Nord User Forum

[pablomastodon]

When I first heard about people talking editors with the Nord Lead Synths, my first reaction was always good lord, there's already a ton of knobs on the synth. We are not working with a Korg M1 or something.

Now as I progress with programming and understanding the Nord better, I find myself craving a Nord Lead editor for one big reason. Whenever I use the Mutator function I find I can't visually see how the patch was altered. On my Nord Lead 3 I can see everything with the knob indicators however there is no mutator function of course. It would be fantastic to see a Nord Lead 4 / A1 editor someday that would allow a dump of the current mutated patch so that one could get a quick overview of the new parameters.

I find that mutator function is simply brilliant and I get so many new "very useful" patches. I just would like to know better what parameters were tweaked. Perhaps I could make something with MidiDesigner on the iPad or something. I'll look into that.

I think this is why a couple of 3rd party editors were released for the Nord Lead 1/2/2x if correct.

[Ricoche]

Perhaps posted before, but it appears someone has already programmed a layout for the Nord Lead 4 with Midi Designer. I'm going to check it out.

http://mididesigner.com/qa/3703/layout- ... ord-lead-4

[Tnee Dyer]

Perhaps posted before, but it appears someone has already programmed a layout for the Nord Lead 4 with Midi Designer. I'm going to check it out.

http://mididesigner.com/qa/3703/layout- ... ord-lead-4

Wow that's really cool! Don't suppose someone has gone to the trouble to do that for the A1?

[Chimera]

I just wanted to add a bit more detail to this thread so guys can reference how to get a software editor up and running for the NL 4 and any other synth too.

The above link is effectively an iPad Midi template that works within an iPad app called Midi Designer Pro. MDP is a (non script) app that allows a user to easily create a GUI interface for any device that uses Midi. MDP currently costs £11 GBP via Apple's App Store. Once you have bought the app then clicking the link above loads up the NL4 template onto an iPad.

If you are running your NL4 USB into a Mac then the O/S natively runs software that will patch the NL4 USB through to the iPad. You then have control of the NL4 through an iPad connected via your WIFI.

If you have your NL4 USB plugged into a PC then Windows doesn't run the software to create a virtual Midi port natively. Fortunately a great guy, Thobias Erichsen, has written a freely available piece of software, rtpMidi, that runs from startup and does this job. Once the software is installed and set up then your iPad can see the virtual midi port on the PC and again you are up and running with a GUI on your iPad that controls your NL4 settings via WIFI midi.

I've only had the app set up a short while so don't know it inside out. I am hoping there is a way of automating this. At present if I change patch on the NL4 then the MDP shows a patch number change and any movement of the NL4 knobs but to reflect the change of all parameters you need to enter the NL4 midi setup, scroll to 6 and execute a CC send. The iPad then shows all the current NL4 settings.

Link for rtpMidi download http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/rtpmidi.html

Link for Midi Designer http://mididesigner.com/home/features/

There is also another app called Lemur that does a similar job by a company called Liine. It is a little more expensive but also works on Android which is a bonus if you don't have an iPad.