Nord User Forum

[reggoboy]

Hi everyone!

I have an NS2 88 HA. I like the large keyboard because I do lots of splits and I like the hammer-action keys because I spend a lot of time playing pianos. But I'm doing more and more Hammond Organ work, and I just can't play the fastest riffs on those heavy keys. And the glissandos are raking up the skin on my fingers.

So I'm not sure what the best solution is here, but I have an idea. I do have a spare keyboard MIDI controller with synth keys. And isn't there a way that I could connect that into the NS2 so that it acts as a controller for the organ instrument (only)? Something about mapping MIDI channels, etc? But then I'd like the Pianos to still be played on the main keybed.

But there will also be times I won't want to haul around two keyboards (and the 2nd stand tier) and so I'd like it not to be hard to go back to the "normal" approach of playing organ on the Nord keybed.

And now that I think about it, if I've got this 2nd controller connected, it might be nice if it weren't hard to also use it to play Synth patches.

This is possible, right? Does anyone have a how-to on this??

Thanks in advance!

Dave

[Elias]

Youre in luck! I'm 100% sure the Nord Stage 2 manual will answer every question you asked in your post.

[catosim]

From the manual, page 48: With Dual Kb mode, it is easily possible to add a different keyboard ac- tion to your rig . Perhaps you have a hammer-action Stage 2, but want waterfall keys for organ playing, or you have a semi-weighted Stage 2, but want a weighted action for piano playing .

If you don't want the external keyboard to play its own sounds, you can use the function "local off", which is common on many synths.
Also you can simply turn the volume down. This may affect on the organ-volume as well, but is possible to control in the MIDI menu of the Stage.

[maxpiano]

You may use the DualKeyb function of NS2 or just assign a specific MIDI Channel to teh Organ B section and set the external master on that same channel.

Besides manual, always good to check first, see also this guide The Nord Stage MIDI Tutorial that explains the various possibilities to MIDI-connect other devices to the NS.

[reggoboy]

First of all, thanks to all for responding!

You may use the DualKeyb function of NS2 or just assign a specific MIDI Channel to teh Organ B section and set the external master on that same channel.

Yea, that DualKeyb feature looks so easy and simple. But as you guessed, I'd like Instrument-level control, not Slot-level control. The manual is odd: it tells me I can do this, and then tells me that it's going to explain it, but the section it references doesn't appear to exist:

wheres_the_section.png (237.65 KiB) Viewed 1752 times

Besides manual, always good to check first, see also this guide The Nord Stage MIDI Tutorial that explains the various possibilities to MIDI-connect other devices to the NS.

Aha, cool! Had no idea about this! I'll devour that and probably play around and see if it does what I hope.

[reggoboy]

Also wondering if the opposite solution would be more ideal. Maybe my next Nord Stage should be the smaller, lighter non-HA model, and when I definitely want HA keys I would add that as the external MIDI controller... Thoughts?

[maxpiano]

Also wondering if the opposite solution would be more ideal. Maybe my next Nord Stage should be the smaller, lighter non-HA model, and when I definitely want HA keys I would add that as the external MIDI controller... Thoughts?

That's another way to go and the one I am at now, but in the past I also owned HA and used a (good) external synth action master.

Which solution is"more ideal"? It depends, it's all about personal needs and "tastes" (i.e. if you always need HA keys or you are OK to play pianos also on a waterfall when you want or must to go single-keyboard ).

[maxpiano]

You may use the DualKeyb function of NS2 or just assign a specific MIDI Channel to the Organ B section and set the external master on that same channel.

Yea, that DualKeyb feature looks so easy and simple. But as you guessed, I'd like Instrument-level control, not Slot-level control. The manual is odd: it tells me I can do this, and then tells me that it's going to explain it, but the section it references doesn't appear to exist:

Actually that is explained in the MIDI settings section of the manual, but I already told you how to do it (see text underlined above).
PS: then you need to assign the Organ B to "no zone" on the NS of course, if you want to play it exclusively from the external master

[reggoboy]

Hello again, folks.

Thanks again. I have read through the entire MIDI section of the main manual, and also the entire 3rd-party MIDI manual, and I have a pretty good idea how things are supposed to work. I'm planning to use the Instrument MIDI channels so that the external controller will only affect the Nord instruments I choose (probably Organ and Synth).

Now I'm trying to connect my synth-style controller to the Nord, and I'm noticing that the USB port on both the Nord and the controller are Type-B. I have about 1000 USB cables, but none are Type B on both ends, and I think such cables are quite rare. I'm going to buy one, but I'd like some type of confirmation that it's okay to connect two Type B devices? Will there be some type of confusion about which is Master vs. Slave?

Plus, the synth controller is bus-powered... Can I expect the Nord to bus-power the synth controller from this same port? I don't want to damage anything, especially the Nord.

Neither manual appears to provide answers to these questions.

Thanks in advance!

[maxpiano]

You cannot connect 2 USB devices (Type B connector) together without a computer/tablet (USB Host, Type A port) in between, this is how USB works in general.

You need to use MIDI DIN connections, unless you have a computer/tablet in your setup that can provide USB power to the master and route its USB MIDI data to the NS2 USB, so you better go for a master that has MIDI DIN and is self powered instead (there are plenty of them).