Nord User Forum

I've recently bought a Stage 2, and while in almost every respect it's a real improvement on my Stage Classic, I have to say I really miss not having presets in the synth module. I do intend to get my synth chops together a bit more so I can make my own sounds, but it was really handy having presets on the classic, especially for getting patches together in rehearsal situations etc. Am I missing something here? I've gratefully downloaded some of the excellent patches forum users have posted, but is there a bank of more generic all-purpose patches available for download anywhere? I'd be grateful to anyone who can enlighten me!

The synth section does have its own presets. You can have 1024 programs (where a program contains the settings for all sections in both slots) but you can also have 300 presets just for the synth section.

What was very confusing for me is that the names of the first 115 presets (or something like that) are the same as the standards samples on the Stage 2. You can change that of course and if you keep going, at some point you'll see that the synth presets will have different names (and probably don't use samples, but I never verified that).

Page 32 of the manual briefly describes how to choose a synth preset - read the Load Sound section, especially the 2nd paragraph.

I never found these synth presets that useful and frankly somewhat confusing. I suppose they're best in a live situation, or when creating new synth sounds since you could build up a library of good starting points.

Edit: I'm wondering if I'm confusing the situation on the Wave with that on the Stage 2. I have neither anymore, so I can't check. Maybe it was the Wave where the first 115 were the same as the samples. On the other hand, I seem to remember the Wave could only have 99 samples. Age is catching up with me...

Hi Shan/MJ,

I often marvel at how involved you get in responses relating to keyboards you no longer own, but your brain has cross-pollenated some things here, as you suggested. The Wave has 8 banks of 128 programs each; the Stage 2 has 4 banks of 100 programs each. You were correct about the Synth Section "subprograms" though; they are still implemented on the Stage 2, but organized slightly differently. The older Stage/Stage EX splits those synth subprograms into three categories: Leads, Basses and Pads. On the NS2 there is no superimposed organization -- you simply get access to 300 locations to use as you see fit.

Pablo

Thanks guys!