Nord User Forum

Now I am not quite sure whether I got it right.
Are your programmed patches on Mainstage, and you trigger resp. change them from your Yamaha by pedal?
Or are your patches onboard your Yamaha, and you trigger the change from Mainstage on your Mac by pedal?
Cheers

anotherscott wrote:If you have footswitch patch control of Mainstage, and you set it so that Mainstage in turn sends Program Changes to the Nord, that would work too.

In either case, the Nord does not have (nor need) any special functionality for these things to work.

Thank you - so it sounds like using the footswitch patch control of Mainstage to send program (different sounds) changes to the Nord works?
Because that’s exactly what I’m after: my programmed patches are on Mainstage (not the Nord) and I want to trigger those respective changes on the Nord via a footswitch control (as I have done on my Yamaha). That is, all the patches are coming from the Mainstage soundbank, sequentially, as programmed therein. I want to send those to my Nord.

Hopefully I’ve made my needs it a little clearer now. Thanks again for your help/confirmation. Hoping the electro 6D will work seamlessly with Mainstage this way.

If your sound patches are in Mainstage and if you can change these patches with the pedal which is connected to your Mac, then everything is fine. In this case there is no need to resend any programme changes to the nord. What shall they change there? Yep, I think you‘re done. Good luck. What kind of shows are those you play? Cheers

Last try: I'm still confused about the way you describe your approach.

The Nord has a soundbank where you can send sounds to. But only from the Nord piano respectively the Nord sample library. You can't "send" your Mainstage sounds to the Nord - but why should you even want to do that?

If you want to trigger your software sounds from a Nord, maybe consider a Stage 3 (maybe Compact with physical drawbars, 73 keys, aftertouch). Of course, it has more than you need - might even be a waste. But it has useful options, too: connectable program change pedal, Ext section (send MIDI PC/CC per program - 2 zones, if you use both panels), Song mode for organising programs (as pointers).

What other reasons direct you towards a Nord? What about other instruments with more MIDI functionality?

mazs123 wrote:

anotherscott wrote:so it sounds like using the footswitch patch control of Mainstage to send program (different sounds) changes to the Nord works?

It should work fine... check the link I provided in my first reply. From that link: "You can also send a program change message to the external instrument when you select the patch to control which program the external instrument uses. " So Mainstage patches can send Program Changes to external boards, and Mainstage patches can also be changed by footswitch, ergo you should be able to change Mainstage oatches by footswitch which will in turn send Program Changes to the Nord.

But picking up from Tasten-Bert's response, I'm not sure any of that matters, because you say...

mazs123 wrote:my programmed patches are on Mainstage (not the Nord) and I want to trigger those respective changes on the Nord via a footswitch control (as I have done on my Yamaha).

If ALL your stored sounds are in Mainstage, and none are in the Nord, why do you even need to "send program (different sounds) changes to the Nord"?

You haven't mentioned which Yamaha you have... some Yamahas do let you change patches with a footswitch. The Nord Electro does not (but you can do it with the MIDI Mouse). Are you using the Yamaha's foot switch to change sounds in Mainstage? The Nord can't do that. If you're using some other foot controller to change Mainstage patches, you can keep using that. Otherwise you'd have to add some other device for this purpose.

mazs123 wrote:That is, all the patches are coming from the Mainstage soundbank, sequentially, as programmed therein. I want to send those to my Nord.

Again, there is confusion here. Are you trying to send Program Changes or are you trying to send audio (sounds)?

Mainstage can send Nord Program Changes to a Nord (for the Nord to change its internal sounds), it can send Yamaha Program Changes to a Yamaha (ditto), but you can't send Mainstage patches to a Nord, or to a Yamaha, or anything else.

Mainstage can send sounds (audio) to any device with an audio input. On some Yamahas, sound can come in through USB, on some Yamahas sound can come in through a 1/4" line input. On the Electro 6, sound cand come in through the 1/8" stereo Monitor input. But none of this has anything to do with MIDI.

FZiegler wrote:If you want to trigger your software sounds from a Nord, maybe consider a Stage 3 ...What about other instruments with more MIDI functionality?

Yes, for something Electro-like with more MIDI and/or pedal flexibility, one could also consider Hammond SK1, Dexibell J7, Yamaha YC61...?