Nord User Forum

Hi everybody,

apologies if this has already been discussed before...

Had a first session with my brand new Nord lead 2X yesterday and I am confused about the functionality of the "Trig" button.
I'v checked the synth in a very basic setup (Doepfer MAQ 16/3 Sequencer -> Nord rack), both on MIDI channel 1. I created a simple sequence
for a DUB bass sound, playin' around with the knobs...I like this synth...

But while the "Trig-button" and the assigned LED worked correctly at begin of the session (one could hear the selected sound/program when hit the Trig-button, the LED flickered when receiving MIDI data) there is now no response at all - the LED just goes on and off when hit the Trig button, that's all. No sound, no flickering LED anymore when the Doepfer-sequencer is running. However, the synth plays the sequence from the Doepfer correctly anyway.

I simply can't figure out why this Trig button doesn't work anymore as described in the manual. Any ideas what's wrong here ?

Thanks

Sorry I misspelled it, I've got a Nordrack 2x actually...

Can you verify Local Control (see manual on page 66) is turned on?

As far as I know, when you press the trig button it just generates a C3 note with a fixed velocity as if you pressed the C3 on the local keyboard (which the rack version doesn't have of course). If this is really the case, then I would expect the Nord to ignore pressing the trig button when Local Control is turned off.

You say that when the trig button acts up, the Nord will still play the sequence coming from the MAQ 16/3, but the MIDI LED (on the Rack above the Trig button) does not flash anymore. That suggest there's more going on than an incorrect setting; that sounds more like a broken Nord

Some googling found this: http://electro-music.com/forum/post-375352.html

The data for the German Nord distributor on that page (soundservice.de) are still correct. You might want to give them a call.

Hi mjbrands,

thanks for your reply. I've checked it, local control is switched on. The thing is with the exception of the trig button the synth seems to work fine. From what I can see and hear up to now the knobs react as they're supposed to, you know, attack, decay, release etc...I can dial the sounds via up & down and do all the settings with the shift button, like MIDI channel and so forth...My first impression was that I might have sent some weird controller messages to the Nord by error when playing around with the Doepfer. To fix it I tried to find a kind of factory-reset function on the Nord panel but couldn't find one....do you know how to reset the Nord to the factory settings ?

And yes, I've read the post in electo-music and there's also an almost identical one in the german "Musiker-board" but as nobody replied to it I've started this one here.

Btw, I bought mine brand new from "Music-store" in Cologne (I am located over here) so I will give them a call and/or the german distributor...

Greez and thanks again,

arvin wrote:My first impression was that I might have sent some weird controller messages to the Nord by error when playing around with the Doepfer. To fix it I tried to find a kind of factory-reset function on the Nord panel but couldn't find one....do you know how to reset the Nord to the factory settings ?

There are probably some very special SysEx commands you could send to have it do maintenance-type stuff that is not documented, but the chance of accidentally running into that seems very, very small. In general you should be able to send whatever MIDI messages you want to the Nord and it should just ignore everything it doesn't understand. While I can't completely exclude this as a cause, it doesn't sound very likely to me.

You could of course have changed settings via MIDI somehow, but even in that case I think you can only change the controls directly on the panel (not settings in menus) and they are not saved; when you move to another sound, they should be discarded.

arvin wrote:And yes, I've read the post in electo-music and there's also an almost identical one in the german "Musiker-board" but as nobody replied to it I've started this one here.

Btw, I bought mine brand new from "Music-store" in Cologne (I am located over here) so I will give them a call and/or the german distributor...

Strange issue. I'd appreciate it if you could post a short update when you've got it solved.

I've been to Music-store and I thought that two floors of guitars, but only a corner with synthesizers/keyboards was wrong. The Radikal Technologies Accelerator sounded pretty interesting though.

Hi mjbrands and @ll

just want to post an update re this. Since I got a second malfunction ("Pichtbend error" was displayed while power up) I returned the Nordrack 2X to Musicstore and got a replacement unit. The guys at the store didn't seem to know much about possible root causes, however it's obvious that there's no quick fix for these kind of errors, i.e. the service needs to find a diagnosis.

Thanks again and greez

I hope this one works just perfectly

Very good to know that your dealer took good care of you and quickly. The solution to the riddle may no longer mean much to you, but thought I'd throw some light on possibilities for future reference purposes.

The tip-off for me is pitchbend error. There is no pitch bend on the rack unit. The NL2X and NR2X have different panelboards, but use the same mainboard. There are slight jumper connections (technically, they're not really jumpers, but the underlying concept is the same) on the mainboard which are scanned during the boot process so that the waking mobo can know how to correctly behave according to whether it's a rack unit or a keyed unit.

The second clue is that apparently the trig button worked for you initially. While it might be theoretically possible for an incorrectly configured mobo to be installed during assembly, the trig button would never have worked -- there is no trig button on the keyed version. Therefore I think it is safe to assume that a correctly configured mobo was installed into the instrument in Stockholm on the day she was born.

All of which leads me to suspect that a solder joint at the point of one of the two "jumpers" has failed (or a jumper itself), tricking the unit into thinking that it's got 49 keys. A tech with a hot soldering iron on her or his bench could almost certainly have this fixed in ~15 minutes.

Hopefully the specific details of your fault symptoms will be communicated to the tech who will eventually be tasked with fixing it, making that person's job MUCH simpler. Sometimes these things can easily get lost in the shuffle. If your original purchase documentation contains Serial Number info, I'd consider it a personal favor if you could send me that number via PM so that I can alert my counterparts in Germany about this case and possibly save someone some time and aggravation.

Bless,

Pablo

Thanks a lot for your detailed post Pablo. Sounds very reasonable to me. Much appreciated. In fact one of the sellers at the store mentioned
something about soldering, just as a guess...I understood from the guys who accepted my complaint (within the 30 days return policy
anyway) the unit will be returned to the german distributor (Soundservice.de) for repair. I think I've pointed out the symptoms
as best as possible. However, since I've returned the faulty unit including the original purchase documentation I can't tell you the S/N anymore.
Maybe it helps to know that the affected unit was originally sold by "Musicstore Cologne" and is now on its way back to the wholesaler.

Btw, the replacement unit works perfectly till now

Greets from Cologne/Germany,

Arvin