated only for piano or maybe piano + organ zones. Then on the controller, I might want strings + brass zones or maybe 2 different synths.

[Tobias Åslund]

Yes, the same goes for Panel B. One thing to know when using dual keyboard organ - percussion is then only available for Panel B. If you enable organ in only panel A you can have percussion there, but once you activate organ in panel B, the percussion in panel A is disabled.

 

If you want zones on both keyboards, I think you must assign one panel to each board. You assign the zones on the Stage's keyboard and it will be the same on the other board. If you want both keyboards to have a split, you cannot have two sounds from the same section (ie two synths) active on one board only, since that require you to layer both panels, so unfortunately I don't see an easy way for you to have piano+organ on one board and brass+strings on the other. Having piano or organ (but not both) on the external board and a string/brass split on the Stage can be done if you do like described above where the external keyb is routed directly to an individual section (ie piano, panel A).

The workaround for this problem would be to have an external board that can be zoned where each zone send on a different midi channel.

 

The Stage can be set up to receive midi on ten different parts (if I count correctly):

Panel A, Panel B, Organ A/B, Piano A/B, Synth A/B, Global (plays the same sounds/panels that are active on the Stage) and dual KB (you have to consult the manual for this one - I've never tried it).

[Lord_Nord]

I believe there are 4 outputs on the NS2. Is it possible to route pianos and synths out through the first 2 slots and organs through the second 2 slots for easy use with a ventilator?

[OB Dave]

Yes, the output channel assignment is pretty flexible. There are six audio sources (Organ A & B, Piano A & B, and Synth A & B) and each of these sources can be assigned to one of [Ch1&2, Ch3&4, Ch3, or Ch4.]

 

So on Panel A you could have your pianos go to Ch3, your Synths go to Ch4, and Organs go to Ch 1&2. And you could have a different assignment with your Panel B voices if you wanted.

 

The only real issue I've run into is that the Reverb can ONLY be routed to channel 1-2. When gigging with a Leslie I like a little bit of reverb on the way in, so I'll assign organs to Ch1&2 and just use Ch1 to send organ+verb to the Leslie preamp. The pianos and synths I'll run dry anyway, so I sent those to ch3 and on to the K10.

 

This efx routing limitation is the only thing in the S2 routing structure that i wish was more flexible.

[mate stubb]

Yes, it is.

[zahush76]

A wonderful thing happend last week. A guy with a nord stage 2 76 was looking for a trade for a semiweighted nord stage 2 because he is gigging. Since i'm not - i thought i'd give it a try and see if i like the action. I did , and we switched boards. No extra cash. Wow, i didn't know what i was missing. I was affraid i'd have a problem playing synth lines and organ parts, but it's just fine.

[Lord_Nord]

A wonderful thing happend last week. A guy with a nord stage 2 76 was looking for a trade for a semiweighted nord stage 2 because he is gigging. Since i'm not - i thought i'd give it a try and see if i like the action. I did , and we switched boards. No extra cash. Wow, i didn't know what i was missing. I was affraid i'd have a problem playing synth lines and organ parts, but it's just fine.

 

Wow that's pretty sweet! I have a NE2 and have been thinking I would use it as a controller for organ and synth when I get my NS2 76, but maybe I won't have to lug out an extra board just for that.

[AnotherScott]

A wonderful thing happend last week. A guy with a nord stage 2 76 was looking for a trade for a semiweighted nord stage 2 because he is gigging. Since i'm not - i thought i'd give it a try and see if i like the action. I did , and we switched boards. No extra cash. Wow, i didn't know what i was missing. I was affraid i'd have a problem playing synth lines and organ parts, but it's just fine.

Good deal! Personally, I find Nord's weighted actions (apart from NE3HP) better than average, while I find their unweighted actions worse than average.