getting a list of onboard sounds and codes

[Barry Lane]

I have just bought a Nord Electra 4 HP keyboard and cannot find any listing anywhere of the sounds it comes shipped with and their corresponding codes.

I was expecting the digital display to, at least, show a short form of the name of the organ, sample sound or piano being played, but all I see is the programme number and bank number?

Surely there is a list available, how else do I remember 128 sounds on board?

Is it possible to print off a list from the software manager somehow? I would like to buy a magnetic A5 dry wipe sheet so I can keep track of the sounds I want to use in particular songs for recording or stage work?

I can't quite believe an item of this value does not actually tell the user what instrument is being played, or list the instruments so they are quick to find?


Barry

[Barry Lane]

Searching the forum I found this:
http://www.norduserforum.com/nord-elect ... t4346.html

[elektromin]

I can understand your frustration, I had the same feeling when I first got my NE4. You can always use the Nord sound manager to extract a lists of all the sounds in your NE4, and that might be a good starting point. But I would recommend moving the sounds around so that you have your favourites close at hand. Also, don't be afraid of replacing/removing samples you don't like. After a while you will learn what you need and then the instrument becomes highly efficient and fun!
Good luck!

[Barry Lane]

Many thanks for this, and for the empathy. It is frustrating, the patch numbers mean nothing really, unless you have a Rain Man type phone book memory? I have just posted an attempted solution on the forum, by sticking an A5 sheet of magnetic dry wipe thin board to the left hand side of the keyboard where our keyboard player can make notes? He is not a techie by any means, and needs some easily accessible short list of codes.

I am a bit unsure whether the magnetic strip would stick to the Nord metal, if it ferrous aluminium? or whether the magnetic strip might disrupt the inner workings of the piano in some way?

I think it would be much better to have a small screen with some shorthand versions of the patch names, rather than numbers? That would be much more logical?

I agree that some house-cleaning of samples would be good. I'll investigate this later.


Barry

I can understand your frustration, I had the same feeling when I first got my NE4. You can always use the Nord sound manager to extract a lists of all the sounds in your NE4, and that might be a good starting point. But I would recommend moving the sounds around so that you have your favourites close at hand. Also, don't be afraid of replacing/removing samples you don't like. After a while you will learn what you need and then the instrument becomes highly efficient and fun!
Good luck!

[RedLeo]

A magnetic strip - or any magnet - won't affect anything inside the instrument at all, it's perfectly safe. Unfortunately, I don't know whether the case will hold a magnet in the first place, I don't have anything offhand to try that out. If all else fails, you can't go wrong with sellotape!

[Mr_-G-]

Never heard of "ferrous aluminium" but the NS2 red metal panel at least is ferrous (probably some kind of steel) and a magnet will stick to it. I would use those rubber fridge magnets strips so you do not scratch the painted surface. I would not use sellotape, you might end up with some paint on the tape! :-/

[Cornopean]

Some thoughts, which may or may not help you, but are just how the Electro happens to do things, which just happens to be different from many other boards out there.

The digital display is there on the Nord Piano and the Nord Stage range, but not the Electro.

Don't think of it as having 128 sounds on board, that is to miss the point of the Electro. It has an organ section, with virtual drawbars. It has a piano section, with categories. And it has a sampler, with slots for samples. Get your keyboardist to find his way around these sections first, before worrying about presets - trust me, it's quicker in the long run.

Once you've ditched the samples you won't use, and loaded the ones you want, you'll have a machine that does what you want. I have mine set up so I can dial in one of three grand pianos (in the order duller, medium, brighter), two uprights (grander, more honky-tonk without being detuned), two Rhodes (bell-like, barkier), a Wurli, a CP80, and some samples. When it comes to the samples I do agree with you, although if you only use a few, you quickly learn which is which sound - takes me back to the 99 digit displays of Yamaha home keyboards I grew up with.

THEN start to think about the presets. If your keyboardist is like me, there will only be a few patches he often uses. Set them up on 1.1 through 1.4, less used ones on the next set, etc. For the kind of things the Electro does, you simply don't need the vast patch memory or hundreds of sounds of other synths. If I'm playing a Rhodes and I want a bit more bark, I tweak the EQ, and boost the amp sim. I don't change to patch 278, Bark Roads.

It's a different way of thinking about the sounds being produced, more like the originals they're simulations of, and I'll say it again - forget about it having 128 preset sounds, that's just a convenient place to store your favourites, but as a concept it's far more removed from presets than the average Rompler of today.

Al

[RedLeo]

I would not use sellotape, you might end up with some paint on the tape! :-/

As far as I am aware, the top surface is plastic-coated.

[pablomastodon]

Actually, it is a powder which baked on at high temperature. Not likely to be lifted by a piece of tape. This is why there is no exact touchup paint solution.

Pablo

[Euleroperator]

Searching the forum I found this:
http://www.norduserforum.com/nord-elect ... t4346.html

Here is a link to the Nord web site which lists the factory installed sound libraries for the Nord Electro 4
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libr ... ory-sounds

You can then cross reference these with the full descriptions and samples located in the Nord Sound Library which starts here:
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libraries

Like yourself, after I had purchased and started experimenting with my new keyboard, I wanted to understand more about what sounds were installed and was available, and found these reference to be really helpful.