Nord User Forum

Many thanks everybody and the long explanation (execbat)
Quick question, I'm aware the A1 doesn't have a physical midi thru, can you still set it to act as midi thru?

I'd like for a controller keyboard to send midi out to the nord leadA1 midi in and midi out back to the controller midi in, like a loop where the nord lead a1 does exactly nothing.

don't ask why

Why?

Mr_-G- wrote:Why?

eheheh, it's in order to take advantage of an easter egg hidden in the kawai mp7se (I've ordered one). Along the side the included 256 sounds it contains an additional sound bank of 128 general midi sounds. This sound bank can only be enabled when connecting a cable from midi out to midi in. It's a bit weird but it works.

From Kawai:
The trick explained in Chuck's video works by having the MP7 send a MIDI Program Change command to itself. The MP7 has a number of additional MIDI sounds that are not selectable from the front panel, but used when playing back MIDI files. However, by sending a MIDI Program Change command from the instrument's MIDI OUT back in to the instrument's MIDI IN, we are able to access these additional sounds. In the video, Chuck uses the MP7 itself to send the MIDI Program Change command, however this command can theoretically come from any device, as long as it is capable of transmitting MIDI - this could be a computer or tablet, or another instrument such as your Nord. The most straightforward method is to connect the MP7's MIDI OUT and MIDI IN ports together, as this allows everything to be self-contained, but it obvious prevents connecting another MIDI device to either the MIDI IN or MIDI OUT port.


This is going to be my configuration:
mp7se midi out -> nla1 midi in -> nla1 midi out -> mp7se midi in

It's just I would need a little help setting up the nord lead a1 so that every program change on the mp7se goes in the nla1 and out in the same manner, whether possible.

thx

To recap, do you know whether it is possible for MIDI Program Change data received via midiIn to be sent via midiOut on the nord lead A1?
I'm sorry but I'm not that familiar with midi

In the manual it says only "midi note data" is going thru when using the soft thru function. I know that clock does not go thru, and I guess program change neighter.

ok, thanks, I'm getting a midi y splitter cable and try it that way

one more thing, If I connect the Nord midi out to an audio interface midiIn, how well implemented is the nla1 midi thru? I'm a little confused as to what the manual got wrong

thx

Sorry, I don't understand the question. If midi soft thru is enabled then all midi notes coming in at the midi in on the selected midi channel will also be passed on to the midi out output, again on that one midi channel. If you send midi data via interface out to the NL and via midi thru back to the computer then you could eventually produce a loop depending on daw settings. If you set the global channel to the same channel as the midi thru channel and play the NL at the same time then data should be merged on this channel (but I never did this).

Thanks and sorry for the late reply, I ended up not needing the soft-thru capabilities.

I have another question though, I noticed slots are controlled via midi regardless of their active status.
So if only 2 slots in a performance are active all four slots emit sound when sending notes via the global channel. Is there a way to configure the nord lead a1 NOT to emit sound when a particular slot is inactive?

I'm aware the solution is to send four separate channels, one per slot, (an disable the corresponding unwanted zones on the controller keyboard). However this is inconvenient for my current setup.
I've split up the kawai zones into 4, 2 for internal and 2 external sounds (external1 slotA and B, external2 slot C and D to somewhat mimic the nla1 dual channel split architecture ).

So, unless it was possible to ignore midi notes for inactive slots ( is it? ), my workaround is to go through all 400 nla1 performances, turn off the output volume of all disabled slots and save each one again. This is probably the easiest albeit labour intensive solution.

Any thoughts?
Many thanks

I want to also ask about this exact issue, it makes DAW integration a pain.

"So if only 2 slots in a performance are active all four slots emit sound when sending notes via the global channel. Is there a way to configure the nord lead a1 NOT to emit sound when a particular slot is inactive?"

IF I audition performances from my DAW, it's sending one channel to the A1. The A1 might have a great performance that is only using three patches, and that fourth patch, which is not selected, will make the INIT sound - blahhhhh. That seems like a bug in fact.

Has anyone found a workaround? I mean sending four midi channels, and then muting ones based on the performance selected when auditioning sounds is totally a sign that the programmers were out of their minds.

S.