Nord User Forum

Hi all,

I recently joined the Nord club with a Stage 2. I work mostly on stage with a Rock, Funk, Blues band.

I'm loving everything about the Nord... except... I can't seem to find an Organ sound that I can use live that I love. Any suggestions? I clearly have not had enough time learning the board so anything y'all can do to get me kick started would be fabulous. At the moment I'm running it through a Motion Sound KBR-3D (if anyone out there has one of these I'd love to chat about that as well -- that could be part of my problem).

So, question,

1. Is there an on-board patch that's a great start out of the box or can be tweaked a little (if so how)
2. Should I build my own? if so, what, and how?

Looking for any and all help here since I'm gearing up for some more road gigs and don't really have time to dig into the board.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

Hi Mark, quick suggestions:

1) browse existing Organ patches (using Category Search) and I am sure you will find one to start with (the Jimmy Smith one is the best to start, imho, but it depends on musical genre and tastes)

or

2) do an Organ Init then start with a classic drawbar setting of 888000000, Rotary Slow with a some Drive (3-4), Percussion and Chorus to you liking (I suggest no chorus or just C1 and Percussion ON, Soft, 3rd, Fast)

In both cases, if you want the sound to be more "aggressive" then turn on the Amp/Eq section and put some Amp Drive + boost some Mids/Treble

maxpiano wrote:Hi Mark, quick suggestions:

1) browse existing Organ patches (usign Category Search) and I am sure you will find one to start with (the Jimmy Smith one is the best to start, imho, but it depends on musical genre and tastes)

or

2) do an Organ Init then start with a classic drawbar setting of 888000000, Rotary Slow with a some Drive (3-4), Percussion and Chorus to you liking (I suggest no chorus or just C1 and Percussion ON, Soft, 3rd, Fast)

In both cases, if you want the sound to be more "aggressive" then turn on the Amp/Eq section and put some Amp Drive + boost some Mids/Treble

Yes, I totally agree with Maxpiano. If you are familiar with an actual Hammond, and how the drawbars, chorus, vibrato and percussion effect the sound you want, it’s all there in your Nord. Just find an organ patch and start experimenting with all of the settings, and if you like, add a little reverb too. Once you have made an organ sound that you like, save (store) it. When playing live you can make adjustments to your custom patch ‘on the fly’.

Here is a great tutorial from which you could be inspired:

I accidentally stumbled over this one the other day; it may provide you with a few classic drawbar settings to get started. There are a few more here, and a link to a FAQ on this very forum too.

In any case, it pays of to play around with the organ settings a little; tweaking the drawbars and perhaps also other settings during a song is often part of playing organ.

This is an awesome place to start. Thank you guys! I do play a real B3 (when I'm lucky enough to have backline or in the studio) so I'm familiar with those settings. Thanks!!

By the way -- sorry for the dumb question -- how do I "init" an Organ sound -- that sounds like the best place to start for me.

Hi MaxPiano,

Can't seem to locate the Jimmy Smith patch on the Stage 2 -- where should I be looking?

maxpiano wrote:Hi Mark, quick suggestions:


In both cases, if you want the sound to be more "aggressive" then turn on the Amp/Eq section and put some Amp Drive + boost some Mids/Treble

Thanks again -- any suggestions on the frequency to boost in the Mids (never had a mid control like that before)...

As I recall the old Leslie’s crossover was 800 Hz, so logically that might be a great starting point for the mids. I have my mids set between +1.0 and +3.6, it depends on what YOU like.

markyac wrote:Hi MaxPiano,

Can't seem to locate the Jimmy Smith patch on the Stage 2 -- where should I be looking?

I don't have the factory patches list at hand (and my NS2 is gone, sold two weeks ago), so I just go wth my memories, sorry.

Select the Organ category then browse through them until you find somthing like a "Jimmy..." however the upper manual of that patch is more or less what I suggested you in my option (2)