Nord User Forum

Ok, so I'm very new to audio, very new to piano, etc., but just had to have a Nord Stage 4, and now I have one.

I think I've heard music being played on a Stage 4 where background sounds are playing by themselves, not necessarily only when keys are pressed on the keyboard. I'm desiring to know how to initiate backgrounds like that.

Yes, I know that people will be rolling their eyes at me, but I would really appreciate hearing the answer, and if so, how to set up those backgrounds....Even similar to a drum providing a beat, etc.

Thank you in advance!

Sean

Your Stage 4 is made for being a stage piano. Not so much for being a audio control unit - audio workstations may be better at doing this.

What you can do is inserting a line level audio source to the Line-In 3.5mm stereo jack and routing it directly to main-out. That can be a smartphone, tablet or other audio source. But there are no controls for start and stop on the piano, neither a way to file it through to the effects section. So it's up to you and the external device to 'initiate' the audio.

Hi @seanster. This forum sees beginners somewhat rarely, mainly because Nord products are evidently designed for and aimed at professional users. But that's not to say you haven't made a good choice, or that you aren't welcome to this forum. Just that much of the information available assumes a certain level of knowledge. Be sure to go through the FAQ sections on this forum as that covers a lot of basic stuff, and will get you familiar with some vocabulary for google searching, or searching on this forum. (Google will often get you a quicker answer than a plethora of questions posted here. And you will also learn to find information more effectively.)

To your question:
I'm 99% sure you are talking about someone who played their NS4 (Nord Stage 4) over an entire separatr backing track. Meaning everything else came from a computer or other external source. Find readily available "backing tracks" all over the internet if you just want to play along to something. Or learn to use some basic DAW like Garageband to record your own music.

Very basic question on the surface level yes, but there are some more advanced tricks to get basic loops or drum rhythms going on on your Stage 4. But being that you a you are "very new to" this thing, I wouldn't worry about those.

(Most important is finding people to share music with, as you won't go very far alone.)

Welcome to NUF and to the family of NORD instrument users.

NS4 is a powerful professional tool, perhaps unusual for a beginner but definitely well chosen, which will provide you with amazing results and also personal growth.
I experienced this years ago with the NS2.

You have a lot of work ahead of you, as Elias suggests.
Take the NS4 guide and familiarize yourself with the features and controls, slowly, gradually as you learn to use the features.

seanster wrote:I'm desiring to know how to initiate backgrounds like that. Even similar to a drum providing a beat, etc.

A sound that is not a key press can be
... from an external source ... as FZiegler writes
... triggered by a command via a MIDI interface
... created via NS4 Arpeggiator function

You will find the key word Arpeggiator in the guide.
Tutorials will help you here. NS4 is a new tool, video tutorials are still being created. The tutorials for NW2 can partially help in this.
Nord Wave 2 Tutorials for Arpeggiator https://www.nordkeyboards.com/videos/tu ... -tutorials

What you talking about a workstation keyboard they have sequencing capabilities built in, but you can do the same thing with your Nord S4 and with a laptop computer running a DAW to play backing tracks. Your Nord's MIDI can work with the DAW to control things, but your going to have to go through a bit of a learning curve to get everything talking to each other.

Now how you worded you question could be asking something different. Are you talking about background parts or you just talking about secondary sounds like a string pad with let say a piano sound. If you looking for secondary sound like pad your Nord Stage 4 can do that by combining the piano section and the synth section at the same time.

I used a Nord Wave 2 to have both live sounds, and sound generated from the arpeggiators. The same thing could be done on the Stage 4. You can do some pretty cool accompaniments this way while still being "live." You can program patterns in the arpeggiator, but only rhythms, not notes. I thought this is a pretty good balance between having some clock-based rhythmic things happening while still being a live instrument.

For the most part, I used one synth channel to play an arpeggiated kick drum pattern using a sample I created, triggered by the left hand which is also playing the bass part. The kick drum arpeggiator plays independently once started. In the Sample Editor, I set the sample to not change with with different notes, so whatever I played with the left hand would trigger the same kick drum sound (though the kick drum is affected by velocity). I set up an expression pedal to fade the kick drum part in and out. I used another synth channel to have an arpeggiator going with my right hand part, and the mod wheel turns the arpeggiator on and off.

The other two channels are used for left hand bass, and right hand chords/other stuff.

You can see this in the videos on our website, particularly the first, second, and fourth video.
https://echofabric.com

Thanks very much to everyone who responded. I'm loving the Stage 4 so far and will likely learn much over time while I lurk here.

Sean

docbop wrote: Now how you worded you question could be asking something different. Are you talking about background parts or you just talking about secondary sounds like a string pad with let say a piano sound.

I appreciate your question....Interestingly, I was looking for secondary sounds, and actually found something similar to what I was hoping for in the preprogrammed sound called Boxxx....I can't recall at the moment which program that is....And, someone else mentioned the Arpeggiator. Turns out that Boxxx seems to use this to create (some of) the sounds that I was looking for.

Smart people here...I need to stick around and learn.

Thank you!!!

hey Seanster,
Your not the only total newbie to sound/keys etc with a stage 4. Mine arrived yesterday.
I had exact same question , ive done a lot of google today and manual reading.
I noticed some of the built in programs had a background drone or swell that started with the first keypress and never end until you stop playing and hit the right sus pedal(3 pedal option).
I believe these are called "Pads" and are sound filling to give mood.
You can create your own in the synth section, dont ask me how yet though.

*possibly the forum needs a newbies topic section so we only bother people who want to help us numpties.. *

Warzarc wrote:I noticed some of the built in programs had a background drone or swell that started with the first keypress and never end until you stop playing and hit the right sus pedal(3 pedal option).
I believe these are called "Pads" and are sound filling to give mood.

You're right! These are called drone pads. In order to do these, you must activate "KB HOLD" on the layer with the synth, then select another synth layer without anything on it. I've demonstrated how to create a CCM Worship style pad here:
nord-stage-forum-f3/drone-pad-tutorial-t24767.html

Hope this is helpful!