Nord User Forum

the nord grand doesn't have a dedicated program up/down jack on the back panel so I am wondering if a program up/down function is accessible using a midi foot switch. I don't like using the program knob in live applications because it's too easy to accidentally advance more than one program at a time when there are multiple tight program changes in a single song.
thanks, Dave Innis

As far as I know, there is no relative assignment of programs through MIDI ("+1", "-1"), but only absolute addressing: switch to program XY in bank Z (via MSB, LSB CC and PC MIDI command). Which makes your task complicated: Your foot pedal would always need to know which program is active to be able to switch to the next one - demands an own logic.

Why not use the 5 program buttons on your Grand?

Dave, I had the same issue on my Nord stage 2EX. There is no up/down jack and as FZiegler mentions, there is no relatice assignment (+1/-1) by MIDI. To use my NS2 in "mixed control mode" (i. e. sometime changing programs with the turn knob on the panel, sometimes during play with a foot pedal) I had to set up a foot pedal with its own logic. Please refer to my two posts for more details:
https://www.norduserforum.com/post115532.html?hilit=KeyFrog2%20foot%20switch#p115532
https://www.norduserforum.com/post115628.html?hilit=KeyFrog2%20foot%20switch#p115628

For sure this is some effort, but setting it up in 2018 it works fine and now I don't want to miss it.

If there are any questions, please let me know.

Original post (first version of foot switch with detailed description) included:
https://www.norduserforum.com/nord-stage-forum-f3/incremental-program-change-foot-switch-for-ns2ex-et-al-t16315.html

Would this https://www.tech21nyc.com/products/effects/midi-mouse/ help?

As far as I understood, this Midi Mouse just sends absolute program addresses and counts its actual program number on its own. Such it can't "listen" to the Nord Grand to know where the Keyboard actually is assigned to.
So the following could happen: if you switched on program #2 by MidiMouse and then switched to #3 by Nord Grand's own knobs, the MidiMouse doesn't "know" that you switched to #3. It still shows #2 and a "up" command will switch to #3 again, although you might expect to go to #4 when pressing the "up" button.
If you always observe the number shown in the MidiMouse display (and don't mind to run some steps up, if you used the Nord program change in between) this could be what you are looking for. If you want to control by Midi device AND nord panel in mixed mode, and one "up" commands is expected to step one program up (independently, how the previous program was choosen, Midi or Nord), it probably isn't ...