Nord User Forum

[4dubs]

Recently took on sub work with a touring tribute band. Most of the shows I need to play are local, so I am able to bring my own SW73. However, I have one next week that requires air travel. The band's rider will provide me with my choice of a Stage 2 HA88 or Electro 2 SW73. My preference is for the unweighted/organ action, but I am debating whether to bring a motif rack and use the Electro as a controller or preferably try to get my sound set into the HA88. Forgive my ignorance, but I am assuming I would need to bring along a laptop with all appropriate files and load at site. There isn't a utility to simply store everything on a USB drive and dump program data and all required samples to the rental instrument, is there?

[maxpiano]

Hi 4dubs, unfortunately I have to confirm that your first assumption is right, you need to use the Nord Sound Manager to make a full Backup of your NS2 and then Restore it on the one you will use on stage, so you need a PC/Laptop to run NSM.

There is no alternative; of course you can save the backup on a USB drive/memory and carry it with you, but you will still need a PC at the "target site" to run NSM to restore it.

[ericL]

A laptop is needed, with Nord Sound Manager to save and load your NS2 data. I highly recommend that you organize and save your NS2 data as a Bundle including just the gig sounds you need and then download the Bundle into the rental instrument vs. doing an entire backup and restore. The Bundle approach will be WAY more efficient. Good luck!

[maxpiano]

A laptop is needed, with Nord Sound Manager to save and load your NS2 data. I highly recommend that you organize and save your NS2 data as a Bundle including just the gig sounds you need and then download the Bundle into the rental instrument vs. doing an entire backup and restore. The Bundle approach will be WAY more efficient. Good luck!

Using Bundles may be faster, but the problem is that with the Bundle you don't save the Global settings of your NS2 (and if I remember well, neither the Programs location in memory), which instead with a Backup you do and that makes it more complete to handle this type of situations, imho.

[ericL]

Good point on the global settings. Perhaps the backup is the best route, though dependent upon how complex and vast the user's Program list is and also if he has a lot changes in the global settings.

What I've done with good success between different NS2 instruments is to isolate all of my Programs to a single bank such as D. Then upload that Bank as a bundle. On the target instrument, delete all the programs in Bank D and download the bundle into D. They will all show up in the same sequence as they were originally saved.

[pablomastodon]

Bundle will definitely save time, both on the creation end and on the insertion into backline unit end. EricL's idea about segregating to a single bank is a good one. How many programs are we talking about here? If 20 or 30, bundle; if 100, backup.

Global Menu settings ARE NOT included in backup files on original Nord Stage or Stage EX. I do not believe that they are included in NS2/NS2EX either, but am not 100% sure and haven't time to check that until tomorrow. Better safe than sorry. Jot down your System and Midi Menu settings to be safe. I'll give this a test to confirm...

Bless, Pablo

[4dubs]

Thanks all for the responses. Yes, I suspected that a laptop with the Nord editing software would be required. Unfortunately, one of my kids trashed our spare laptop, so looks like I'll be using a borrowed Motif rack for this gig. On the plus side, I opted to have them put an electro 2 on the rider, so I'll at least get the organ style action that I prefer and can still use the electro for organ, e. piano, and clav sounds that I will need.

[pablomastodon]

note that the computing demands on running Nord Sound Manager are not large. You can probably pick up an old "beater" laptop for around $100 which will handle these chores...even notepad will do.

[4dubs]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm intending to do. Just don't have time prior to this gig. Thanks!

[pablomastodon]

Hi 4dubs

I had this exact situation last weekend. I have a Stage2 SW73 at home and the back line at a gig overseas was a Stage 2 HA88.
I know you're now using the motif rack but for anyone reading this for reference -
I took a laptop with a full backup and a bundle of 25 sounds/samples for the show.
A full backup would take about an hour to download/restore which I didn't have time for.
The bundle option takes about 10 minutes.
Now, VERY IMPORTANT - (and a huge thank you to the people on this board for this one!!! )
I took the latest firmware as well.
I tried downloading my bundle into the hired HA88 and it got to 99% or whatever and stayed there. It wouldn't complete.
I turned the nord off and on and when I went to select the sounds from my bundle it was either blank or said incompatible.
So, I updated the firmware and then the bundle went down fine. I would have been stuffed if I hadn't taken the firmware!!!

As has been mentioned though, your global (MIDI) settings don't carry. This would be a very, very handy feature to implement as a backup option into the next version of sound manager.
So I had to experiment with the MIDI settings as the HA88 needed to trigger program changes and sometimes sounds from the NS EX that I took with me.
I couldn't remember off-hand how I'd set up my nord stage 2 back at home.

At the end of the day it worked great, but having your files as a bundle, knowing your MIDI settings (if needed) and having the firmware is a must

Cheers
Kim