Recording 5D to a DAW

[Lee Batchelor]

I'll bet most of you turned off your 'puters when you saw this topic !

I'm using Sonar Home Studio 7, a USB cable for MIDI, and my 5D. I have tons of computing power. The only weak link is Bill Gates, but so far he's keeping his distance. He knows not to mess with me!

I've managed to record two or three individual piano tracks all assigned as Input = Nord 5D Channel 1, Output Nord Electro 5 MIDI. I want to record a piano on Track 1 (done), B3 on Track 2, perhaps a synth sound an Track 3, and so on. Can someone walk me through the 5D setup for this?

Do you really want to hear my comments about the Nord manual? I didn't think so. I'm sure when they sat down to write it, the opening statement was, "Let's put a crappy manual together that will just p*** people off." They succeeded. Thanks, Nord.

- Lee

[Arjan P]

AFAIK, the Electro in all versions is mono-timbral, so you'd have to record the audio coming from it to a separate track. So play back the Piano MIDI tracks, record this audio on Audio track 1 (or to several audio tracks), then mute the piano MIDI tracks and move to a new B3 MIDI track. Select the B3 sound you want, leave your Nord input and output settings as they are and record the MIDI performance. When satisfied, create Audio track 2 and record the B3 MIDI playback on it. Same for any following Nord sounds.

Keeping the MIDI tracks (or recording them in the first place) will give you flexibility later on, if you decide you want a different piano or B3 sound.

[Lee Batchelor]

Wow, I never thought of that, Arjan. What a simple solution! I'm so used to recording on multi-timbral keyboards. In essence, we're making the 5D multi-timbral inside the DAW.
Thanks for the help!!

[Arjan P]

You're welcome, have fun recording!

[Lee Batchelor]

Actually Arjan, you can record duel-timbral (if such a thing exists ). I discovered you can record the Lower and Upper parts on separate tracks and play them back together. So, at least you can record two zones. I assume you can record more zones on the Stage 2 EX, assuming you can split it into several zones.

[Arjan P]

Ah, that makes sense indeed. Though you'll have two mono tracks then, I assume - which can be perfectly fine ofcourse.