Nord User Forum

I've had my NS4C for a week now and am loving everything about it except for the loss of song mode, which I used extensively to organize my programs into songs/sets and categories so that I could easily organize programs in various ways without duplicating them. My current song mode workaround is to store my custom sounds (which are all AUX KB/DUAL KB mode) in the 2 open banks (G + H) and organize my programs into pages of 8 programs each (total of 128 programs). Bank G is organized by sound category for each of the 8 pages and Bank H organized by song, for multi program songs and and am using the PAGE/BANK button to quickly change bank/pages to select sounds.

G11-18 Piano Programs (Piano B3 1, Piano B3 2, Piano Strings 1, Piano Strings 2, Piano Brass 1, Piano Brass 2 etc.)
G21-28 E. Piano Programs
G31-38 Organ Programs
G41-48 String Programs
G51-58 Brass Programs
G61-68 Synth Pad Programs
G71-78 Synth Lead Programs
G81-88 Effect Programs

For bank H, I have named the programs alphabetically based on song title and organized them into pages

i.e. H11-18 Breathe Into, Breathe Verse 1, Breathe Verse 2 etc.

I use Onsong for all of my sets and chord/lyric charts and have added a sticky note to each chart with the NS4 progam information.

I have ordered 2 WIDI jacks (one for my NS4 and one for my Yamaha P70 controller) so I can send program changes at the start of each song to the NS4 from Onsong.

One thing to note is that due to the new NS4 architecture, I am able to get away with less programs as I am using LAYER SCENE II almost like a second program.

I am also using LIVE MODE to save my 8 favourite programs, so I can quickly get to one of those sounds by hitting the LIVE MODE button.

Has anyone else come up with some creative workarounds for the missing Song Mode?

I sent feedback to Nord about the lack of a set list feature and received a brief but encouraging answer:
>There will be features added to the Stage 4 that help out with organizing content in relation to a set list, although it can’t be specified in detail at this point.

This makes me happy.

cliff wrote:I sent feedback to Nord about the lack of a set list feature and received a brief but encouraging answer:
>There will be features added to the Stage 4 that help out with organizing content in relation to a set list, although it can’t be specified in detail at this point.

This makes me happy.

Thanks for letting us know. I also sent a note, but did not get a reply. Hopefully it will be in the next firmware upgrade.

I am guessing a new version of the stage 4 will come out with a song mode button. Early Stage 4 adopters may want to upgrade again !

cliff wrote:I sent feedback to Nord about the lack of a set list feature and received a brief but encouraging answer:
>There will be features added to the Stage 4 that help out with organizing content in relation to a set list, although it can’t be specified in detail at this point.

This makes me happy.

I sent similar feedback and got a less than encouraging answer:
"Hi there right now you got the latest I'm pretty sure they will have future updates to try and solve certain issues thank you"

SuperStage wrote:I've had my NS4C for a week now and am loving everything about it except for the loss of song mode, which I used extensively to organize my programs into songs/sets and categories so that I could easily organize programs in various ways without duplicating them. My current song mode workaround is to store my custom sounds (which are all AUX KB/DUAL KB mode) in the 2 open banks (G + H) and organize my programs into pages of 8 programs each (total of 128 programs). Bank G is organized by sound category for each of the 8 pages and Bank H organized by song, for multi program songs and and am using the PAGE/BANK button to quickly change bank/pages to select sounds.

G11-18 Piano Programs (Piano B3 1, Piano B3 2, Piano Strings 1, Piano Strings 2, Piano Brass 1, Piano Brass 2 etc.)
G21-28 E. Piano Programs
G31-38 Organ Programs
G41-48 String Programs
G51-58 Brass Programs
G61-68 Synth Pad Programs
G71-78 Synth Lead Programs
G81-88 Effect Programs

For bank H, I have named the programs alphabetically based on song title and organized them into pages

i.e. H11-18 Breathe Into, Breathe Verse 1, Breathe Verse 2 etc.

I use Onsong for all of my sets and chord/lyric charts and have added a sticky note to each chart with the NS4 progam information.

I have ordered 2 WIDI jacks (one for my NS4 and one for my Yamaha P70 controller) so I can send program changes at the start of each song to the NS4 from Onsong.

One thing to note is that due to the new NS4 architecture, I am able to get away with less programs as I am using LAYER SCENE II almost like a second program.

I am also using LIVE MODE to save my 8 favourite programs, so I can quickly get to one of those sounds by hitting the LIVE MODE button.

Has anyone else come up with some creative workarounds for the missing Song Mode?

I’m using an iPad mini to select Stage 4 programs and display song charts. Since you’re doing something similar, why have you bothered organizing your programs locally on the board? Programs come and go and keeping them organized without an external application is a lot of unnecessary work in my experience.

StuartR wrote: I’m using an iPad mini to select Stage 4 programs and display song charts. Since you’re doing something similar, why have you bothered organizing your programs locally on the board? Programs come and go and keeping them organized without an external application is a lot of unnecessary work in my experience.

I play in multiple groups and we are often playing through new songs, or jamming without a set list, so organizing them by category allows me to quickly jump to the sound I'm looking for without using an external program manager.

I've been spending most of my time recreating my NS3 programs on my NS4 and eventually I'll have time to input program changes for every song in Onsong.

If the "Layer Scene 2" would allow for a totally different set of sounds & settings,
I think this would already make a huge difference to a lot of players only in need of a 'chorus' and a 'verse'.
(I know, this doesn't yet cover the 'setlist' part of the song mode...)
Technically, there's probably nothing that is withholding Nord to do so.

I found that the NS4 still has the organize tool and setting up programs like in song mode on the NS3 on the programs on the NS4 has helped my workflow tremendously.

727JShea wrote:I found that the NS4 still has the organize tool and setting up programs like in song mode on the NS3 on the programs on the NS4 has helped my workflow tremendously.

Not sure that is the same...