Nord User Forum

[MarkT56]

Hi,

please forgive my technophobia and lack of knowledge but I would greatly appreciate any guidance on the following.

I currently have a Roland RD2000 and I have a Nord stage 3 on order. From what I have read there would seem to be a general consensus that the one weak point of Nord is the keybed action.

Can someone please explain to me in very simplistic terms how I would connect the Nord Stage 3 to my RD2000 thus enabling me to play the sounds of the Nord via my RD2000. Also, when connected and if for example I was playing a Nord Piano via My RD2000 and I wanted to add effects to the sound, would I add the effect via the Nord or the RD.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Mark

[baekgaard]

Connect the MIDI Out from the RD-2000 to the MIDI In on the NS3.

Set up the RD-2000 so that it sends out MIDI on e.g. channel 1, and set up the NS3 to receive MIDI on the same channel. I'm not familiar with the RD-2000, so I cannot help you on that account. As for the NS3, it's reasonably explained in the manual how to do -- there is a section dedicated to this in chapter 10.

The sound will come out of the NS3 outputs, and the effects are done internally in the NS3. There is probably no way you can use RD-2000 effects on any sounds generated by the NS3. When controlling the NS3 from the RD-2000, the only difference is that you trigger the notes from the RD-2000 keyboard instead of playing the internal one.

The NS3 keys are not bad. After having played it for a while (NS3 HA 88 model), I even like it better, at least for some types of sounds like EPianos, than my RD-700NX. I initially thought I would have to keep my RD-700NX for piano-heavy gigs, but I don't actually see myself lugging both boards out to anything just to control the NS3 from the RD-700NX; I haven't really found anything I could not play as easily from the NS3. The RD-2000 is probably slightly better than the RD-700NX, so it may be different for you or your style of playing.

[fREDkeys]

I currently have a Roland RD2000 and I have a Nord stage 3 on order.

Thank you for asking about this. I'm in a similar situation: I've ordered a NS3 Compact and I've got my eye on the FP-90, which I think has the same action as your board. For me the simpler digital piano with built in sound would come in handy in certain contexts, and like you, I would also like to have the option of using that keyboard action to control my NS3.

One additional question for this sort of setup: what about connected controllers like pedals? In a setup like Mark described, will a Nord Triple Pedal connected to the NS3 still be able to be used to control the NS3 sound, even as the other keyboard's keys are controlling the NS3? Can somebody please weigh in and tell Mark and me how we can expect that to work?

Mark, I hope you will report on how connecting your RD-2000 to your NS3 works out when the time comes.

Fred

[MarkT56]

Hi Fredkeys,
Nice to hear from you. I am very much lost when it comes to the technical side of connectivity and pedals etc. My understanding from the information that "baekgaard" so kindly provided is as follows. (If I have got it right)

If I want to use my RD2000 as the keyboard then I connect a single midi cable to the midi out of the Nord to the midi in on the RD2000. I set the Nord to send out Midi on, for example channel 1 and the RD2000 to receive on channel 1.
That seems to be the basis of it from my understanding.
The point that I am still not clear about is if I was playing for example a Nord Piano sample via my RD2000 and I wanted to add an effect to the sample sound i.e reverb delay etc. Do I adjust that effect on the Nord or on the Rd2000. I guess experimentation will be the only way to answer that question.
With regard to your pedal question and again my knowledge is extremely limited, but I would have thought that if you were using a FP90 then only pedals connected to the keyboard that you are actually playing would affect the sound. But again that is only an ill educated guess. I am sure somebody out there can answer that question.

Just for your information I am very much a novice and have only been learning piano a very short time. I do like my Rd2000 and I find the action very good, but again I am no authority on keyboard action. I have my Nord stage 3 88 on order and should be receiving it within the next 5 days but my only concern with Nord is that peoples general comments on them are that the Fatar keybeds are very poor. Again I will have to wait and see. I did have a Korg Kronos 2 which I have part exchanged for the Nord. The keyaction on the Kronos was very good and the sounds were also excellent but I just could not get on with the user interface which I found totally mind blowing.

Hope this helps

Mark

[baekgaard]

The point that I am still not clear about is if I was playing for example a Nord Piano sample via my RD2000 and I wanted to add an effect to the sample sound i.e reverb delay etc. Do I adjust that effect on the Nord or on the Rd2000.

You can always adjust the effects on the Nord.

I cannot rule out that uou may (additionally) be able to have the RD2000 send out special MIDI CC control messages (if you can program it to do so), so that you could use e.g. a slider to adjust some parameter of or a knob to enable/disable effects, but it's probably not so easy to do and requires transmission of specific MIDI CC messages.

With regard to your pedal question and again my knowledge is extremely limited, but I would have thought that if you were using a FP90 then only pedals connected to the keyboard that you are actually playing would affect the sound.

You can use pedals and controllers on the Nord. If you play a note on the RD2000 that transmits to the Nord and causes a sound to be heard, you can press the sustain pedal on the Nord and release the key, and it will keep sounding until you release the pedal again. If you have a sustain pedal on the RD2000, and you press that, it can be set up to transmit MIDI sustain messages -- which will also cause the Nord to sustain until you release it.

As said before: Playing the keyboards on the RD2000 can be almost idential to playing the internal keyboard of the Nord (if that's how you set it up). You can even play both keyboards at the same time (although the board gets confused if you play the same key twice; the note is released when you release a key on either board).

[anotherscott]

My understanding from the information that "baekgaard" so kindly provided is as follows. (If I have got it right)

If I want to use my RD2000 as the keyboard then I connect a single midi cable to the midi out of the Nord to the midi in on the RD2000. I set the Nord to send out Midi on, for example channel 1 and the RD2000 to receive on channel 1.

Correct. And in fact, sending and receiving on channel 1 is the default for most keyboards, so it is very possible that all you'll have to do is connect the one cable and you'll be done, no additional setting changes required.

That said, you may ultimately decide you want to alter this behavior, because this will result in the Roland's keys being an exact functional duplicate of the Nord's keys. You might instead want to, for example, play the Nord's piano sound from the RD2000 while simultaneously playing the Nord's organ sound from the Nord's own keys. In this case, the cabling is the same, but the MIDI parameters in the boards will need to be set differently.

The point that I am still not clear about is if I was playing for example a Nord Piano sample via my RD2000 and I wanted to add an effect to the sample sound i.e reverb delay etc. Do I adjust that effect on the Nord or on the Rd2000.

Nord. The controls on the Nord affect the sound coming out of the Nord. The particular set of keys you are using to trigger the sound is irrelevant.

As baekgaard pointed out, you may also be able to program the Roland so that some of its controls will let you alter those Nord parameters as well, but I think that's somewhat academic at this point, and it is not the behavior you would experience by default. Normally, the Nord sounds are manipulated from the Nord's controls, the Roland's sounds are manipulated from the Roland's controls, regardless of which keys you use to trigger each sound.

With regard to your pedal question and again my knowledge is extremely limited, but I would have thought that if you were using a FP90 then only pedals connected to the keyboard that you are actually playing would affect the sound.

This is related to the MIDI settings as well. If we use the simplest scenario that we discussed at the beginning, with a single MIDI cable and everything set for MIDI channel 1, then the "piano sound" of the Nord can "see" when the Nord's own sustain pedal is pressed AND when the Roland's sustain pedal is pressed (as that information is also being transmitted from the Roland on MIDI channel 1). So you will get the sustain function regardless of which of the two pedals you use (just like you hear the Nord's piano sound no matter which board's keys you hit). However, if you are using the RD2000 to play the Nord's piano sound while simultaneously using it to layer one of the RD2000's own internal sounds, the Roland pedal will sustain both sounds, the Nord pedal will sustain only the Nord sound.