Nord User Forum

Love my Nord Electro 4 SW73... but....
I do not understand the instructions for transposing the key for a song.
SHIFT Program-3 then WHAT do the values in the Up Down mean?
How do you know it worked?
How do you save and exit?
There like 4 lines in the entire manual..
Surely this works!
Gino San Francisco

Hey...
I figured it out...
The documentation was just too thin and vague...
I am going to rewrite the instructions and make them more logical for old school musicians like me who learn from examples.
As a programmer, I am impressed with the design algorithm and the keyboard control layout.
It is just very poorly explained, and it is confusing.
It is very easy to transpose a song on the fly for guest singers, and not insulting to anyone's training... especially if you are backing up with complex music like opera.
I can transpose on the fly for POP music easily.
Just try it with a ShowTune that modulates all over the place... why torture yourself...
TRANSPOSE digitally..
-G

I am an UX expert and I agree. As I wrote some times ago, at Nord they are great from the sound point of view. Regarding the UI of their keyboards… they have no idea about what usability is.

@ozio01: UX or UI? Because they are not the same thing (I can have a great UX with a simple/basic UI) and as a "live" instrument, not a workstation/arranger, I find Nord Electro/Stage provide a very good UX (that's actually one of the things that sells them to many people compared to other brands).

Maybe because I seldom to never use the Transpose (and I am not sure about "transposing an opera"... ???) I don't find this to be an issue, in any case I agree the manuals ar sometimes "very concise" but Nord keyboards are "hands on" instruments so if you just try immediately what you read it is usually easy to figure out what it means, for example that transpose parameter is in "semitones".

Note that in the E4, it takes four keystrokes to get to the transpose function... then additional button presses depending on the desired interval.
Starting with the Electro 5, this UI friction was eased a bit, via a semi-dedicated button.

ozio01 wrote:I am an UX expert and I agree. As I wrote some times ago, at Nord they are great from the sound point of view. Regarding the UI of their keyboards… they have no idea about what usability is.

That is the most bizarre statement I have ever read about Nord.

I own some forty different synths and keyboards from the past 45 years. Apart from the single-sound pianos, clavinets and the Hammonds, the only ones that are more straightforward to program and operate than my Nord Stage are monophonic analogues and the Roland RS-09 from the late 70s. Oh, and the Nord Electro 2, which was just wonderfully simplistic.

They are leaps and bounds ahead, even though they apparently buried the transpose function on the E4. (It’s directly accessible on the Nords I’ve owned.)

Rather than insert myself unto this UI UX pissing contest, I am going to just give my take.
It is very hard to locate a NORD Keyboard in Northern California San Francisco to evaluate before purchase.
My first choice was a Nord 4 Piano, but the nearest Nord 4 Piano was is in Guitar Center Los Angeles, and I may still fly down to evaluate it.
Piano Action was my #1 preference.

When the NE4 came up for sale as 'USED' in Oakland-Emeryville Guitar Center, I rushed down to evaluate.
People were already there bidding on it.

The PROs:
portability size weight!
flexibility (midi, monitor, headphones, stereo, mono, USB, etc..)
design and external documentation, from Serial#, to all the input/export connections, with the cheat sheet configuration printed right on the top of the unit!! TOTALLY AWESOME...
Piano sound variations and configurations ...AWESOME....
Church/Pipe Organ sounds …. AWESOME...
B3 Organ sounds... Leslie, rotary, etc.. VERY AWESOME...

The CONs:
Piano Action was acceptable, comparable to Yamaha et al...
73 vs. 88 keys
No Music Stand built into unit (I built a plexiglass insert music stand into the NE4 Stand)… this was overlooked by the designers...

My USE:
My professional performing ... Pop ShowTunes Piano Opera, back-up stand up singers, recitals, weddings, funerals, old fashioned singular piano lounge lizard act.. play AND sing,
Teaching piano organ singer students...
Rehearsing choral groups...
Recording, Arranging, and Composing with MIDI

Typical sample requirements in a month:
1. KeyBoard in a group in a club, Stand Up singer requires TRANSPOSED version of the QUEEN/Freddy Mercury 'Bohemian Rhapsody'... not easy to do on the fly or get transposed sheet music. VOILA 5 key strokes, and ready.. (These Stand Up nights are becoming more popular than Karaoke in clubs, and it requires professional keyboard players AND some technical help from TRANSPOSE).
2. Singing Students need developmental TRANSPOSED versions of songs where no sheet music exists..e.g.. Opera Arias.. I can make MP4 recordings immediately..
3. My Lounge Lizard act... Patron request: I know Jim Morrison's 'Light My Fire in G' cold as an instrumental, but cannot sing the top notes well... cannot transpose it to F on the fly. VOILA 5 key strokes, and ready..

The NE4 is proving to be a GodSend of an instrument.

I can play the Bach Toccata & Fugue Organ transcription, and be impressed with the sound
I can play my bastardized piano Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody from music that i built on my MIDI
I can play and sing Puccini's 'Che Gelida Manina' one step lower while playing the original score
I can play and sing Procul Harem's 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' one step lower, and still marvel at the B3 Leslie quality

I am discovering new uses and settings every day.
So I would definitely NOT accept the offhand snide snooty deprecations of the TRANSPOSE function of the NE4 that I read here.
The TRANSPOSE function is more required in today's professional performing keyboard world than ever before because of the proliferation of 'Stand Up Mic' clubs replacing Karaoke.

It just needs better documentation, which I will write next...

Gino San Francisco

We are dealing with a 3 dimensional array being displayed in 2 dimensions with the cheat-sheet printed on the top of the NE4
CATEGORY: SYSTEM
SubCATEGORY#: 3.x (values -3.6 thru +3.6 where 3.0 is the DEFAULT NO TRANSPOSE
Setting: # half steps up or down (scroll)

Once you learn this TRANSPOSE sequence, the methodology translates to all other settings.

1. locate the TRANSPOSE option on the printed cheat-sheet on the top of the NE4... (It is SubCATEGORY#=3 under CATEGORY=SYSTEM… this is the TRANSPOSE option...

2. pressing the Program Key#1 [CATEGORY=SYSTEM] and the SHIFT KEY down simultaneously will cause the Program Key#1 [CATEGORY=SYSTEM] to activate and blink RED

3. using the UP and DOWN arrow keys WITHOUT THE SHIFT KEY to the left of the electronic DISPLAY and navigate to SubCATEGORY#=3.x which corresponds to the TRANSPOSE SubCATEGORY# value. It should be 3.0 meaning DEFAULT NO TRANSPOSE ZERO Half Steps change

4. play any note on the keyboard

5. holding the SHIFT KEY down navigate to the # of half tone steps you want to TRANSPOSE to using the UP and DOWN arrow keys.

6. play that same note again on the keyboard as in #4, it should reflect the TRANSPOSE


7. press the RED blinking Program#1 CATEGORY=SYSTEM button to stop the blinking

8. VOILA nb: Memory Protection... the CATEGORY=SYSTEM, SubCategory3=1, Setting=On/Off is ignored for TRANSPOSE

Gino San Francisco

gdermody wrote:… this was overlooked by the designers...

By overlooked do you mean overlooked? I think it's unlikely they forgot it, they have it in other models. Maybe by overlooked you mean made a conscious decision during the design phase.

So:

1. Hold Shift Button and press „Program 1/System“ to enter system settings.

2. use the up/down buttons to go to point 3.x (transpose)

3. Hold shift and use the up/down buttons to set transpose from -6 to +6 semitones.

4. Press „Program 1/System“ again to leave the menu.

Done.

Seems pretty okay. Not as elegant as holding down a dedicated transpose button and twisting a knob, sure. I guess that’s part of building a keyboard specifically to replicate electromechanical instruments (which don’t transpose) rather than being an allrounder stage machine.