Nord User Forum

I am strongly considering buying one of these but my knowledge of midi programming is none existent.

I have always used General Midi software for other keyboards and drum machines.

How easy is it to set up midi so I can programme drum rhythms from my PC ? Also, I presume the Nord will download the recording so I can then play it live.

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks

Hi, it's a very versatile synth for beat making, I'm sure you'll like it!

I'm not not sure what your current (software) setup is, I did spot you already have a Stage2

What MIDI is, how it works, cables etc., check wikipedia, quite an extensive article!
You'll need some sort of sequencing software, and perhaps a MIDI interface (hardware device), cheap and simple ESI or E-MU USB interfaces work well (I don't know to what extent your NS2 can act as one using USB MIDI, -the ND2 doesn't have MIDI over USB)

Out of the box the Nord Drum 2 sends and receives MIDI messages on MIDI channel 10,
With the ND2 you can program 6 different drum sounds 'channels' (not to be confused with MIDI channels) that can be used simultaneously. For example: a kick drum on ch.1, a snare on ch.2, hi-hat on ch.3, etc etc..

If you'd connect your Stage2 with the Nord Drum2 using a MIDI cable, and set the Stage to transmit on MIDI channel 10, you'd be able to play the kick drum sound on the Nord Drum 2 by playing a C3 on your Stage, the snare with D3, the hi-hat with E3, etc. (the corresponding notes can be set in a menu, mentioned here are the ones set by factory) And the louder you play the louder the sound will be, or actually the ND2 can do a lot more with velocity levels than just that..

In a sequencer you can record (or draw) these notes to create a drum pattern. When you hit play in your software they are sent to the Nord Drum2, voila..

but there is more..
You can change all parameters of the drum sounds thru MIDI, even of one individual drum sound if you like! To do the latter, you can couple individual MIDI channels to the individual channels (sounds) of the Nord Drum2.. Some sequencers will allow you to record, or program these parameter changes, .. but let's not complicate matters for now..

Hope this helped,
Albert

Please note that this is not a GM machine. Also, you may find it useful to learn something about midi.

Pablo

Dear Folks

Thanks for the replies.

I probably gave a poor explanation in my opening request.

I have a simple sequencer on my PC's. One running Vista and one runs Win 7.

My USB to midi works fine as I can get it to play on Yamaha DD12 what I create on the drum module of the sequencer without any programming other than input the notes/sounds using PC kepboard or mouse.

I've also being using GM for about 20 years just to play backing on various Yamaha keyboards so am reasonably familiar with midi to that extent.

My question should be what midi code would I need to use to interact with the Nord drum or is there some existing software that does the kob.

Kind regards

John

Hi John,

I'll compare the ND2 with your DD-12 because there are some similarities, but also some major differences; 

John wrote:My USB to midi works fine as I can get it to play on Yamaha DD12 what I create on the drum module of the sequencer without any programming other than input the notes/sounds using PC keyboard or mouse. [...] My question should be what midi code would I need to use to interact with the Nord drum or is there some existing software that does the job.

> Very similar as with your DD-12 I think; set the output MIDI channel of your software to 10, input a drum sequence exactly as you are used to, with mouse or keyboard, but only using notes C3, D3, E3, F3, G3, and A3  (= note numbers 60, 62, 64, 65, 67, 69)

You may wonder why only six notes? With the DD-12 and GM drum sets you can use almost any note of a piano keyboard to play a whole range of sounds.. With the DD-12 you can make use of all 75 sampled internal drum sounds at the same time through MIDI, each sound is assigned to a unique MIDI note. With the ND2 you can only use the 6 sounds of one drum set (program) at the time. It can store up to 400 programs which you can fully program at will, but you can only use 1 set of 6 sounds at the time... The good thing is that you have full control over the synthesis of each sound, almost endless possibilities; from (sort-of) acoustic drum sounds, to old-school drum machine sounds, or very weird and surreal noises, you'd no longer be stuck with a fixed set of 75 samples...

John wrote:I presume the Nord will download the recording so I can then play it live.

> In contrast to the DD-12, the ND2 doesn't have, and cannot store any kind of recordings, sequences, or songs on-board. You'd have to bring a laptop or iPad along if you'd want to play pre-programmed sequences/songs on stage - alternatively you could connect some drum pads to it, and play some rhythms yourself live...

Cheers,
Albert

Albert

Many thanks

Most helpful

regards

John,

I just edited my post above (once more), because I discovered in the manual of the Yamaha DD-12 that it behaves more or less like a GM device when operated thru MIDI.

Cheers,
Albert