Nord User Forum

Hi,

I wondered if anyone can help . . . .

I've hooked up my Nord Piano 2 to Mainstage as an external instrument, but I can't get the Layer Editor to work in conjunction.

Nothing happens when I move the Layer Editor cursor, everything else works, like transpose etc . . .

Can anyone help or advise . . . . ?

Thanks . . . .

Wait... in Mainstage when you set a HW instrument hooked up via MIDI as an External Instruments it means you want to use it as an expander, but what is the "master" you have defined in Mainstage for that ChannelStrip (External Instrument type)?

I suggest you explain more in detail how the MS Concert is set up (how many master keyboards and associated to which HW?) and what are you trying to achieve, exactly. It is possible that Layer Editor is not active because the Extèrnal Instrument Channel Strip is not associated to the MS master keyboard it should be driven by.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply . . .

Sorry, What do you mean by HW ?

I'm basically looking at controlling all my keyboards from Mainstage on my Mac, the Nord being the master . . .

As I play live,I just flick from song to song on Mainstage as opposed to a midi keyboard, I just find Mainstage easier, apart from now . . .

I've tried the Nord Piano 2 & a Kurzweil PC2, both have the same issue.

I've tried a Hammond XK3-C, that works fine.

I realise it's probably something that I'm doing wrong, but I'm not sure how to set it up correctly.

If you could point me in the right direction on how to set it up, that would be great . . .

Thanks again . . .

If the Nord must just be the Master for Mainstage then you don't need any External Instrument channel strip at all, you just need to Assign the Nord MIDI OUT port to the Mainstage keyboard in the Layout.

If instead you want to send Bank and Program Changes from Mainstage to the Nord, you need the External Instrument channel strip pointing at the Nord Stage MIDI IN as its OUT, but that has nothing to do with setting the Layer.

Take a look also at this site's MS Tutorials https://brianli.com/apple-mainstage-tutorials/

Hi. . . . .

Yes, I understand that . . .

It's just that I want to use the sounds from the Nord Piano 2 & mix them with Mainstage, so I need to use an external channel to hear the Nord.

I prefer to have a hardware synth available just incase the Mac goes down.

It all generally works apart from in the Layer Editor.

Maybe it's just not compatible with Mainstage.

I did call Apple & they said it's the synth, which is probably true.

Any ideas ?

Thanks again.

Strange, the Layer Editor is just a way to assign a strip to a defined zone of the keyboard (the MS virtual one), it has nothing to do with the HW that you use as the actual master Keyboard (assigned to the Mainstage virtual one)

I simulated that on my Mainstage, with a NS2 but as I said that doesn't make a difference, and it just works fine.

Are you sure you are selecting the External Instrument strip when you want to do Layer editing and that the strip it is correctly assigned to the Mainstage virtual keyboard as input (and that this keyboard is also defined as a 88keys one?)

PS: of course if you use the NP2 as external instrument in MS, you need to set it in Local Off.

If you still can't solve, please describe step by step what you do, from the moment you create a new blank concert in Mainstage on; maybe this way we can identify any missing or wrong step.

Maxpiano you're a star !

LOCAL CONTROL OFF !

BOOM !

That's it, all sorted . . . . .

Thank-you . . .. Thank-you . . . . .