Nord User Forum

[surferJR]

Hi All,

I'm brand new here (first post) and just got my NE6 (first Nord) yesterday. Luckily I had done a fair amount of research, but this thread helped me to understand the organizational structure. I had watched videos of the NE5 and presumed that the NE6 would have the setlist feature. I agree that this is a pretty big change. I'm hoping the folks at Nord had some sort of good reasoning behind it, but so far I can't guess what it might have been.

The good news is that I think I at least have a strategy here to organize my sets by. I'm a visual person, so I had to draw it out. Maybe this hacky sketch will help someone?

Update: removed hacky sketch and replaced with drawing because I had to.

NE 6 organization of songs.png (69.38 KiB) Viewed 2429 times

Also, I welcome clarifications or corrections.

Cheers.

[anotherscott]

I'm hoping the folks at Nord had some sort of good reasoning behind it, but so far I can't guess what it might have been.

I think the main advantage to Organize mode is that it eliminates a confusion that has popped up here repeatedly, that changes you make to sounds while in Set List mode were not Saved when you pressed the Store button (because a Song didn't actually include any sounds, only pointers to sounds). Most recently discussed at nord-electro-forum-f9/nord-electro-5-split-function-question-t15814.html#p104749 (starting in the third post).

[surferJR]

Thanks, anotherscott. Having no experience with the NE 5, I wasn't getting how the setlist feature actually worked, even though I think someone (possibly you) mentioned that in a previous post in the thread. In any event, I've run into a pretty big limitation with organizing the way that I suggested above. If you use one Page = Song, you're dedicating 4 Programs to it. Many songs I play have only 2 programs, or even 1. So, even though I don't have hundreds of songs yet, I can see where I might run out eventually. It's also kind of weird structure because "bank" as a "Set" doesn't really always work out, with 16 slots. In any event, it's a work in progress. I saw someone's earlier post about bundles and I'll be curious to see if uploading and downloading bundles helps somehow. For now, luckily, I don't have a gig very soon, so I have time to work this out.

[anotherscott]

I've run into a pretty big limitation with organizing the way that I suggested above. If you use one Page = Song, you're dedicating 4 Programs to it. Many songs I play have only 2 programs, or even 1. So, even though I don't have hundreds of songs yet, I can see where I might run out eventually.

As I understand it (I don't have an NE6), you can't have hundreds of songs. There are 416 Programs, 4 per Page/Song, meaning you have a maximum of 104 songs (416/4), which would also leave no space for additional Programs that are not part of Songs. This compares to 200 songs on the NE5 (or 400 on the NS3), without using up any of the 400 Program locations. If you have hundreds of songs and want to maintain access to all of them, you'd need to manage them externally, i.e. you can use a smartphone/tablet app.

It's also kind of weird structure because "bank" as a "Set" doesn't really always work out, with 16 slots.

Looking at your drawing, I don't think banks-as-sets was Nord's intent. I think your Programs and Pages columns are the entirety of what the feature is based on, with the Organize function used for the purpose of re-ordering the Pages (songs) depending on what set order you need for a particular gig, or just what order you'd like to keep your songs in in general to make it easier to get to what you need.

[CountFosco]

When I first got my E5, I had joined a band playing originals and I added a bunch of keyboard parts to existing songs. Initially, I only used one program per song. I'd find some piano or organ preset, adapt it to how I wanted and save it under the name of the song in a blank location. (I used bank 5). Then I started adding some split programs using the same procedure. Then I added the A1, and most songs had an E5 program and an A1 program - so added the A1 program location to the name of the E5 program in an effort to be efficient between songs.

Then I also joined a funk cover band. And who knew, but keyboard players do multiple parts in one song. So then I got familiar with Set List on the E5 - Brilliant! I use it for all my songs now. For this band, I maintain a bank of programs (bank 6), including some general programs (MkV Trem) and some specific ("Song 1 Clav"), and point to them from a couple of Set Lists. One Set List is just all songs in alphabetical order, another Set List puts them in the right order for the next gig. Looking at this discussion regarding E6 functionality, it looks like I would have some difficulty. I could only suggest a hybrid approach. Create programs with song names in them. Where a song has 2 or 3 programs, Call them "Song 1 B3", "Song 1 EP", and try to group them so they appear on one page. When there a couple of spare positions on a page, try to Insert "Song 2 EP" and "Song 3 EP" in the gaps so you're not wasting valuable real estate.

[Ron Wehrens]

Hi!
I previously upgraded from NE4D to NE5D and that went smooth. Playing in several bands I had developed an extensive Set list which allowed rapid switching between just the right sounds for each song.
2 months ago, I backed up my 5D and traded it for the NE6D... To my shock and surprise the back up could not be uploaded to 6D but what's worse... only then I found out that the 6D has no Setlist functionality. (Yes, you are right, I should of course have visited this forum first... )
Being a big Nord fan, I really did my best to give the new 6D logic a chance but it just doesn't work for me. Even with a laptop hooked up using SoundManager I cannot get the sounds quick enough during live gigs. Why on earth did Nord remove this feature?

Now I'm seriously considering putting my 6D up for sale again and get me a good old 5D instead. Unless maybe someone here has meanwhile found a work around? Any signs that Nord may be working on reintroducing Set lists in a next update?

[chatfd]

Oh My - I have been feeling this pain too! The Good News: I still have my NE5 due to a series of quirks ... since the purchase last year of a NE6. I've resisted the temptation to sell the NE5 partially due to the Set List feature taken away. The other reason not to sell is due to the structure change as mentioned in this thread. Plus, I learned the NE5 and formulated it to work for me in nearly any situation. I'm no where near that (yet) with the NE6.

There is a 2nd feeling of WHY DID THEY TAKE THAT AWAY: Also, I didn't care for the LOSS of the availability of setting the effects equalization for not just ONE at a time (either the Organ, Piano, or Sample) or two (one can set both (or two) on a NE5) but why not even all "3" on the NE6 - if so inclined. On the NE5 I found it VERY useful. With the NE6, which of the three is it a MUST DO and what sample, piano or organ is eliminated from using the effect EQ? This adds to one's decision(s) ... which aren't best made on the fly at a gig!

The only thing that is beginning to work (for me) is taking ONLY the NE6 to rehearsals --> forcing me to learn the changes and discover something more on how to use it. Those ah ha moments! The NE6 has potential - but after my progression from a NE3, NE4D, NE4 to the (still kept) NE5, this leap to the NE6 has not been as much fun as I expected. I'm no software programmer ... but it sure would have been nice to have the option (or inclusion) of turning on or off the Set List function as a NEED it or LEAVE it option - giving up something or using the new NE6 in a way some programmer developed. Also the desire for the Effect EQ! At least TWO if not all three would have been nice and what NE5 users had before.

[Gambold]

>With the NE6, which of the three is it a MUST DO and what sample, piano or organ is eliminated from using the effect EQ? <

Yeah, that's a little clunky and sometimes you have to use two hands to fix it on the fly which is not the best situation.

Songlists - I've tried very hard in my live "career" to keep my total sound count as low as possible. I feel if I stray over 8 sounds (that includes different acoustic pianos or organs) then I am becoming more of an effects machine than a keyboardist.

Piano, Rhodes, and B3 should comprise 90% of what I play - I'll suffer the band's request for some synth crap on one or two numbers, and I'll do horns ONCE an evening, when we play "I Wish." If they want strings, I tell them to hire an orchestra. It's a bar, people, it's not a conservatory.

Watch the Beatles' rooftop concert - that's all you need. A suitcase Sparkletop...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCtzkaL2t_Y

[analogika]

It’s nice that you have been able to limit yourself to a niche that requires a minimal toolset.

Many of us choose to work in more elaborate settings, and tailor our toolset to the needs of those settings, rather than selling generica or limiting ourselves to environments where generica suffice.

[23skidoo]

I don't disagree with @Gambold's viewpoint - for certain philosophies, your instrument is YOUR instrument. By fine-tuning one's choices of sounds to ones that you're intimately familiar with and comfortable using/EQing, etc, you give your band "a sound". Sometimes too much choice leads to a lack of focus. I'm working with a band who use largely traditional instruments (Irish bouzoukis, celtic pipes, frame drums, etc.) and each of these has "a sound" that's sort of vital to the songs and style. We treat the synths the same way, creating voices and instruments that we then use much like "that frame drum or the other one" would be used. By limiting ourselves to specific, carefully chosen palettes, we find depth in the performance and the composition.

I also do other stuff where the field is wide open, and having a variety of sounds at my fingertips is also an advantage.

Both are perfectly valid approaches, both lead to beautiful music, and both help the musician focus on what's important for themselves and that project. I don't think that 'generica' is a fair attribution to the decision to carefully curate the instruments and tonalities one wishes to bring to the musical table. Far from it.