Nord User Forum

[skintechnician]

"A baffling feature of the Lead 2X is that you can't filter out the exp. pedal MIDI info. In other words, you can't connect a Lead 2X to an Electro and use the Lead's expression pedal without affecting the Electro's (or any other keyboard's) volume.

IMHO: They should have had a musician involved more in the MIDI implementation. Why would you want the Lead's expression pedal (morph) to affect a second keyboard's volume?"

I thought the NL2X already had AT?

Aren't all Clavia employees musicians (as advertised)?

I don't have an expression pedal but I thought (in theory ) you could plug the pedal directly to the A1(r)/NL4(r) then have midi in coming from Electro (midi out) so that you can trigger the Lead without the expression pedal affecting (Electro) volume?

[Ledbetter]

Hi Skintechnician,

2X keyboard has no aftertouch capability, but the 2X can receive and respond to MIDI AT info. IDK who at Nord is a musician or designed the (to me baffling) MIDI architecture.

I like the Electro to double the Lead's sounds rather than the other way around. It sounds bad to play a polyphonic clav, for example, with a monophonic lead trying to play along, but it sounds good to play a mono lead with a clav doubling it. Most MIDI keyboards allow the player to send note info only, and that is what I prefer. I really like my 2X just the same.

[skintechnician]

Hi Ledbetter,
I didn't consider the lead following the clav and visa versa. I'll definitely keep that in mind when creating layers on my A1(maybe I'll apply a slightly slower attack on the following voices).
Thanks for that explanation & glad you're enjoying your 2X!


Cheers,
Nate

[Marlowes]

The only Nordlead with after touch is the NL3, isn't it? So it's been gone for quite a while now.

One problem with the NL3 aftertouch is that it is very difficult to control on that particular machine. It is almost an on/off option more than anything else. I don't know if that's a problem with aftertouch in general, with the particular keybed that they used, or with Clavia's subsequent signal processing. I have a Blofeld keyboard which has aftertouch, and it is also rather hard to control. I don't remember the Yamaha DX7 (which was the first synth I ever played that had aftertouch) being that difficult to control, but it was a long time ago since I played one.

Assuming it was difficult to get aftertouch to work properly on the NL3, I can understand why Clavia dropped it from the later models.

Don't know how hard it would be to retrofit an A1 or NL4. They all use Fatar keybeds (as does the Blofeld) so it should be a question of getting the appropriate aftertouch sensor (assuming it can be retrofitted), and put together some electronics for processing the signal, which could then be fed to the existing pedal inputs.

Regarding design at Clavia, while I think it's true that a lof of employees are musicians in some form, the user interface and top level design I believe is in control of a select few (probably Hans Nordelius and Magnus Kjellander), but with a certain amount of input from the rest of the company of course (the non-zero sustain level on the envelopes in mono mode on the A1 being an example of the latter I believe). This has the advantage that the machines have a distinct character, and are not a hodgepotch of design ideas that don't fit together. The disadvantage being that as noted some design decisions appear rather hard headed.

[Mike37]

Can you use delayed vibrato on the A1? In other words, set a triangle LFO modulation with a delay - like half a second after key pressed down? This would be a passable compromise for not having aftertouch. Again, if you play keyboards with a poor off/on aftertouch, it's not a general fault of aftertouch technology, just the manufacturer using a cheap solution. For instance, the initial production of the MiniMoog Voyager used a poor almost on/off aftertouch solution, then people complained and Moog fixed it, and now the Voyager has good aftertouch.

[Marlowes]

Yes! :-)

Vibrato.png (23.98 KiB) Viewed 4117 times

[Marlowes]

Vibrato.png

That's good news! Thanks.

[pablomastodon]

Aren't all Clavia employees musicians (as advertised)?

No, they aren't. Truth be told, there isn't a single musician in the bunch. They were a football team (soccer for you Americans out there) who couldn't cut it on the pitch, so the Swedish Vocational Rehabilitation Ministry (SVRM) retrained them via an intensive 2-week crash course on building musical instruments. The red color actually came from their team jerseys. They were previously known as the Håriga Elefanter from Uppsala.

Bless,

Pablo

[neolithic]

They were previously known as the Håriga Elefanter from Uppsala.

I didn't need Google translate for that!

image.jpg (78.4 KiB) Viewed 4012 times

[skintechnician]

Ha!!
The comedy in this thread is certainly deserving of a red card.
Hey, I attended the Brasil v. Sweden 94' World Cup semi-final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. The Swedes were great that year
In fact I heard that the original 1995 Nord Lead was a failed attempt at a new, radically designed soccer ball to defeat Brasil in future cup play.

Cheers,
Nate

(BTW, this joke sounded waay better in my head driving to work this morning lol! I was up late last night on the ND2/Nordbeat )