Nord User Forum

Hello, I have a Viscount Oberheim OB32 organ with drawbars which are sending Sys-Ex. I want to use it as an external controler for organs, mainly due to drawbars. How can I make drawbars work on MIDI of Stage 3? Keyboard of Oberheim organ works properly on MIDI, but not the drawbars. If Oberheim is sending Sys-Ex, is the Stage capable to read it?

Hi Chill,

First off, this is not sysex, but ordinary midi. Sysex, or System Exclusive, relates to data sent to a specific brand and model of an instrument. Sysex messages begin with F0 and end with F7; after the F0 there are codes for manufacturer, model, etc., and ONLY instruments of that brand and model will respond to that message. Everything else will ignore it.

Presumably, the OB has a midi controller chart which will tell you what cc numbers are assigned to each drawbar. There is a midi controller chart at the back of the Nord manual which will tell you what cc numbers are assigned to each function. Chances of those two sets of numbers "aligning" perfectly are very small. To make this work you would probably need to have some device in between the two to "translate" the OB cc numbers to the Nord cc numbers. This could be a hardware device or a computer running software.

So...it would technically be possible to do what you want, but it is probably more trouble than it would be worth. Depends on how badly you want it.

Bless, Pablo

HI Bome can convert SysEx to CC messages. Check there forum http://www.bome.com/support/kb

Here's a video of using an iPad app to use the Roland VR09's drawbars (sysex) to control an organ that requires standard MIDI CCs (B-3X)... the same procedure should let you use any other sysex drawbars (as presumably on your Oberheim) to any other drawbar-based device that uses MIDI CC (like the Nord). If you have (or are willing to acquire) an iPad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjNvx5bp9x4