Nord User Forum

[synthguy]

Hey all,

I bought a Nord Rack 2 second hand and I'm playing around with it but really struggling to get anything decent out of it. I can't tell if I'm just really misunderstanding something, or whether it's perhaps broken or in need of a deep clean?

For example, if I save a patch and then play with a different sound for a while, when I go back to the first patch it never sounds like it did when I save it. Even if I put all the settings back to where I know they were for the sound I just saved, the sound will often be completely different. Sometimes it will play out of key or with crazy modulation, and I basically turn knobs at random and then back to where they were and sometimes it ends up sounding a bit like it used to.

Some examples of it being weird:

• Sometimes I'll be playing with it, then go and make a cup of tea or something and come back and the sound is completely different. Even though I hadn't pressed any buttons in the meantime. And again I'll just have to move things around and can sometimes get it back to how it sounded but quite often I can't.
  
• Sometimes while I'm playing, the sound will just completely cut out and I have to change to a different program and back again for it to make any sound at all.
  
• Sometimes I'll be playing with a knob (e.g. FM amount) and leave it say, half way up. I then try with it all the way up, and don't like. So I move it back to halfway but now the whole patch sounds completely different to how it did before.
  
• Sometimes I'll come back to a saved patch and the pitch will be shifted up several semitones so it sounds completely out of key with the rest of the track. I move various knobs back and forth and at some point it seems to almost randomly start playing back at the correct notes again.

Am I missing something obvious or does the synth perhaps just need a deep clean? The sound sometimes cuts out while turning knobs too, which I guess is another sign of it needing a proper clean.

Thanks in advance for help!

EDIT: Aha! At least part of the problem was being caused by the fact that when I turned the knobs on my Moog, it was sending CC via Ableton to the Nord Lead, causing the settings there to change too. That explains some of the issues (e.g the ones regarding the sound changing without touching the knobs), but it still doesn't explain the 3rd bullet point above, for example.

[23skidoo]

You might possibly have a MIDI loop back to the synth for it's own knobs, too. That can make the position of a given knob incorrect rapidly. Make sure the CC generated by the Nord does not get looped back to the Nord (e.g. the MIDI track for the Nord on Ableton should NOT have monitor enabled but should be set to OFF).

It may help to use an app like Midi Monitor (from snoize.com) to spy on the data going to the Nord to be sure that no external CCs are confusing the knob you're working with without your knowledge.

[synthguy]

Thanks for the reply! I don't even have the MIDI out of the Nord Rack going anywhere though. Only have one cable linking my midi interface to the nord, and that's from the MIDI out of my interface into the MIDI in of the nord. So if I've understood correctly, that couldn't be the issue?

[23skidoo]

Depends - if there is CC of any kind going to the synth it could mess with your sound whether you're turning things or not, if it's on a channel the synth is listening to (either as the global or as one of the 4 slot channels).

Your pots could be *REALLY* dirty, too, though, in which case they might skip, jump, or not return to the same value. If the synth has gotten soaked or been around heavy salt air for a long time or had a lot of beer spilled on it at gigs etc... it's a physical machine, stuff goes bad over time.

Anyways, again, the way to determine if your pots are indeed returning to the value you expect them to is simple - use a midi monitor. Scope the CC data coming from the synth, turn a pot to zero, make sure it sends zero, turn it slowly all the way up make sure the numbers increase smoothly and continuously (if they aren't continuous, go slower). If you can, reliably, hit every number on the way up and the way down, then you can check for repeatability by turning it to say 1/3rd, noting the value, then turning it all the way up and then back to 1/3rd. You should come close to the original number and be able to dial it in easily with just a gentle tweak. If all your pots behave correctly, your problem is likely from something outside the keyboard.