Nord A1/lead in general Daw work

[d3po1]

Hi
I recently bought a Nord A1 and i work in Ableton. I am a bit confused about the workflow with a computer.
Right now i play something on the Nord and record it in an audio channel, no hassel there.
Then i store the sound on the Nord so i can recall it later if i need it.
The Midi USB however, i havent got it to work. The Daw doesnt "see" a midiport with i can select, but however..
The workflow with midi is the same right?? except for me drawing the notes in the computer.
I still have to bounce/freeze the sound (make to audio) before i can continue on a new channel right?
Which also means i need to store the nord sound before i move on?? is that how you guys work with your synths in the computer?

[RedLeo]

The Nord A1 is really like four separate synths. You can have a separate sound in each of the 4 slots A B C and D. If you set the 4 slots to 4 different MIDI channels, then the A1 will play up to 4 separate musical parts on 4 separate MIDI channels each with its own synth sound at the same time. (Manual page 11, Chapter 4, Slots and Memory). You would only need to freeze the sound to audio if you wanted more than 4 sounds all at once.

The idea of MIDI basically, is to play back all your synths, samplers, drum machines, whatever, "live" so that you don't need to bounce to audio unless you actually run out of MIDI gear to play all the parts at once. This makes it easy to make changes to your music and synth sounds because you don't need to keep recording to audio every time you change something.

You would need to store your sounds if you wanted to use them again. You can store your sounds in your synth as you suggested, but many DAWs also have the possibilty to store your sounds within your song so that you always have the right sounds when you work on that song. Your synth would need to be able to download its sounds to your DAW via MIDI to do this, but pretty much all modern synths, including the A1, can do this.

[d3po1]

Yes the slots things are very cool. Right now i cant hook them all up at once but maybe in the future.

The last part, you are saying the DAW can "dail" up the right sounds on the Nord and play them back to me?
Its sounds like the DAW storing is the route i want to go. Can you give an example how i achieve this?
I dont even know what search term to use to find information on this workflow. Daw + store external synth sounds?"
Thanks

[RedLeo]

Yes the slots things are very cool. Right now i cant hook them all up at once but maybe in the future.

Actually, you can set it up right now. You don't need any additional leads or hardware. Basically, set your A1 to Performance Mode and create a performance with all 4 slots activated. Set each slot to a different MIDI channel eg:

Slot A MIDI channel 1
Slot B MIDI channel 2
Slot C MIDI channel 3
Slot D MIDI channel 4

This is done in the MIDI menu (page 31, Chapter 10 The Menus, MIDI menu, A, B, C, D - Slot MIDI Channel).

Now create 4 MIDI tracks in Ableton and set them to the same 4 MIDI channels using the Output Channel chooser.

Each slot is now a separate A1 synthesiser. Simple as that.

The last part, you are saying the DAW can "dail" up the right sounds on the Nord and play them back to me?
Its sounds like the DAW storing is the route i want to go. Can you give an example how i achieve this?
I dont even know what search term to use to find information on this workflow. Daw + store external synth sounds?"
Thanks

I don't use Ableton myself, but having looked around, I'm afraid that there is some bad news. As far as I can tell, it seems that Ableton Live is the one and only DAW that cannot do this Perhaps somebody who knows the program could clarify this?

[d3po1]

aha i thought i needed to utilize all 4 audio outputs for it, this is brilliant.
I found what you where talking about, sysex. Apparently they dont have support for it,
but Cubase, Bitwig and maybe Logic does. What a shame. I really need it.
Maybe even so much i consider switching Daw. I wish Clavia release had some kind of editor
that does it, that would be awesome. Thanks for the help

[barryfell]

You could use program change on your MIDI clips in Live so they automatically play the right patch on your A1.



https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/mid ... -messages/