NS4 problems with external gear

[anotherscott]

I'm coming to this getting frustrated that nobody in the real world can answer my questions.

For the past 14 years my gigging setup has been a Stage 2 Compact in Dual KB Mode with a Fatar Studiologic underneath, most recently the SL73. The Studiologic is used for pianos, the NS2 for everything else. I've got a sustain pedal going into the Studiologic, which the above seems to imply will work. But I also use a joystick on the Studiologic for when I want to layer piano with synth, controlling the latter's filter cut-off frequency, and I use another joystick to control the Leslie speed, as I found it actually feels the same as a real half moon switch. The above seems to suggest this won't work.

Nobody I've spoken to seems to definitively know if all of this will work with a Stage 4 Compact.

I don't have the NS4, so I can't give you a definitive answer either, but I think there may be a solution here...

The complaint of the Nord not recognizing an external mod wheel in "AUX KB" mode may actually be a way of saying the Nord does not recognize CC1 (which is what a mod wheel usually sends). But if you have a more capable controller like the SL, you can change what the wheel (or in your case, joystick) sends. I suspect that if you programmed one of your sticks to send MIDI CC 59, it might very well control your filter cutoff frequency; and if you programmed another stick to send MIDI CC 108, it could control rotary speed. Maybe someone here can confirm that this would (or would not) work. If that works, it sounds like that would give you exactly what you're asking for.

There are also other possible maybe "good enough" solutions, depending on the exact details of your needs. Picking up from what SuperStage said, you could possibly address these functions via pedals attached to the Nord (possibly in conjunction with the Nord's own front panel controls). Also, you could possibly use the Nord's Layer MIDI Control (instead of Aux KB) and set your SL73 to transmit on two MIDI channels (one assigned to trigger your Piano part, the other set to trigger your Synth part), which opens up another avenue by which the Nord can respond to your external board's controllers.

BTW, back when I was using a real tonewheel Hammond, I connected a footswitch, because I didn't like having to take my hands off the keys to hit the half-moon switch, I came to really prefer it. So regardless of anything else, I wouldn't overlook the possibility of controlling your Leslie speed simply by plugging a footswitch into the Nord's Roto Pedal jack.

I've been to Andertons in Guildford and one of the Denmark Street shops (can't remember which) and the people I spoke to in-store couldn't give me a definitive answer. I'm not going to shell out my hard-earned cash unless it does at least what my current setup does.

If all else fails, maybe they would let you bring in your SL73 to connect to the Nord, and try these possible solutions for yourself. But as alluded to earlier in the thread, it is rare that any Nord does everything its predecessors did. It's almost always a trade-off, of what you're losing vs. what you're gaining.

[Ritchie333]

Okay, I've got an answer to all of this.

I went into Andertons today, and they had a Studiologic SL88 that they connected up to a Stage 4 and left me to it. After about 10 minutes, I'd figured out how to get the AUXKB settings working just the way I wanted to, and it was behaving exactly how I'd want it to at a gig. The sustain pedal works fine when plugged into the Studiologic; I haven't tried the joysticks, but as anotherscott says, the Studiologic can reprogram any of its controllers to any MIDI CC you like, which is how I got the Leslie control working on the Stage 2.



So, to cut a long story short I put a deposit down for a Stage 4 today and I'll probably pick it up next weekend, then put it through its paces for the bunch of Spring Bank Holiday gigs I've got.