Nord User Forum

Maybe Im missing something obvious here, but I have a question re the factory organ presents. It looks like there are 16 for B3 vox and farfisa.
You can access them by hitting shift and one of the organ presets along the drawbars. However it seems that depending on what program patch is showing, it will change the voices on the presets. Is that the case, and is there a way to just play the "pure" factory presets . (or is there no such thing)

Hello strep1,
Welcome to the forums!

they're drawbar registration presets "having only to do with the drawbars"
These assume that you have your organ sound, i.e. effects, the way you want them and want to try different combinations of drawbars.

The factory presets or factory programs are an entirely different thing.
If you've significantly changed your programs by overwriting the factory ones.

You could do a backup using Nord Sound Manager "so you don't lose your current setup" then download the factory backup file from the Nord website and do a restore using it.
This would give you the pure factory programs that you refer to.

Cheers, Hanon

I was confused by this as well. However, it does state somewhere in the manual that when you store an organ preset, it does not store the same elements as in a stored program. Effects, EQ, Drive are not saved in the organ presets.

Thanks for your input..
What made it more confusing was that on the sound manager, the organ presets are named: like Booker T etc suggesting that these were preset patches rather than just settings.

Is there a list as to what sounds the factory presets are supposed to be?
I don't want to change them in case there was a method to the madness. The below is NOT my real guesses, don't have the Nord with me right now. Thanks.

Example (B3):
1) Spencer Davis
2) Whiter Shade of Pale
3) Dylan
4) etc

Vox:
1) House of rising Sun
2) Dave Clarke Five
3) Monkees
4) Ida Goda vida
5) Etc

Please, don't blame me for throwing in a question inspired by the preceeding:
what B3 settings (drawbars)would you use for 'a whiter shade of pale'.
(this is my first organ and I also find it difficult to get used to the factory settings)

I think there is some confusion here between "Organ Presets" and "Programs."

Organ Presets (of which you can have two per slot, and you can have two slots per program, typically for upper and lower manual) are alternate drawbar configurations. This duplicates the function of the reverse color B and Bb keys on the upper and lower manuals of a real Hammond organ. Although Nord made a slight change... on a real Hammond, these presets do not include vibrato and percussion on/off settings, and on the Nord, they do. The Organ Presets do not have names, either on the on-screen display or in the Sound Manager. If you select one, you'll simply see the screen briefly say "Preset I' or "Preset II" -- no names. If you wanted to have some record of what they are, so you could recreate them if you changed them, they can be described in the usual drawbar nomenclature... i.e., if the patch has nothing but the first and third drawbars active, and they are pulled out full, that patch would be "called" 808000000. All of this is just how original Hammond organs worked. Although again, on the Nord, you'd also note whether the percussion and vibrato were on or off.

Programs, OTOH, *do* have names, and an organ program consists of the drawbars and all other organ (and for that matter, non-organ) settings and effects active on the board. And if it has a name like "Whiter Shade" or whatever, it is an approximation by the programmer of what combination of drawbar and other settings best recreated the organ sound associated with that song. Of course, there was no preset labeled "Whiter Shade" on a real B3, it was just some combination of settings, which at least according to Nord, was 688600000 with soft, short, 2nd harmonic percussion, and leslie on.... and you'll get the same sound whether you dial in those settings manually, or call up the WhiterShade preset.

I have seen the matrix (I think). Once I hooked it up to the computer, it showed me everything I needed to know. In the height of laziness I do wish I could somehow get some of my organ presets in as program rather than having to program them to match the preset. Honestly I resisted this, stubbornly wishing I could get ‘er done without lugging the keys over to my computer. But now I have the epiphany that once you do that, organizing your programs and seeing what-the-heck-is-going-on is pretty easy, quick, and frankly, addictive. Geeking out!