Nord User Forum

I am new to my Nord 5D (2 weeks), and have figured out how to adjust sounds/tones/effects and combinations, but can't make heads or tails out of how to store them beyond the 4 preset buttons (Program, Live 1, Live 2, etc). Has anyone found a decent YouTube tutorial for basic Nord Electro 5D storing 101?

Hi g-j - have you had a look at page 6 of the Electro 5 manual under 'Storing and naming programs'
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/downloads/ ... -electro-5

The manual is a bit too brief in some areas, but the program storing seems straightforward.

Thanks JXrays. I guess the "Rosetta Stone" was right in front of me. Its kind a like riding a bicycle: do it once and it comes easy after that. Now on to Setlists...

I don't have a Nord Electro 5 but it seems that there is way more questions about the Setlist....Meaning more difficult?

I'm off the steepest part of the learning curve but still am making errors setting up songs in set list mode. For example, last night an organ patch inexplicably (to me, at least) lacked a control pedal function. When I moved to add organ mid-song it came in at full volume. :-/ In another instance, I thought I had changed a clavi from auto-wah to control pedal but it didn't save.

One has to check and double check every setting. I realize that with having two sounds in a single program complicates things, but I really miss the simplicity of my old NE2. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon, but a bit frustrating.

I haven't even delved into the "Live" settings.

Can someone explain exactly where they would be used?

The Nord 5D is fairly straight forward, however, Nord needs to SERIOUSLY look at writing a comprehensive manual! I teach technical writing at the college level, and I can tell you, whoever wrote the manual is either an amateur or was ordered by management to only write a Getting Started Manual. The layout and design is very nice, but the content quality is anemic.

Engineers spend hundreds of hours designing the actual keyboard, and yet, no one is assigned to document the features and methods from the early stages. That strategy is very typical of large companies. In the perfect world, a technical writer goes along for the ride during product development. When he or she is not present at that stage, it really shows in the final documentation. Spending millions of dollars on product development and pennies on documentation does not make sense. It leads to two things: unhappy customers and an overloaded Help desk (if there is one available). End of rant...

I agree that the manual is pretty useless, not so much poorly written (I've always found Yamaha manuals to be particularly impenetrable) as very incomplete. My old NE2 was pretty simple and very intuitive to use (and I don't think my scratch-and-dent NE1 even had a manual!), but the NE5 needs a detailed user manual.

I found a couple of YouTube videos that did a much better job than the manual.

But I'm still not sure what the "Live" programs would be useful for.

clinkmd wrote:I agree that the manual is pretty useless, not so much poorly written (I've always found Yamaha manuals to be particularly impenetrable) as very incomplete. My old NE2 was pretty simple and very intuitive to use (and I don't think my scratch-and-dent NE1 even had a manual!), but the NE5 needs a detailed user manual.

I found a couple of YouTube videos that did a much better job than the manual.

But I'm still not sure what the "Live" programs would be useful for.

You can consider the Live as Program ps whoch automatically update themselves ( i.e. get "saved") every single time you move a control, so they always retain the latest changes you make on them.

They are useful for example to experiment with on the fly changes or as tempirary work buffers while creating a new Program or just as "scratchpads"

The Live setting is for those of us who have not had the time or patience to delve into the details of the Set Lists, who are not looking for particular sounds, and who are focused more on playing the provided instruments as if you had them all in front of you at the same time, there in the room.

So of the three settings, one holds my pianos, one epianos, and the other organs. Three simple buttons and I navigate among three favorite instruments (an upright, a Rhodes and the B3) set up minimally, like I like them: the acoustic piano eq'd to my sound system, the Rhodes with tremolo only, the B3 set up to respond to live drawbars. Easy to add effects on the fly, though I don't add many.

In any one of the settings, I can move to the array of alternatives easily, and back again, as I prefer to do.

One day I will put in the time to master the many, many features I am not using, but in them meantime, my dream board, really, especially when I am playing the pianos on my Yamaha 88 via midi.