Nord User Forum

[Execbat]

Greetings,
I am planning to buy my first Nord Synth, I recently had a marvellous experience playing one at a local shop. I will be using the Lead 4 in a band setup where instruments (drum machines, guitar delay etc) are synchronized with midi clock via standard 5-p midi cables. It is most important, that my synth can sync arpeggiator and lfo to the clock and beat when manually playing the instrument (no sequencing via midi). I read the manual where everything looks good so far (external sync on/off, keysync hard, soft, off).

I came across this thread in this forum where several users claim to have issues syncing their instrument:
nord-lead-rack-forum-f12/i-cannot-get-the-arp-or-lfo-to-midi-sync-t7338.html

This is a bit difficult for me to try out in the shop; (along with update to 1.30 in the shop, etc)

Now my question; Does the NL4 lfo and arp sync properly to midi clock?
Details: Does the keysync on(hard) work while externally synced? Does the external clock "overrule" keysync on the next downbeat? Does the keysync option make a difference when externally synced? [I don't mind if it doesn't, just want to know how it works, all synths behave a little different with these things, but it's important] Do you hear a note sound if you play between beats? Does it soft snap with next downbeat?
(I would be testing that with ramp-down lfo)

Regarding patterns; I'm aware that the NL can't know where my 1, 2, 3, etc is. Is the clock start/stop of any importance here? I guess not. Does the pattern start with (next beat after) keydown, does it reset under which circumstances? After a key-off? Never? (running in the background) until clock stop/start? Does it start in the "middle" of a pattern, under which circumstances?

The keysync thing isn't crucial to me, as long as there is a setting where the lfo phase is synced to the clock no matter what played. It should be possible to reliably start a pattern/arp on keydown / next clock downbeat.

Sorry about all the questions; you don't have to answer them all. I just want to get info on how things exactly work here from someone who has used external sync. There are many synths which always and only keysync and reset (but not snap) to avoid issues, that's the safer way of implementing it, but it requires the player to play 100% in time, and is essentially just a bpm-match, but no sync.

Thank you very much!

[Execbat]

Could any owner of a NL4 clarify whether midi clock sync works flawlessly in time or not?

[pablomastodon]

works great for me...using KBS allows the player to trigger the downbeat upon note press (which you may want in some situations and not in others)

Bless,

Pablo

[Execbat]

Many Thanks! So, without KBS you are always firmly locked to external midi clock?; (and with KBS, can you hold your "shifted" "off-beat" as long as keys are held, or does it snap back to external clock on next external beat?)