Sustain sound while changing programs?

[AlexGood]

Hi there,
I just bought a Nord piano 3. I am loving it! Is there a way to change programs mid song and have previous sounds continue to ring out Until keys are played again with new program? Right now immediately when I change programs the previous sound drops out.
Thanks,
Alex

[Jhbackingtracks]

It's so stupid, and upsetting that this can't be done. It's like the most requested feature for ANY live player. Why this feature isn't a thing, I just don't understand it. Everyone needs to change sounds during a song (most of the time at some point in their playing career) and hearing that horrible abrupt cut off, is just awful and not acceptable. I don't get why any pro end keyboard company wouldn't choose to work on including this feature, whatever it takes for it to be do-able. I completely feel your pain... but I'm pretty sure there's no work around on the Nord Piano. You can do 'cheat' versions of smooth sound transitions on the Stage, by using two slots, or crossfades between 'sections', but it's not proper and it still limits you in many ways.

I really hope in the near future, we see this feature from Nord. It's something EVERY live player needs and deserves in such high end keyboards such as Nord, that have the best sounds for our needs!

[maurus]

Do similar instruments of other makes have this feature? The Yamaha CP4, for instance, or Roland RD800 or Kawai MP7?

[jfenton]

I'm not aware of any that do this. Typically you hold the note on the instrument and then use a different one if you want to do both at the same time. With that said, I believe the NS2EX when in Dual Keyboard mode can handle playing on e instrument on slot A while changing parameters on slot B (external instrument) and visa versa without affecting the other instrument. However any program change you do would affect both instruments sections.

[mheim]

You can do this at least in the NS2 (and 2EX, no sure others) across slots A and B within a program.
Of course, to sustain a program while changing to another is a different thing and cannot be done in the Nords. The OS would need to reconfigure the microprocessors, address samples change parameters to produce a different sound while keeping the previous configuration at the same time... This is an architecture and OS issue, not something that you forgot to implement and will be fixed next week.
Some instruments might be able to do (don't know which ones) it but many do not and surely this depends on the complexity of the sound engine architecture.
As a not-quite-the-same alternative you could try sustaining a sound (would work best with pads or sounds without transients) with an external digital delay in "hold" mode.
http://www.norduserforum.com/post76471.html

[Onefff]

What a ball-ache! My 20 year old Yamaha P150 could do this so I didn't even check to see if the S2EX could. I made a very expensive assumption. Now, do I hear right that if I load two sets onto the A and B banks they will switch seamlessly? For what I do, that might work.
Thanks in advance guys,
Newbie Nord owner (who loves it but this is a big niggle)

[pablomastodon]

do not confuse BANKS with SLOTS, they are two different things.

Bless, Pablo

[anotherscott]

Do similar instruments of other makes have this feature? The Yamaha CP4, for instance, or Roland RD800 or Kawai MP7?

I'm not aware of any that do this.

Actually, lots of boards can do this.

The Kawai MP7 you asked about generally allows you to freely switch among most of its sounds without one sound cutting out when you select the next, except that the sound will cut out when switching to or from its clonewheel organ engine. As for the others you asked about, I'm pretty sure the RD800 does it, and the CP4 does not.

Most (if not all) Kurzweils can do this, as do most (if not all) Rolands, though you may hear a bit of a "glitch" in the effects when switching between some sounds and/or on some models. (I think it was Roland who coined the popular phrase "patch remain" for this feature, btw.) The Casios I've played do this too, though it's another case where you may have to be aware of the effects you're using before and after if you want to completely avoid an audible glitch. Korg Kronos does it, and avoids effects glitching, though a held note can only survive one patch change, whereas some other implementations allow you to hold an old sound even through multiple patch changes. (Korg calls their implementation SST, for Seamless Sound Transition). The Yamaha Montage has a similar feature called Seamless Sound Switching. The previous Yamaha workstations (like the Motifs/MOX/MOXF) have a partial implementation... you couldn't switch among ALL sounds without hearing cutoffs, however you could create multiple user-defined sets of 16 sounds (as Song or Pattern Mixes), and when operated in that mode, you could freely switch among those sets of 16 sound without cutoffs. This is also implemented on the low end Yamaha MX. I believe that at least some pre/sub-Kronos workstations have a similar feature (sets of 16 that you can freely switch among). So yeah, this capability isn't uncommon at all.

[Quai34]

I can understand that it's importanat for a lot of players, but I usually use the Slot A/B to switch or I use another keyboards for the new sound, knowing that on most cases, at one time, you have to come back to the first sound...so, Why not letting the Nord ready and using another keyboards?

[anotherscott]

Right, there are ways to do it to a limited extent on various Nord boards, and two boards gives you that much more flexibility. I'm not criticizing Nord here... these other boards that have this feature don't have other things that Nord has. There are always trade-offs. I was just pointing out it's not a rare feature, and answering the specific question about the MP7 and CP4. But sure, if it's a feature you must have, then Nord might not be the right board for you, and I can understand the disappointment of someone who may have had the feature in another board and just assumed the Nord had it as well.