Nord User Forum

Hey everyone!

I finally started to put together my live rack, and I need some tech help from you knowledgable folks.

I'm using two keyboards at the moment, my trusty Nord Electro 4D and a Yamaha MOXF6.

My main idea is to mix my two boards locally, sending a mono mixed signal to the house PA, and send another mono signal to my onstage monitor (either an EV ZxA1-90 or a QSC K8.2, still undecided).

My first problem is that the Yamaha MOXF6 is very quiet, it has half the max volume as my Nord (tried messing with the patches, but they quickly get distorted). What preamp should I use for it? I will need to buy a small mixer, will the preamps in it be enough to level the volume of my Yamaha?

Also, what mixer do you suggest buying for this setup? I would like a really compact one so I could transport it easily in my keyboard bags, but on the other hand I would like to send a great, low noise signal to the house PA. I'm looking at the Yamaha MG06 and Allen&Heath Zed 6, but I happily accept other suggestions.

Lastly, do I need to buy anything else besides a mixer for this setup to work? Should provide my own DI box(es)?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Why do you wnat to lose all the beauty of stereo sounds generated by your gear by sending a mono signal to the FOH (house PA)? While a mono mix can be OK for monitoring, to an extent, it can kill your sounds in the overall mix, particularly with some type of sounds (pads, any stereo chorused sound, leads with ping pong delay, ...)

Any of the mixer you have mentioned is OK but, please, in general make your overall mix in stereo (and with regards to MOXF having low output, many presets need to be tweaked as they have been store pd with low volume, if still not enough you can compensate using the gain of the related mixer channels...)

Maxpiano: Thanks for the feedback! I've already tweaked my sounds in the MOXF, but I still find the output too low. If I max every patch's volume, than the patches lose dynamic and on top of that they get distorted, so I need to adjust the volume even more.

As for stereo to the FOH:
I try to use patches that are fine sounding in mono, so it'll sound the same for everyone regardless where they stand in the room.

I use two sound sources for my live setup: An Electro 3 and a Roland synth. I mix them into a small preamp, which for me acts as a small mixer, from which I take a single output into my EV zxa1. Then I connect an XLR cable from the XLR "line out" of the zxa1, and send that single output to our mixing board.

The zxa1 does have two inputs, but one of them is reserved for the line from my wireless sax mic, so I really only have one input available for keys sounds into my zxa1.

The EV zxa1 serves as my stage monitor for all keys sound. Our covers band runs our own mixing board and PA for almost all gigs. The vocalists get sent into the stage monitors, but the drums and amplified instruments do not.

I set up all my Programs on my Nord Electro and my Roland Synth so that the master volume should never need to move, when changing from one program to another. This is a critical step and simplifying what I need to do while playing live.

You mentioned that your Yamaha has low output, but most people consider the Nords to have lower "line level" output signal than other keyboards, so many who use Nord keyboards end up deciding to insert some sort of mixer between their Nord and their keyboard amplification, just to boost the gain. So you may want to use a mixer to boost the gain for both your Yamaha and your Nord.

In terms of a mixer choice, I suggest you choose based on things like cost, reliability, type of power source (wall wart?), number of desired inputs and outputs, and so on. Since it will be processing line level signals (and not signals from microphones), I would think any reasonable product will have decent audio fidelity for your purpose. I am deliberately not mentioning which preamp/mixer I use, because I originally bought it for another purpose involving mics which did not work out, and then later re-purposed it to use as a mixer.

The question of stereo vs. mono is a big one. Most of the Nord acoustic piano sounds are biased towards stereo. I run in mono. In the bars we play in, a lot of our audience is not going to hear a stereo field, but will get most of what they hear from just one FOH speaker. Also, our band is out of lines, and the extra gear to purchase, lug, and set up is not worth it. The Royal Grand is the only one so far which satisfies me when run in mono. As a solo instrument, it sounds very nice in mono, but I am still trying to adjust its EQ to make it cut and sit right in our covers band mix. As you decide whether to go stereo or mono, I suggest you consider whether your band or someone else will control the mixing board and FOH amp settings. If your band runs its own mixing board and PA, then you can know what you will connect to. If not, you may run into a situation where whoever runs the board is only sending mono (same sound to both FOH speakers) to your audience. I will bet it is easier to find an acoustic piano sound that works in mono for a live covers band mix on your Yamaha than on your Nord Electro 4D.

GaborPivarcsi wrote:Hey everyone!

I finally started to put together my live rack, and I need some tech help from you knowledgable folks.

I'm using two keyboards at the moment, my trusty Nord Electro 4D and a Yamaha MOXF6.

My main idea is to mix my two boards locally, sending a mono mixed signal to the house PA, and send another mono signal to my onstage monitor (either an EV ZxA1-90 or a QSC K8.2, still undecided).

My first problem is that the Yamaha MOXF6 is very quiet, it has half the max volume as my Nord (tried messing with the patches, but they quickly get distorted). What preamp should I use for it? I will need to buy a small mixer, will the preamps in it be enough to level the volume of my Yamaha?

Also, what mixer do you suggest buying for this setup? I would like a really compact one so I could transport it easily in my keyboard bags, but on the other hand I would like to send a great, low noise signal to the house PA. I'm looking at the Yamaha MG06 and Allen&Heath Zed 6, but I happily accept other suggestions.

Lastly, do I need to buy anything else besides a mixer for this setup to work? Should provide my own DI box(es)?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I just bought the Mackie Mix 5 for just this purpose. Only $50. One mic channel and 2 stereo line in channels. I run my NS2 in mono to one channel and my MoXF6 (also in mono) to the other.You're right about MoXF being lower than the Nord. Cut the Nord and/or boost the Yamaha so they're about equal listening volume. You can then run the Left Master to FOH, and the Right to your stage monitor. It's very small, too, and fits on the Stage 2 quite nicely, so it's right there if I need to make slight adjustments. Hard to beat at $50!

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Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'll go for the Yamaha mixer for form factor and XLR output.