GAS -- I got an Electro

[Rick K.]

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!

[daBowsa]

[Rick K.]

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?

[daBowsa]

There's a standard black turny fuse cover.

[SilverDragonSoun]

Rick, awesome experience and congrats to you!!! We all get GAS here but its not too often we get to do something about it.

[Rick K.]

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?

[Botch.]

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.

[Rick K.]

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?

[Rick K.]

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?

[mate stubb]

Extra power cables can be had at Radio Shack. They are common for boom boxes, etc.

[Botch.]

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.

[eric]

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!!!!!

[DanL]

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!

[Jazz+]

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.

[rainbird]

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?

[rainbird]

...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?

[Rick K.]

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

[eric]

Rick, I am glad you found my patch management advice. I searched and could not find it via Blackberry.

[rainbird]

Well, I'm glad it wasn't just *me* if even

Eric couldn't find it. Thank you both!!!

[ITGITC]

eric,

 

you da man

[Moonglow]

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!

[Trill]

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.