Nord User Forum

[mtier0067]

I received my stage 3 sw yesterday. It is a beautiful piece of engineering and is gorgeous in just about every way. I always told myself that I would upgrade from the Stage 2 if they added drawbars that would always be live controlled so you didn't have jumps (They did) and if they redid the synth section (They did). So I thought all was going to be perfect... Until I started looking deeper into the midi receive menu while setting it up with my weighted controller board. Long story short, I may have to send it back if they cannot solve the following issue with a software update. How did they devolve the flexibility of the instrument/panel based midi receive options from the Stage 2?! They took away all of that flexibility and now there is only Global, Panel A, Panel A, and Dual KB which there was also on the Stage 2. The Stage 2 had each instrument, for each panel, able to accept its own midi channel. This made it extremely useful in a dual keyboard set up (without using the dual KB mode) where you want to have an active panel that has all of your settings in one panel instead of needing to flip between A/B to adjust settings. This is the best set up I've ever had (I've had a few...) and I'm so sad to not be able to have it in the stage 3.

Say we have panel A active while playing 75% of the time and panel B only to adjust things that are not necessary all the time.
-Piano Panel A, all buttons control a piano sound being triggered by an external weighted kb on midi channel 3. It is not assigned to any KB zones but is on. (It doesn't look like having it on but not assigned to a zone is an option on the S3 either...) So you can control the piano volume, velocity curve, upright, ep etc being played by the external board
-Organ Panel A, all drawbars and buttons control the organ being played from the stage's keyboard and assigned to the upper zone. (Split point at c2)
-Synth Panel A, usually off if organ is active but if on, it is controlled by the stage's keyboard and assigned to a zone.
-Extern Panel A, if using a external synth module over midi, it can be active or inactive and controlled by either the stage's keyboard or soft thru from an external midi board.

-Piano Panel B, Usually used for clavs and other piano sounds that are better played from the waterfall weighted keys of the stage instead of the weighted controller. So its assigned to a zone and active if needed.
-Organ Panel B, used as a layered sound under Piano Panel A most of the time and triggered via midi channel 4 by the weighted keyboard and volume morph controlled by the mod wheel. This allows you to still be on panel A with all of the other active instruments and settings and just bring in a organ layer under the piano on the mod wheel. Both played via the weighted board. It is usually assigned to the lower zone so I have a split manual on the stage keyboard and the lower manual drawbar settings being queued from the weighted board.
-Synth Panel B, usually used as a pad or layered synth under the piano panel A. Not assigned to a kb zone but active and midi controlled by channel 5 on the external weighted board. (There are 4 midi assignable zones on the external board)
-Extern Panel B, not used frequently, but can be set up to be unassigned and midi controlled from the external board if needed through midi channel 6.

Please god, someone tell me that I'm missing the functionality in the Stage 3 to do this! I would be so sad to send this back to the retailer but if I need to be flipping between panels to adjust the volume of my piano sound then needing to flip back to have drawbar controls over my organ, I don't know that I can justify the upgrade if it is making my live workflow harder than with my stage 2.

Thanks in advance for delving into this nerdy, but super super important issue with me.
-Mookie

[anotherscott]

I admire the creative thoughtfulness in your approach, I could see that being a great way to work. I also hope Nord brings this functionality back to the Stage.

[mtier0067]

These things should be able to be solved in firmware updates so I'm hoping that we can rally some support around these issues and get them taken care of. Like I said, this is one of the most beautifully designed boards out there and checks every single box in terms of the hardware for me. Comon! I only have 30 days to return so I'd really like to know if these issues are addressable via firmware upgrades easily (i.e. something that may actually get done in the next release) or if they are a long shot and I should stick to my Stage 2's ancient synth and led drawbars and save my hard earned money.

[mtier0067]

I hate to be a pest but... Pablo, can you get a word from Nord about if this is an issue that they a) can address via firmware upgrade and b) are willing to address easily within the next one? If the answer to either a or b is "no" I think I need to send this board back to whence it came. I cannot believe that they would do this... I should have read the manual better before purchasing, I guess I just assumed that they would not reduce the functionality, only add to it.

[themixtape]

I cannot believe more people have not posted here and agreed to this. Yes, please. It's summer 2019, now. I need 6 different midi channels for 6 different sounds. Why? Because I love step-sequencing and having a Rhodes, low organ, and two synths going at the same time (while I play live with a Nord Piano Library sound) is massively appealing to me. And I know I'm not alone. PLEASE ADDRESS THIS, Nord... and Pablo, if you have any pull... PLEASE.

[pablomastodon]

1. I don't have the least slightest teeniest tiniest "pull"
   the folks who design and build these things are pretty damned clever
   it would seem unlikely that folks this clever would intentionally "dumb down" functionality of the NS3 unless it were ABSOLUTELY necessary
   therefore I very strongly suspect that the implementation of the rest of the NS3's expanded feature set consumed a larger portion of overall resources available, forcing them to cut back in other places

The midi input routing scheme as found on the NS2 is the way things should be in a perfect world, but this is not a functionality which I have ever needed/wanted to use personally, but the similar "dumbing down" of the audio output routing scheme DID hurt me badly and continues to do so. On NS2 I could send pianos to 1/2, organs to 3 and synths to 4 and run them into independent submix channels to facilitate ease of independent level control, EQ, F/X and recording, etc. This is no longer possible and THAT KIND OF SUX!!

Plus, I miss the KBGate function.

some things in life are less than perfect...

bless, pablo

[laciferMaximus]

I cannot believe more people have not posted here and agreed to this. Yes, please. It's summer 2019, now. I need 6 different midi channels for 6 different sounds. Why? Because I love step-sequencing and having a Rhodes, low organ, and two synths going at the same time (while I play live with a Nord Piano Library sound) is massively appealing to me. And I know I'm not alone. PLEASE ADDRESS THIS, Nord... and Pablo, if you have any pull... PLEASE.

You are not alone! Been hoping for an answer to this (if it is even possible?) since i bought my NS3 November last year. I love the feel and sound of it, but it could be so much more flexible and easy to work with if it had per section channels.
I guess I have to read specs more careful before I buy gear and stop assuming functionality from older models will follow


-lacifer

[LeftyBass68]

Stage 2EX is properly implemented to use both panels while playing key bass. Instrument routing on these Stage 3 individual outputs? A complete disaster !
Where is my mono output 4 bass you clowns? For that matter the EX had a way punchier bass......
Please fix these oversights Nord. Getting us all to completely relearn a bad operating system isn't good business.
Better sounds at the expense of the OS isn't a great tradeoff. Did manage to get a discount on the '3' 88? Why? It's got the old panel Nord!
Biggest chain in Canada's buyer ain't too pleased!
The one you tried to sneak out there while your distributors twiddled their collective thumbs.....has already left the floor at the same price and I caught them doing it!
Not exactly flying off the shelves like the EX and 2/2EX did!

[AfterFuture]

I was all set to buy a new Nord Stage 3 88 key to replace my Nord Stage 2 compact, but not being able to fully use all the instruments on a separate channel is a dealbreaker for me.

Am I correct in assuming that all three instruments on Panel A can only be controlled on one midi channel now? Same for Panel B?

So the Nord Stage 3 can only have 2 separate midi channels TOTAL to control the six different instruments? That's a huge step backwards!

I have my Stage 2 compact setup for 6 midi channels. I use a sequencer to produce beats and fully utilize all 6 channels/instruments. Hopefully this is something that can be updated via O.S. updates. Otherwise, I am now looking for a used Nord Stage 2 EX 88 key I suppose.

[mpgarate]

I was hoping to use this functionality as well. It would allow for driving the nord with an MPE controller. Currently it seems it is only possible to have two midi channels with separate pitch bends/cc values at the same time (panel A, panel B). It would greatly improve playability if MPE could send more than 2 notes at a time.