Nord User Forum

[greendiamondjim]

Hi, anybody else have this issue? I got a used Electro 2 and it's working great, although a couple of times it has suddenly stopped emitting sound. No other
visible issues or tweaks, just no sound. I turn off and on again, and then it's ok. I can live with it happening occasionally in the studio, although obviously
it's not good live. My main concern is whether this is an indication that something is going wrong and will get worse, and whether I should give it back to
the person who sold it to me or attempt to get it repaired. I have read about these things being finicky about what power they are plugged into, and the times
this happened, it was plugged into a normal power strip that also had a tube amp plugged into it. If anyone has any tips, that would be awesome. Thank You!
--Jim

[analogika]

My electro 2 is ten years old, is gigged several times a week, and gets badly banged about by the backline crew (albeit in a case now). The screws holding the wooden side panels have broken, so the whole thing is kinda waaaaaaaaah.

All kinds of stage power — portable generator, regular mains, full 16A stage sound, in parallel with amps, lighting, PA, and whatever: Never had any problems with that at all.

But it has only ever once in its lifetime gone weird, giving a sort of low, chopping noise, during a rehearsal, once. Rebooted, and it hasn't happened since (about five years ago).

[greendiamondjim]

Interesting. Thank you that's good stuff!

[pablomastodon]

Hi Jim,

Brownout conditions would, I think, trigger a reboot and not audio dropout. Plus, I've watched 10+ year old NE2s and NL3s tested on Variac and they routinely held up to as low as 87-88v, which is pretty stout by any standard. Interruption of audio output without any visual fault on the front panel is...curious. And then all back to normal upon reboot...more curious. It will be interesting to learn the cause of this.

There are occasional reports of instruments booting normally but producing no audio that turn out to be caused by connecting the sustain pedal to the volume pedal receptacle (use of reading glasses when connecting pedals strongly recommended for those over 50 years of age), tricking the instrument into thinking that you have a volume pedal connected with the heel down. That's obviously not what's going on in your case, but makes me wonder whether your seemingly intermittent volume issues might not also be coming from the pedal control circuit. Or perhaps that's just overthink and there's an intermittent in the audio path.

In any case, it would seem most likely that this is a hardware issue and not a software one, so your first move should be to get your NE2 into the hands of a competent Nord tech. At this moment I'm here on my own time, but by day I handle Nord Tech Support for Nord in Canada and the US. Please feel free to contact me via email or phone as shown below to discuss the specifics of your repair options.

Bless,

Pablo Mastodon
Nord Tech Support Canada/USA
pablo.mastodon@AmericanMusicandSound.com
(800) 994-4984 x3030

[pterm]

Brownout conditions would, I think, trigger a reboot and not audio dropout. Plus, I've watched 10+ year old NE2s and NL3s tested on Variac and they routinely held up to as low as 87-88v, which is pretty stout by any standard. Interruption of audio output without any visual fault on the front panel is...curious. And then all back to normal upon reboot...more curious. It will be interesting to learn the cause of this.

There are occasional reports of instruments booting normally but producing no audio that turn out to be caused by connecting the sustain pedal to the volume pedal receptacle (use of reading glasses when connecting pedals strongly recommended for those over 50 years of age), tricking the instrument into thinking that you have a volume pedal connected with the heel down. That's obviously not what's going on in your case, but makes me wonder whether your seemingly intermittent volume issues might not also be coming from the pedal control circuit. Or perhaps that's just overthink and there's an intermittent in the audio path.

I find this curious too... and speaking of overthinking, I looked at the E2 schematics and found a possible cause:

The E2 employs muting transistors in the audio path (transistors Q1 and Q2 in the schematic). If these activate, they shut off the audio.

The circuit controlling these muting transistors contains an electrolytic capacitor (C24). As electrolytic capacitors age, their characteristics worsen. So I expect this capacitor's leakage current increased over time (as part of the normal aging of the capacitor). As the capacitor heats up (with the rest of the circuitry) the leakage increases too. If the leakage gets too high, the control circuit trips into muting mode.

Shutting off the keyboard cools down the circuitry, and resets the muting circuit.

If this is happening, I expect you to see this occur more often under high-temperature conditions. You might also notice a gradual decrease in volume prior to the shutoff. --I haven't simulated the circuit to quantify "gradual decrease", I'm just speculating on a possible symptoms.

As Pablo said, you likely need to get this into the hands of a competent tech.

[greendiamondjim]

You guys are awesome - I so appreciate this help! I am going to spend a few days having it on all day, playing with it, and seeing if I can replicate the problem - i seem to remember from when it happened that there was a volume decrease, like it got very very quiet - so that could be a lead.

Pablo, thank you and I will email you when I have more info.

Thanks guys!!!
Jim

[analogika]

One way to "fix" that — if that's the issue — would be to plug/unplug a 1/4" jack repeatedly to dislodge any dirt that might be in the volume or control pedal sockets.

[pablomastodon]

thanks for the reminder, analogika!

I do recall a forum report from a couple years ago where a fellow was having problems and bought one of those 1/4" burnishing tools and cleaned his 1/4" receptacles on the instrument and his problem(s) were over.

Somewhat along the same lines, there are EMI-filters (tiny caps, really) on all external connections, e.g. audio, midi, etc. Over the years I have seen 3-4 instances where that EMI filter on the control/volume/swell pedal circuit failed, resulting in the Nord's brains occasionally seeing phantom signals from a pedal that wasn't even connected. I didn't mention this earlier because this failure seems to produce intermittent unpredictable and erratic volume changes -- not quite the complete audio cutoff you reported here. But another possibility which can be looked at...

pablo

[Elijun]

hi there,

my Stage Ex does that too, now:
randomly stopped sound, sometimes from one of the sections only (mostly silent piano, and very low volume organ). only rebooting helps.
can't use it on stage anymore in this condition.

any more advice on what i could do myself?
thanks a lot!

[dehrpiano]

Yes, this happened to me this past weekend on stage on the 2-month old Nord Electro 5 I use. It happened exactly as you describe and concerns me! I've been working with the keyboard to see if I can make it happen again--hopefully not!