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Nord Stage 2 Volume Setting Advice Needed

Postby ejwalker » 29 Jun 2015, 23:26

Looking for Nord Stage 2 synth volume advice.

I play almost 90% synth (for this first set at least, which wasn't the original plan. But that's going to change! More piano!). I have a double stack with an N73 on top and an N76 on the bottom. My Sweetwater guy set me up with a cool mixer that I put on a boom so it's just above my top board, then I can adjust the master volume of both, just the N76, or just the N73 (three knobs). Then I'm not fishing for the master volume on the N76 underneath, and I can change the volume of both boards at once. I also have volume pedals allowing me the same functionality as well.

But adjusting live when the songs aren't seared in your brains often affects the quality of my playing. When I dial in my sounds at home to sound like they're at the same volume so I have less live volume to adjust, I then go play live at practice and certain sounds are still too loud or soft. It's unnerving to know whether you're volume is correct as I start a fair amount of songs. What I'm also finding is different timbres get sucked up more so than others. My trumpet for example, if I set it the same volume as the other sounds, it just gets sucked up and no one hears it. So that one I always have to jack up higher than the others. I find that with strings too. Does anyone else find this?

Between the two boards, sometimes I'm splitting up to 2-3 sounds per board. I've heard from most that it's trial and error. Tweak at home as best you can, then tweak while you're playing live, then save your adjusted settings.

But if anyone has any additional advice that I'm missing or anything that would help make this easier, please advise.

Gosh, if bass players knew how good they have it.....
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Re: Nord Stage 2 Volume Setting Advice Needed

Postby dhbp-nord » 30 Jun 2015, 01:52

Trust your easrs onstage and take mental notes which ones to adjust. I always find volume differences between sounds become much more apparent at high volume. Also the EQ on a given sound may sound great in headphones at home, but onstage can be boomy and muddy. And also if your are programming your patches at home in headphones in stereo, if you are summing to mono when you get to the gig, again your at-home mix goes right out the window. If you work with a FOH sound tech get their opinion too. The more volumes you can preset in advance the less hassle you'll have at the gig, but a volume pedal is always good for on-the-fly adjustments, especially as stage sound can vary from venue to venue. Trust your ears first though for sure.
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Re: Nord Stage 2 Volume Setting Advice Needed

Postby pablomastodon » 30 Jun 2015, 06:57

Hi ejwalker,

All good advice above...only thing I can think to add is that the DRIVE knob may become your good friend. Used is small amounts it will help you make those last-minute adjustments more easily.

Bless,

Pablo
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Re: Nord Stage 2 Volume Setting Advice Needed

Postby ejwalker » 02 Jul 2015, 19:43

Nice - thanks Pablo and dhpb-nord!

@dhpb Nord - thanks for pointing out the headphone difference. At home, I do use headphones that are connected to both nords and the recording when setting volume for each sound. Do you recommend setting my volume levels through my amp instead? I always use mono so sounds like I might be good on that front? And thank you for the high volume ramifications, good to note. And thanks for the FOH advice. I have asked a sound technician to work on this with me and will push to get this done before the gig.

@Pablo - would have never thought of the drive knob. Thanks!!!
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Re: Nord Stage 2 Volume Setting Advice Needed

Postby dhbp-nord » 02 Jul 2015, 20:07

If you are able to play at full volume at home and can stay married if you do try :-)

If you have some kind of meter in your signal path (mixer VU etc) that will help you get generally close to keeping everything consistent. Use several viewpoints (home, rehearsal, gig) to build a complete picture. If you have any kind of sequencing/recording in your onstage setup, or have someone else in your band that can noodle on your favourite patches, walk out into the audience during setup/soundcheck and listen to your own rig from that vantage point - that will be a real eye-opener I bet.

Having the rest of the band around will change things somewhat too. I find in generally it's never-ending, you're always tweaking, which is multiplied exponentially by the number of different patches / sound sources you are using. Where the Nords are sample-based they really can be completely different from patch to patch.

A big learning experience (for me it was anyhow) is figuring out how to blend well with other instruments. It's always a challenge not to trample too much on guitar or bass guitar frequencies while keeping your own patches sounding good, and of course that changes with every musician you encounter. Part of that can be influenced by what notes you play (ie not playing octaves on everything in the left hand all the time if you have a bass player etc)

I am really lucky right now as the guitar player I am working with is really keen on chords/voicing etc so we spend a lot of time talking about what we are playing together, to try and compliment each other. When you think in those terms sometimes the sound/frequency things take care of themselves if you are making good musical choices.

Good luck!

DH
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