Total Newbie question about the NE6D organ engine

[DrRichM]

Hello all-
Sorry for this total newbie question!
I've never owned a Nord, and am in the "pre-purchase" phase; looking at an Electro 6D 73 key.
I'm a little confused about the organ section. While it has several sounds (B3, Farfisa, Vox, etc.) I'm not clear if there is a sound library within each of these choices. In other words, if I hit "B3," will that take me to a library that offers many variations on the B3 sound, or will I be responsible for crafting and saving these on my own?
Thanks so much in advance. I hope this question makes sense!!
Rich

[DrRichM]

What you are looking for seems to be a bunch of sound presets. There's a couple of instruments out there with built-in sound preset to dial in (or select with buttons) and adapt a little. That's not the way the E6 works in the first place.

If you activate the organ engine and select a model, the system will enable you to imitate playing the real thing the best possible. You have real drawbars and buttons/knobs for the percussion and vibrato setting. So, the first idea is to play that model live.

But yes, there is a certain amount of 'presets' (called programs in Nord speech) to find different starting points. Not too many, though. It's more up to you to play around with the possible settings.

[DrRichM]

Thanks so much FZiegler!
So just to clarify, while I can craft my own sounds, there are also programs that act as a B3 sound library, correct?

[FZiegler]

What I called starting points isn't what I'd expect from a library. Only a dozen or two with different sound settings.

No idea what you are looking for, but if you are looking for a bunch of famous settings (rock organ, blues organ, Jimmy Smith organ etc.), there will be a selection of some of them. Others would be expected to be set by yourself (or saved to your own program places) collected on the net: There are lists with different approaches to find everywhere. You just use the same 'code' on a real Hammond B3 as on an Electro 6.

[DrRichM]

Thanks again! "Rock organ, blues organ, Jimmy Smith, etc." is exactly what I'm looking for.

[DrRichM]

If you go to the nord site for electro 6 and download only the programs.

https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/ ... llToTabs=1

Look in Factory Sound Banks.

Nord Electro 6 Program Banks RevE.zip (73.2 KB)
All Factory programs

You can look at the banks and can see many of the B3 named programs.

[Gambold]

The Nord preset system can be confusing for a new user. It's not intuitive and takes an understanding of how your Nord Electro is set up.

Basically (and this is a simplified summary), you have three "sections" on your Electro. The Organ, Keyboard, and Sample sections. You can use any of these in combination, but only one sound from each. For example, you can turn on all three and have a sound that uses the White Grand, the B3 organ, and a Strings sample. Each section has its own volume control so you can modify these individually. You will see what sound from each you have selected on the screen in the center of the board.

You can NOT select two sounds from the same section on the Electro. As in, you can't have two different pianos selected at the same time. This confuses people a lot - there is no layering or keyboard splitting of pianos on an Electro like there is on many other keyboard brands. But you might find a piano in the Sample section that you can use to layer or split with one from the Piano section. Obviously the piano in the Sample section will have less complexity in how it sounds. The biggest handicap here is the inability to use two or more Samples at the same time, either layered or as a split keyboard.

PRESETS - these use a truly confusing system of A-Z letters plus numbers, and the only numbers available are 11-14, 21-24, 31-34, and 41-44. So, 16 numbers per 26 letters = 416 possible total presets. Looking like A21, C34, F12, P32, etc. NOTE: Presets refer to the letter-number. Programs are saved to Presets. So if you build a sound with an organ and piano and various effects, that is called a Program, and you save it to a specific Preset. People can use "program" and "preset" interchangeably but there is a technical difference. On the Nord website you can download Programs made by professionals and save these to a preset of your choice.

The reason for the bizarre preset numbering system is Nord uses a structure called sound banks and pages but honestly, these don't make a lot of sense and have little practical use. It's a clunky, dated system that is baked into Nord's onboard software and they don't seem to want to change it, so you learn to live with it. There may be a few old pros here who can explain/justify the system better than I can...but it's not easy to defend, especially in 2024.

SO - when you get your new Nord, they will have loaded many programs into presets for you. These are very useful because they help you understand how different sounds are set up and how to build or modify your own. I won't go into creating a program and saving it as a preset - that is another complicated process - but you will get the hang of it.

You will notice that there are a lot of B3 programs that "turn on" the Organ section when a certain preset is selected. Start with these and you'll get a feel for what the Nord can do.

You may ask yourself - if this is such a hassle, why should I bother with Nord, and not just get a Yamaha? Because Nord has the best piano sounds, the best live user interface, and the best build quality out there. AND the best user forum, right here!

Anyone can buy a Yamaha. Only special people get a Nord

[Rusty Mike]

On the Electro, the organ section is unique from the piano and synth sections. The piano and synth parts are all based on samples, where you download the samples into your Electro and then manipulate parameters to come up with your program.

The organ section, however, is based on a modeling engine that does not use samples. The raw organ sounds are created within the instrument itself, and model the behaviors of the Hammond tonewheel, Italian transistors and unattributed pipe organs. There are a few Hammond tonewheel models which mimics the characteristics of different aged and conditioned organs. So the organ section does not have sound libraries in the same way the other two sections so.

To create an organ program, select which model you want and then manipulate the proper parameters until you get the sound you want. That is then a program that you can store in the instrument.

I hope that helps.

[Gambold]

Rusty Mike makes a great point...the Organ section IS a different creature than the Piano or Sample sections, and just as he says: there are no samples of Organs to download from Nord. You make your own, using the B3, Farfisa, Vox, Pipes, etc.

What your Electro will have is a bunch of presets with Organ PROGRAMS that Nord has created for you. These are very helpful and you may find that other than changing the preset so it's easier to get to (like moving all your favorites into the A and B banks), you may not modify them at all.

Nord has something called Sound Manager which you download to your PC or MAC and use to move your presets around, rename them, etc (you connect your computer to the Nord via a USB cable). It's much easier to do it that way than with the board interface, although that is of course possible.

I have spent countless hours dorking around with my presets. I've experimented with different ways of numbering them, and also have created "setlists" where I've used several banks to store a preset for each individual song in setlist order.

[DrRichM]

Gambold-
Thanks so much! I have asked this question on several forums and frankly you answered the most directly with the most usable information! I do appreciate everyone's help; I feel like many people forget what it's like to be a newbie!! So actually thanks to all. My Electro 6D came in today (a sure sign the 7 will be announced tomorrow) and I'm already having a blast with it. I love the feel of the keybed too - makes my prior keyboard feel like a toy.