Nord User Forum

Hello all - I'm new here and recently purchased my first Nord product ever - the Piano 3. Love the piano sounds - best I've ever heard - and I'm primarily a Piano player/hacker so the synth sounds aren't very important to me - however, I do sometimes like to layer in (not split) and I'm not finding a way to edit the bass sample so that it applies only to a specific range on the keyboard (say the 2 octaves from the lowest B up). I searched the forum for "assign samples to specific range" and the same adding "piano 3" but got 0 results - apologies if this is covered elsewhere.

I am not trying to create a new sample - but to assign a key range to an existing sample in the library on my P3.

I have been able to download the pianos I want from the library and set up A:01 as "Pianos" (in the sound manager) so by turning the piano select knob I can dial in whichever of my favorite pianos I want in that moment - and then I've made A:02 "Bass" and have my first piano and the Contra Bass on the Sample Synth available - again, this let's me dial in whichever piano I want with that bass, or, to conveniently dial around the sample library for basses nearby the Contra position. I am able to split at the 2nd B below middle C, however, if I don't split the sound, the Bass sound plays on all 88 keys. Is there a way to edit the Contra (and other bass samples in the library on the Piano 3) so that it only triggers in the 2 octaves I want (whether I split or layer it with a piano sound)? I've further set up A:03-05 as Strings, Choirs and Brass and would want to be able to edit the key range on those as well so they can be layered with these OUTSTANDING pianos.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Steve

As I understand it, you want to layer a sample under the piano, but only in a specific range. It's a great request, but I don't think there is an easy way to do it. I have not spent much time with the Sample Editor, but here is what could be a work around.

First, you have to figure out how to convert the Nord sample into a .wav file. Maybe somebody has a program that will hack open a .nsmp file, or maybe they're encrypted and you can't in which case you'd have to play the sound into your computer and record it. This could be pretty tedious and is certainly the brute force approach. Or maybe you can find a .wav of the sound you want somewhere else.

In any case, you could then use the Sample Editor to null the sound for the sample in the range of keys that you want silent. So if you want the sample in A0-A3, you null out everything above A3. Then save it as an .nsmp, download it and layer it under the desired piano. You'd only hear the sample in the specific key range.

This is certainly not as easy as a setting on the keyboard which seems like it would be a pretty easy feature. Nord could also just modify the Sample Editor and allow us to edit them directly.

Pablo probably has a better suggestion.

Thanks Boatguy. So there isn't a way to upload the actual sample (not a wav file) in to the sample editor and choose the region of the keyboard it uses? I think that's what I'm looking for...

SteveNordP3 wrote:Thanks Boatguy. So there isn't a way to upload the actual sample (not a wav file) in to the sample editor and choose the region of the keyboard it uses? I think that's what I'm looking for...

No, you can't edit .nsmp files in the Nord Sample Editor, you need to start from .wav files so the only option is that you sample the original sound into .wav files and create a new .nsmp (with a silent sample in the range where you want no sound).

PS: discussed many times, most recent here general-nord-forum-f29/extracting-wav-from-nsmp-t12701.html

Thanks maxpiano - my search phrase wasn't good enough to get that result - which is a very recent discussion on exactly my question. Thanks for the info and pointer.

SteveNordP3 wrote:Thanks Boatguy. So there isn't a way to upload the actual sample (not a wav file) in to the sample editor and choose the region of the keyboard it uses? I think that's what I'm looking for...

Yeah, that would be great and not too difficult for Nord. Of course they could also just allow a layer to be assigned a key range, also not too difficult. It is something that could be done within the existing system, assuming that they made the program files extensible.