Nord User Forum

Just curious if the new NE5 will be able to respond to pitch bend and mod wheel MIDI commands from another keyboard. I can understand why Nord has not added the wheels themselves to the NE5 but I think it would be a great feature to at least let the sample section respond to these. I understand and accept the limited envelope capabilities on the NE but as it is, many of the samples now available are not really usable as intended without some ability to modulate the pitch of the sample in real time (some of the new Chinese instrument samples being an example). Anyone know if this is a hardware or a software issue i.e. could a software update allow the NE3 and NE4 respond to pitch bending?

Hi, Jimmy-

Although they have not posted the Electro 5 manual, none of the previous Electro models have had the ability to recognize pitch bend.

Excerpt from the Midi Implementation chart for Electro 4:

Thanks DJ. Well aware my NE4 does not respond to pitch bend MIDI messages. I am guessing most NE users have a second keyboard that has pitch bend and mod wheels. Would seem logical to me that Nord would at least let the Electro respond to this. I just read the posts by the creator of the Chinese instrument samples and he says several times that they are best used with pitch bending and modulation...oh well.

Hey, Jimmy-

Understood. It is just my belief, that this will not change with the new NE5-

-dj

Yeah, it would be a pleasant surprise if the Electro series suddenly started recognizing pitch bend over MIDI. I don't think there's any way for it to recognize mod wheel though, at least in terms of how a mod wheel would typically be used. Most often, it is a control that is assigned to an LFO function... in terms of the synth samples sounds you're talking about, there is no LFO in the Electro there for a wheel to control.

Good point on the mod wheel/LFO issue. I guess as long as you could at least pitch bend you could create some vibrato manually if needed. I have no sense how complicated it is to incorporate this capability into the instrument...although pitch bending has been around probably more than 40 years now so it can't be that difficult. Just seems like a glaring deficiency now that the Electro series can play samples, many of which need this capability to sound more authentic. Another point belabored...sorry.

My understanding is that the Electro was never designed to be a "synth". Clavia had a separate line for that and the Electro focus was Organ, Piano, Rhodes and other electro mechanical insturments. The Stage was the flagship because it had all of these elements plus the synth-

-dj

It would be nice to have a pitch stick to do whammy bar clavinet a la george duke or the echoplex style note bending used by herbie hancock on his rhodes. There's also the pitch knob on the mellotron and the note bending possible on clavichords, but i admit these are all pretty obscure examples.

Pitch bend is definitely something that, to me, has felt "missing" on the Electro for some time, especially with the addition of the synth section. Would definitely motivate me to upgrade if the E5 sampled sounds could at least *receive* pitch bend/mod data (from an external MIDI controller). The Stage still has the advantage of all engines and controllers living in one package… but the Electro's sound source shouldn't be crippled, IMO.

v1.20 (2015-06-17)
Part Upper now supports MIDI Pitch Bend from external keyboard, when in MIDI Split mode.


I tried with my Studiologic Acuna masterkeyboard but it doesn't run with my NE5. No pitchbending on upper part... any advice here?