Drawbar 9 Cancel

[loudif]

On my Electro 3, as well as the 4 and the 5 Electro, it can be defeated. It certainly wasn't a deal breaker for me when I upgraded to a 6D 73. I was just surprised. Even my Roland RD 800 has the feature and that's primarily a digital piano.

[analogika]

I have to LOL! As a long time Hammond player - back to the 70s ... i was always IRRITATED that percussion knocked out my drawbar! Authentic or not - its a sucky behavior and a WEAKNESS of a real Hammond. I'm glad my Nord doesn't, and if they do "add that feature" - i hope it's optional. if you need it - i'm with those that say ... "push it in" !!

It’s one of those limitations that is rather fun to work with if you use it for what it is.

FWIW, the drawbar cancel has never been a feature of the Stage line, so even if they add it to the Electro 6, it’s not necessarily going to be added to the Stage 3. Unfortunately.

[Rusty Mike]

Bit of an update on this. I submitted feedback to Nord specifically about this feature. Within a few days, I received a response from Steffan from Nord:

As for the “DB9 mute” feature it is something that we’ve opted not to include on the Stage 3 and the Electro 6 (along with the Vintage 3/constant noise setting, and perhaps others). This is mostly to avoid potential confusion among users that may not have full B3 knowledge. We do note your request, although we can’t say much about chances for a change.

I just sent the following response:

I do have to admit, however, that I’m not in full agreement about the DB9 mute. To me, there are several points:

1. Earlier Electro models had this available as a global feature. Unless Nord was getting a lot of negative feedback about it, it seemed harmless. In addition, since it was available on earlier Electro models, I would (ignorantly) assume it is not a significant effort for the instrument’s OS.

2. Because it was a global feature (and not per program), the user could set it the way they were most comfortable. For us players focused on the authenticity, we could enable it and make use of it. For players who didn’t want it or didn’t understand it, they could just leave it alone.

3. The attraction of the Electro since the first version has been Nord’s strive for authenticity. This has only improved over time. Taking away the DB9 feature only reduces that authentic experience. Your comment about players not having full B3 knowledge is, in my opinion, rather weak, as many buyers use these products as B3 replacements and so the knowledge is most likely greater than one would think.

Like I indicated earlier, I do not know if Nord received negative feedback for having the option in the OS. In my isolated world, I could not imagine that this option is any more or less significant than other attributes like the volume of the key click or percussion. You and your colleagues would obviously know better. I am rather disappointed that the Electro does not allow me to utilize it in a more authentic way, as prior models have.

To add a bit of fuel to the fire, this is enabled on several (not all) of the products that compete with the Electro.

I can certainly understand the people may not like the feature. In older Electro's, it was a global on/off attribute. If you didn't like it, leave it off.

It's disappointing that they won't address this. I think it blemishes an otherwise wonderful instrument.

[Gambold]

> This is mostly to avoid potential confusion among users that may not have full B3 knowledge.<

This sounds pretty contrived to me. I dare say even a bit dishonest, with the word "mostly" thrown in to give them an out.

When I had the Electro 4, I didn't even know about this feature on the Hammond, and had to go into Global settings when I learned about it to activate it. In other words, "not having full B3 knowledge" is irrelevant - the DB9 was always on as a default, and only those who knew or cared would bother going in to enable the shutoff when percussion was selected.

My guess is Clavia couldn't write it into their new code, for whatever reason. Better to plead customer service than inability.

[Rusty Mike]

He did follow up and said it can be easily implemented but was a design choice to exclude it.

I have to admit I’m confused by the decision since it was in prior versions of the Electro.

[sus_4]

Seems easy to me... Why not make it a "choice" setting, default set to "no cancel" on the feature? I've lived way too long to learn that when someone proclaims "It can't be done", they are always proven wrong.

[Gambold]

If it is easily implemented, than the decision to remove the option is a strange one. It's not a marketing benefit to yank it, so why bother? Maybe they wanted to restrict the amount of systems-tinkering that can go on.

Who knows, this is a common problem with a lot of vendors who make a long-time successful product. They start fussing with it just to fuss with it, and that inevitably leads to poor decisions. Anyone who uses the Windows OS can attest to that.

I work in education and the administration spends most of its time re-inventing the wheel, year in and year out. Somehow kids aren't learning any faster or better than we did back in stone-age 70s...some people could argue they are actually learning less.

[23skidoo]

If it is easily implemented, than the decision to remove the option is a strange one. It's not a marketing benefit to yank it, so why bother? Maybe they wanted to restrict the amount of systems-tinkering that can go on.

Agreed. This is silly, especially if it was a deliberate choice to omit. Leave it an option, default it to off, save it per-patch, done.

Somehow kids aren't learning any faster or better than we did back in stone-age 70s...some people could argue they are actually learning less.

Re-reading ivan Illich's Deschooling Society at the moment, funny you mention this. Quite true, measurably so in many cases. Even worse in "higher" education.

[loudif]

5 updates later and the drawbar cancel feature has not been added. I'm doubting it will ever be added.

[vcfvca]

For me the bottom line is there is a work around, and you can store your preference as a preset.

HOWEVER the decision by Nord to drop the MIDI options from the E5 was a very BAD decision.

Aligning the OS of the E6 closer to the Stage is not a good idea if it means options like MIDI or D9 percussion cancel are dropped. The Electro series should have its own development path. I upgraded from E5 to E6 but in doing so I gained some extras but lost some really important features, particularly MIDI.

Here is an example: the E5 monitor in was not connected to Main Outputs. So you could play an iPad using Upper MIDI split but you would need a cable to connect your iPad to your mixer. The E6 DOES route monitor in to Main Audio outs BUT because Nord have removed Upper Split option you cannot play an iPad on the upper split! Well you can if you don’t play anything on the lower split. It’s totally wrong!

On the other hand the E6 lets me route just the organ to a Vent - Great! On the E5 this was only possible to route upper/lower which was not as useful.