Nord User Forum

[Blazerunner]

Hello,

New Nord user here just trying to get adjusted to the Keyboard. I've played with it out the box and can't ignore the library disk or the giant sticker telling me to download new sounds from their website. So I try to do just that...and "There's no space"? Only 34MB's free? The sample files are like 130+MB's for a Piano. So I'm a bit confused here do I have to delete the current samples on the Keyboard every time I want to load in a different sound? Some of the sounds are attached to programs too so I'm guessing changing them will also change the sounds of the programs. Never new about the XL,L,SM files stuff but I don't care much for the idea of downgrading sounds just to squeeze them on there but they'd still be too big a file to fit in any trim. If I want to get the Chris Maen Piano I have to boot the Italy Grand but there's also some nice DX7 piano's but there's not enough space for them either? Is the work flow of the Nord to always have to sacrifice your sounds and reprogram the Keyboard every time?

[harmonizer]

I'll start with some background information: First item: there are separate storage banks for piano sounds and "samples". The files for Nord piano sounds have file names which end with ".npno", while sample files (created either by Nord or by Nord Users) have file names which end in ".nsmp". There is also a new sample file format which so far is only supported by the Nord Stage 3. Second item: Your Electro 5 has 1GB of piano memory space, but probably comes with a whole bunch of piano sounds already preloaded. You can try them out, pick some that you like the least, and delete those from your piano bank storage to free up some space. It's a good thing that Nord provides enough different piano sounds so that all combined they do not fit within 1GB of piano memory space.

[cphollis]

Welcome to the land of Nord. Lots of friendly people here to help you around.

As far as piano memory, yes, it's a limiting factor so choices will be eventually need to be made. So many piano samples, so little time ...

If you play in a studio, you'll gravitate towards the L and XL samples. If you play live with an electric band, the S samples are more than enough.

Trust me, no one will hear the difference over the guitarists, drummers, base, etc. You'll be lucky to hear yourself!

My Nord Piano 2 has 500 MB of piano memory, which can fit quite a number of piano sounds for live gigs if you still to the small sample size and choose judiciously.

If I were you, I'd play with the stock piano samples for a while, see if they suit you, and go from there. My first few Nords I approached with incrementalism, e.g. not changing anything unless there was a good reason to do so.

The other sound sample memory seems more than adequate for boatloads of sounds. So many of the samples are similar to each other that it's not hard to find the space you need.

Now that I've been doing this for a while, I scrap all the factory patches on my new boards, and go for what I know I'll need. Burns a lot of time, though.

I believe the Nord Sound Manager allows you to replace sounds without breaking presets, e.g. if you find a trumpet sound you like better. If you start deleting samples, then yeah stuff may break, but it's pretty easy to put back together again.

Best of luck!

[Blazerunner]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Just getting the hang of the board. So save the stock setup and add in and kick what I don't want and make a backup of that too?

[cphollis]

You can always download the entire stock setup if you need to. No need to save it.

I can't imagine me ever wanting to do that, but it's there if you need it?

Have fun. There's no way you can wreck your board, unless you really work hard at it.

[Blazerunner]

Thanks, I got the piano's I wanted all loaded up. It's the Library 2.0 Sounds I'm having trouble with. I admit one of the key reasons I purchased a Nord was for the Mellotron sounds and they certainly do deliver with their huge collection. Problem is the 1MB of free space in the "Samples Bank" ... any advice? I wish I had gotten the Stage 3 just for double the space you get. Only thing I can think of is to delete all the preloaded Samples and then make the sample bank all Mellotron stuff. Then I'd have to reload the back ups for when I wanted Mellotrons or the regular stuff back. That sound about right.?

[harmonizer]

Which Nord keyboard product did you buy?

[Mr_-G-]

If you have 1MB free, then you can only upload files up to that size (or perhaps a bit less). Otherwise you need to delete some of the existing samples that you do not use in your instrument to make space for new ones.

[OrpheusNY]

I don't know what kind of keyboards you're coming to Nord from, but there's definitely a mental adjustment if your previous boards were ROMpler/preset oriented. Nords are designed for you to be able to customize them to your liking without taking a college course in synth programming.

Some of the presets that come with the board are useful/interesting, but it wouldn't be at all unusual for a typical Nord user to chuck 90% of them. Ditto the installed nsmp and piano libraries. THere's way more available than can fit in at one time, but if you think about it it's likely that you can cover the samples you use all the time with room to spare. Even the Mellotron library has stuff you'll likely decide that while interesting, you won't use much.

My first and only Nord is an Electro 5 I purchased a couple years ago. Maybe 10-20% of the piano and nsmps that came preinstalled are still in there. Most of my programs are ones I made from scratch too. Learning how to do that, being able to do it on the fly, and being able to completely customize the nsmp library on my keyboard are to me the greatest strengths of the instrument. Don't be afraid to embrace that, and if you really need the factory stuff, it's always siting there for you on Nord's website.

[anotherscott]

Is the work flow of the Nord to always have to sacrifice your sounds and reprogram the Keyboard every time?

Not really. The idea is that (unlike most other keyboards), the entire sound set is replaceable. The sound set they ship with is essentially a nice "sampler" (in the Whitman's Chocolates sense) of what the board can do. The odds that the factory set aligns perfectly with anyone's exact needs are remote. Ideally, you customize it, taking out samples you'd be unlikely to use, replacing with ones you'd find more useful. And then you leave it that way, with occasional tweaks for new projects or new sounds that have become available. But for most people, there should be no need to routinely load in entirely different sound sets. You find "your" combination, and then largely leave it in place.

Alternatively, Nord could have decided to include only half as many samples out of the box, leaving plenty of empty space for you to add your samples of choice. But since the space is all erasable/reusable anyway, there's no real downside to the fact that they filled it up, and it does give new users a wider palette to choose from even before they "graduate" to understanding how to swap sounds in and out.

Only thing I can think of is to delete all the preloaded Samples and then make the sample bank all Mellotron stuff. Then I'd have to reload the back ups for when I wanted Mellotrons or the regular stuff back. That sound about right.?

You have an Electro 5, right? First, I'd go through the samples that are already in the board, and make note of ones you'd like to keep. You can start by stepping through the factory Programs and see which ones you like and, if they happen to include synth samples, put those samples on your "keep" list (download the file at download/file.php?id=7268 to make it easier, you can just circle all the keepers). Then you can also turn on just the synth section and use the Sample Synth "List View" to separately audition all 160 samples that are loaded (not all of which are necessarily used in factory programs) and see if there are any others that you really like. Then go into the Sound Manager and delete all the samples that didn't end up on your "keep" list. You might find you have enough empty space to add the mellotrons you want.