I noticed an interesting phenomenon that doesn't seem to happen on any other synth or guitar unit I own (and own quite a few). If I use a two into one stereo cord (high quality) out of 12 from the Nord into a single stereo input on my mixer, most electric pianos and possibly another piano or two have NO sound. If I pull one cord, there is sound. If I switch the outputs off the default 12 (A) Arrow to (B) I can get sound. HOWEVER, 2 straight stereo cables allows me to leave the settings as 12.
Is there something different about the Nord's 1/4" outputs in terms of Tip/Ring or such and/or why is it only some piano sounds that are affected?
Stage 4 Outputs
- cphollis
- Posts: 2008
- Joined: 01 Mar 2013, 20:56
- 13
- Your Nord Gear #1: Nord Stage 4
- Your Nord Gear #2: Nord Piano 5
- Location: Vero Beach, Fl
- Has thanked: 77 times
- Been thanked: 904 times

Re: Stage 4 Outputs
The symptoms you are describing can be caused by phase cancellation, e.g. two very similar mono signals combined out-of-phase which mostly cancel each other out so you hear little to nothing. Remove one mono signal, and presto! It's likely a mis-wired cable or similar.
I think I have gear issues ....
-
ovrdrvn
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 14 Oct 2024, 17:44
- 1
- Your Nord Gear #1: Nord Stage 4
- Has thanked: 21 times
- Been thanked: 13 times

Re: Stage 4 Outputs
Is it possible the electric pianos in the Stage are mono? Most other sounds work great.
- maxpiano
- Patch Creator
- Posts: 7301
- Joined: 27 Jun 2011, 13:29
- 14
- Your Nord Gear #1: Nord Stage 3
- Location: Italy
- Has thanked: 560 times
- Been thanked: 2569 times

Re: Stage 4 Outputs
Electric pianos are mono by definition, like the real ones (the Fender Rhodes has a single mono output jack); to make them stereo you usually add effects like Auto Pan, Chorus...ovrdrvn wrote: 15 Feb 2025, 04:02 Is it possible the electric pianos in the Stage are mono? Most other sounds work great.
However your problem seems phase cancellation, check you didn't plug one of the cables into Headphones OUT instead of 1/2
- Mr_-G-
- Former Team Member
- Posts: 4760
- Joined: 18 Aug 2012, 16:48
- 13
- Your Nord Gear #1: Nord Stage 2
- Has thanked: 1470 times
- Been thanked: 1274 times
Re: Stage 4 Outputs
It could also be that cable is wrongly wired (2 mono to stereo plug) or has a shorted connector (check with a multimeter), or the mixer has an "invert phase" switched on, or the mixer is wrongly wired (unlikely but maybe not impossible).
The other thing is to try two mono cables into different channels and see if that still suffers from phase cancellation.
The other thing is to try two mono cables into different channels and see if that still suffers from phase cancellation.