Nord Stage 2 on the way! What do first?

[Lord_Nord]

I got a great deal on a new Nord Stage 2 HA76 thanks to an awesome suggestion by Dave Ferris! It should be here by Wednesday, and I'm so excited I can hardly wait!

 

Question for you NS2 users. I'm not fully accustomed to the Nord Stage user interface (I have a Nord Electro 2), so I'm wondering what I should do first to break in the NS2. From what I have heard, there are a lot of deep functions especially in the synth section. What were you most impressed with right out of the box, and what took you a lot of time to figure out? Any tips would be much appreciated! Obviously, I will spend some time with the manual.

[mate stubb]

First, you must stroke it lovingly as you remove its wrappers, all the while speaking to it in a soft voice, "Oh baby, oh baby, I love you more than my clavinet."

 

Then you must give it a girl's name.

[Lord_Nord]

First, you must stroke it lovingly as you remove its wrappers, all the while speaking to it in a soft voice, "Oh baby, oh baby, I love you more than my clavinet."

 

Then you must give it a girl's name.

 

LOL thanks that was almost a useful tip If only I had a clavinet...

[sakari lindhen]

I missed how to assign the LFO upon the first reading, so you if you are as inattentive as I, you might want to give that a second reading...but, first of all, you have to clean your house, because once you get it, there will be no time for housework.

 

And start trying to figure out what pianos and what samples you want loaded into the respective memories.

[kelp]

Just got mine recently. I think I just stared at it for the first 30 minutes. Then touched and turned all the knobs. Then turned it on. [yes, I'm still talking about the Nord here!]

 

The biggest thing for me was understanding a "Progam" -- the basic architecture preset. The NS2 is really 3 keyboards -- an organ, a piano, and a synth/sample-player. Each program can have all 3 sound sources playing at once (split/layered). And there are two "Slots" per program, each containing unique instances of those 3 sound sources. It takes a bit to wrap your head around it. But it's really simple, where the mind may be looking for complexity.

 

The synth section is NOT really deep. That's the beauty of it. It's certainly powerful, but you don't need menus to discover those powers!

 

Also, sign up over at the Nord forums. Lots of helpful folks there.

 

Lastly, surf the presets. Because there are so many controls and lights it's easy to see how Programs are constructed.

 

Congratulations!

[Lord_Nord]

The biggest thing for me was understanding a "Progam" -- the basic architecture preset. The NS2 is really 3 keyboards -- an organ, a piano, and a synth/sample-player. Each program can have all 3 sound sources playing at once (split/layered). And there are two "Slots" per program, each containing unique instances of those 3 sound sources. It takes a bit to wrap your head around it. But it's really simple, where the mind may be looking for complexity.

 

Thanks Kelp! So with all of those Program / slot options, what do you find the best/seamless way to switch presets in the middle of a song or between songs on a gig?

[Lord_Nord]

Also, can someone explain what exactly the External section is useful for?

[AnotherScott]

So with all of those Program / slot options, what do you find the best/seamless way to switch presets in the middle of a song or between songs on a gig?

The most seamless way is to switch between your Slot A sound and your Slot B sound. But that only works for switching between two sounds, and then only if you don't need Slot A and Slot B layered in the first place.

 

Other than that, my approach to patch layout is a little unconventional, I think.

 

I try to avoid having to use the "page" button in live performance. So the way I do it, you can easily get to any of 20 patches (25 if you count the Live locations) with no more than two button presses, and the same button sequence will always call up the same patch (which is why I'd try to avoid needing to use the "page" buttons). These 20 patches would be accessed as A1 through A5, B1 through B5, C1 through C5, and D1 through D5. (And, again, each patch can actually have both a Slot A sound and a Slot B sound.) You don't have to use 1 through 5, you can pick some other location... my point is just that this approach gives you fast, consistent access to 20 patches (plus "Live").

 

It is still possible to use the Page button, you could "page up" to get to a different set of 20 patches. (And for that matter, you can create numerous additional sets of 20 that way if you need them.) And I think that's great if you need different sets of 20 patches for different sets (or different gigs), but I think it's a little awkward to page if you need quick access to more than 20 in a set, as there would be a bit of jumping around with extra button presses if you need to go back and forth between sounds in the first set of 20 and the second set of 20, and moreover, the distraction of kind of having to keep track of which set of 20 you're in. But for up to 20 sounds at a time, I think this kind of organization would work well. Other people may have some different patch selection strategies to suggest, but that's the best I came up with for live use.

 

EDIT: Also, if you are using it as part of a 2-board rig, and your other board is a flexible MIDI controller, you can also change Nord patches from your other board. I found the Korg M50 to be really good for that, since you could create screens full of named buttons that could call up Nord presets, or (more commonly) create single-button touchscreen presets on the Korg that would simultaneously call up a patch on the Korg and a different patch on the Nord.

 

[AnotherScott]

Also, can someone explain what exactly the External section is useful for?

Internally, each Slot can trigger up to 3 sounds, split or layered across the keyboard (one organ sound, one piano sound, and one sample/synth sound). The primary function of EXT is to provide access to a fourth sound (to split with, layer with, or substitute for internal sounds), where that extra sound will originate in some EXTernal source (another keyboard, a sound module, a laptop, an iPad).

[ITGITC]

Nord Stage 2 on the way! What do first?

 

Decide if you'll keep the box...

 

and where you are going to store it.

 

I'm still working on that one!

 

Tom

 

 

[Lord_Nord]

Cool! So do you think the NE2 (semiweighted) might function well as a controller for organ or synth (coming from the NS2)?

[kelp]

I tend to think of Slot B as my second sound option within a song IF a split doesn't make sense or is too limiting.

 

For instance, if I want a piano in verses and choruses but an organ in the bridge I'll put the piano in Slot A and the organ in Slot B. One button press lets me switch seamlessly between the two.

 

But if I normally use a piano but there's a little synth line to play every now and then I'll set that up in Slot A and use a split.

 

If you stick with bread and butter piano and organ stuff it works great. If you tend to layer synths or use synths AND samples (which BOTH use the synth section) it can get a little trickier.

 

The concept to tackle is how to best use those 6 sound sources in a split, layer or switch situation *for each song*. If those constraints allow you to use one Program per song then things get real easy and you can worry about set list organization at the Program level using whatever organizational technique makes sense (AnotherScott's definitely makes sense).

[Tobias Åslund]

Question for you NS2 users. I'm not fully accustomed to the Nord Stage user interface (I have a Nord Electro 2), so I'm wondering what I should do first to break in the NS2.

Just sit down and play it for 3-5 hrs, turn every knob, push every button - almost every parameter is laid out on the front, not much at all hidden in the menus. I think, soundwise the only hidden parameters are rotary speed and acceleration, synth vibrato rate, but that's about it, IIRC. Then the next day - play it for another 7-8 hrs... and then the third day... I think you get the idea...

[Dave Ferris]

.

[Tonysounds]

Put your pants on.

[Karl Sutton]

how's the action on the NS2 76? I fell in love with the original NS88 & then ordered a NS76 & it didn't seem to have the same action at all. Very heavy & slow. Is the NS2 76 the same action as the NS2 88?

[Moon Zero Two]

first install the Nord sound manager and connect the Stage to your PC and grab some of the pianos in XL format and the sparkle top Rhodes. Enjoy!

[Michael Wright]

First, you must stroke it lovingly as you remove its wrappers, all the while speaking to it in a soft voice, "Oh baby, oh baby, I love you more than my clavinet."

 

Then you must give it a girl's name.

 

[Outkaster]

Run for your life.