Rick K. Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 I happened to stop by GC last night. I had a few hours to myself and decided to kick around a bit on a few new boards, so I went to the closest music store by my office which is a GC. This is the first friday in months that I have not had a gig. I asked Andrew, my favorite fellow gear nerd, for a pair of headphones and went into the key lair. Behold, a red creature looming quietly in the far corner near the PKs, and across from the Triton Extremes and Motif ES's. I thought I'd spend some time with this little red head. An hour and a half later, I realize that I missed 4 phone calls, had 2 voice mails, and needed to move on towards home. I really enjoyed the experience. Andrew (the last cool gear nerd at GC), was collecting from me the headphones which were pretty warm from being on my head for an hour and a half was smiling. He so knew he had me. Proceded to tell me that it's my lucky day! GC was open til midnight and had 20% off on almost everything in the store. He showed me their cost, and then showed me what I would pay for one. Holy buckets, Batman... 10 minutes later, I'm driving away with a brand new Electro in my trunk. I couldn't be happier. Just thought I'd share this experience. Now I just gotta figure out how to make this thing work and get it ready for the next gig run starting in two weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daBowsa Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick K. Posted July 1, 2006 Author Share Posted July 1, 2006 Question.... When I purchased this, Andrew told me they had to rob the fuse from this Electro to use for a traveling group that blew theirs. I had him just give me the fuse and told him that I'd put it in there. (Needed to get out of the store before I talked myself out of spending money. I'm so cheap!) Anyway, getting home and unpacking this board, I noticed that there is a hole back there, but I don't see any type of cover to hold it in. Am I correct that there is a cover of some sorts, or does this fuse somehow click in if you push it in far enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daBowsa Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 There's a standard black turny fuse cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverDragonSoun Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Rick, awesome experience and congrats to you!!! We all get GAS here but its not too often we get to do something about it. Begin the day with a friendly voice A companion, unobtrusive - Rush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick K. Posted July 1, 2006 Author Share Posted July 1, 2006 I'm going to have to go get one of those covers... Thinking about this, I have a few choices for my stage rig: 1. Electro 2 73 over a Roland RD700SX 2. Korg Triton Pro over a Yamaha Motif ES8 3. Electro over the Motif 4. Triton over the RD I've gigged primarily with #4 and am quite pleased with the RD for stage work, so I'm leaning towards #1. I do have the this and next weekend off. I'm really hoping to have the Electro set up so I can quickly change patches, etc. Any advice from those gigging with one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botch. Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Congrats, Rick! I did the same thing, happened to stumble into the SLC Guitar Center and they had an Electro they just got in used. IIRC this is your first Nord, yes? You'll find that setting up patches and storing them couldn't be easier, you won't have any trouble getting it set up by next week. Again, congrats! You'll love the beast. Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will www.puddlestone.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick K. Posted July 1, 2006 Author Share Posted July 1, 2006 Hey Botch!! Yep, it's my very first Nord. Hey..did you upgrade to the OS 3? I've read some goods and bads about it. I'm not sure if that's something I should do at first. Did you find a significant improvement if you did install it? Next, Eric had a nifty way of storing his patches in his Electro I remember reading about a year or maybe two ago. I did a search, but came up with nothing. What's your preferred way of "stacking" your presets? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick K. Posted July 1, 2006 Author Share Posted July 1, 2006 Oh... also... The power cable is pretty light and looks to be of design that's not typical. Have you had any failures with it? Do you have an extra? If so, where can I get one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Extra power cables can be had at Radio Shack. They are common for boom boxes, etc. Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botch. Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Rick, no I haven't upgraded to 3.0. My MIDI system on my old Mac G3 is all horked up, and I can't see fixing it with a MacIntel machine in my near future. I don't remember Eric's method of "stacking" presets, I'm sure he'll chime in here soon, I'll be interested in reading that also. I basically just have one preset for a clav setup I like, one for Rhodes, one for Wurlie, and the remaining 5 presets in Bank 1 are B-3 variations that I like; I don't even use the other seven banks. I never have an unmodified patch by the end of the song, I'm constantly playing the drawbuttons every time I use it. Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will www.puddlestone.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Congrats on the new gear! I'm on the road, so using the Blackberry - cannot do a search very easily, but if you want my patch tips. Search "Electro patch management" under my user number and you should find it. Also, the power cords are rock solid. Radio Shack does have backups. I have several. I updated to v3.0. It is good if you use the internal Leslie sim, because of selectable Leslie ramp up/down times. You can also load in the newer pianos (which I don't use anyways). I still am inspired by my Electro and have been using one for nearly 4 years. Enjoy!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanL Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Congrats on your purchase from another long time Electro user! My live rig is the Electro on top of an S90ES, and I'm real happy with this combo. Wait til you get that baby out at a gig, thats where it really shines! Live: Nord Stage 3 Compact, Nord Wave 2, Viscount Legend Toys: Korg Kronos 2 88, Roland Fantom 08, Nord Lead A1,Roland FA08, Novation Ultranova, Moog LP www.echoesrocks.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz+ Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 1. Electro 2 73 over a Roland RD700SX I vote for set up #1, plus the SRX-12 Rhodes card in the RD-700SX. Electro for organ and Clav, RD-700SX for Piano and Rhodes. Harry was the technical editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book." Find 850 of Harry's solo piano arrangements of standards and jazz tutorials at https://www.patreon.com/HarryLikas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainbird Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 Er...so I just did a quick search on Electro Patch Management, Stacking Electro Patches, and a number of other initially promising variants. Both under Eric's number, and without. Zip. I'm sure the info is in the archives somewhere... now, where did I put that can opener? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainbird Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 ...and how did I become a Senior Member all of a sudden with THIRTY-FOUR whopping posts over the space of more than a year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick K. Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 I found it. Here's an exerpt. Thank you again for your expertise! There are 8 live buttons (2 rows of 4) for patches and 6 banks to rotate through, each with 8 patchs (8 buttons x 6 banks = 48 sounds A1-F8). In order to keep my life simple, I have arranged things so that each button has the same general "type" of sound for each letter, with changes in FX and drawbar settings. I use the top 4 buttons for non-organ sounds and the bottom 4 buttons exclusively for organs. I have familiar sounds saved across these buttons in each bank, so when I rotate to a new bank, the familiar sounds are still one button away. Here is what my basic landscape is: A1: Rhodes 2 w/tremolo & chorus2 (a very good staple stage EP with a hard tine sound) A2: Rhodes 1 w/tremolo, chorus, EQ tweaks (a more mellow, bell-like sound) A3: Wurly with slight distortion A4: Phased clavinet A5: 888000008 straight up, no chorus, perc or drive A6: 888000000 w/3rd perc, C3 chorus (lower split set for 808000003) A7: 888765567 w/C3 chorus A8: 808000005 straight B1: Same as A1, but with overdrive B2: Same as A2, but switched to Rhodes 4 sample B3: Same as A3, but with more tremolo and overdrive B4: Wah clavinet B5: Same as A5, add C3 chorus and overdrive B6: Same as A6 (I have A6, B6, C6, D6, E6, F6 all set the same as this is a frequently used staple) B7: Same as A7 w/overdrive B8: Same as A8 with C3 chorus This pattern repeats itself for the A-F banks. Basically, the same type of sound appears in the same place, with different types of FX. I have the #6 sound (888000000 w/3rd perc, C3 chorus) saved the same, since it is a "go to" sound if I am needing to rip a solo or whatever. By the time I have scrolled up to the #8 sounds, I have some pretty wacked out FX and really oddball sounds...try 888888888 with phaser -- killer sound. Also, 588000000 with ring mod sounds like a freakin' vocoder when tweaked properly. I do have some acoustic piano sounds buried further down, but don't use them much -- that's why they are buried. For the most part, I float between banks A-B-C-D, seeking changes in clav wah or more overdrive, etc. One of my favorites is a heavily overdriven clav with auto wah, chorus and EQ tweaks. Instant funk machine. As for the "user preset" buttons that are accessed by a combination of pushing the shift key and the buttons below the LEDs...I do have these set up with my favorite sounds in order of priority, but I really use patch changes more than the user preset feature. It can be a one handed ordeal, but I can only reach the first 3 or 4 buttons while playing, so I have my most common sounds there. Like another user commented, the necessity of pushing two buttons to switch user presets is really a hassle. I would like to request that Clavia provide us with a "shift lock" feature, much like the Num Lock and Caps Lock on PCs. If I could have that shift button enabled all the time (as applies to user presets, not the other menus buried under the patch buttons), this would make life MUCH easier for using user presets. I did have fun at one gig taking a solo and hitting the "random" preset throughout...very experimental. This is a neat feature. Overall, I have grown very attached to my Electro. The Electro is quite an amazing instrument, especially in stereo. I hope that my patch management advice is helpful. I find that it is very nice to have the same sounds available under the same button in each bank and using the bottom 4 buttons exclusively for organ is great. Another tip is to set up ALL the FX in a way you might like to hear them (even if you don't have it turned on) and then all it takes is one push of the FX button to get a new FX that rocks. For example, my A1 patch is Rhodes 4 with a touch of overdrive. I use this patch quite a bit. I have the proper levels of chorus and tremolo programmed in (along with EQ) and so all I need to do is just push the FX buttons to enable these FX and not worry about a random and unexpected ring mod FX hiding there. Hopefully this makes sense! The Electro is a refreshingly intuitive and musical instrument with tons of power right there on the front panel - it takes a little bit of time to learn how to unleash all the power, but it is worth it. Regards, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 Rick, I am glad you found my patch management advice. I searched and could not find it via Blackberry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainbird Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 Well, I'm glad it wasn't just *me* if even Eric couldn't find it. Thank you both!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITGITC Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 eric, you da man "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglow Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Congratulations! I was in Sweetwater Sound last week and demoed a Nord Stage, 76-key version (or is it 73?) and felt that tingling of the credit card in my pocket. I was fully expecting the lack of a decent piano sound to easily sway my decision to not get one.....but I ended up really liking the piano.....it's rather charming! Additionally, I have been "good" when it come to GAS management lately....it's been about a year since my last major purchase so I was "in the clear" in terms of not receiving too much grief from my wife. So all of the ground work was in place......I still don't know how I walked out of that store without a Stage! Bottom line: Enjoy your Electro....play the shit out of it! "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trill Posted July 9, 2006 Share Posted July 9, 2006 Me Too I decided I would get the Electro 73 today After listening to a guy yesterday have church on one after I got up at Sam Ash. I decided it sounded pretty darn good So I decided to go get one today at GC,(Sam was out) Now I can work on those organ and clav licks, I got the wurly and rhodes covered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.