Nord User Forum

New to the Nord world but I've been playing an XK3c through a Motion Sound speaker for many years. Just purchased a Nord Stage 3 a couple months ago.

I love the Stage 3 organ sound, especially since the 1.32 update. The Leslie simulation is the best in any keyboard I've played.

HOWEVER: I'm learning to hate hate hate the drawbar buttons. I like to manipulate them quite frequently while playing organ. I thought I might be able to adjust to the buttons but they're no where near as reactive and immediate as real drawbars. Frustrating for a board that is in every other way, right at your fingertips.

Can anyone recommend a drawbar midi controller that will work with the Stage 3? I really think that I could love this board if I could just get some more control of the drawbars.

Iconoclast wrote:Can anyone recommend a drawbar midi controller that will work with the Stage 3? I really think that I could love this board if I could just get some more control of the drawbars.

There aren't many at all on the market these days, but someone mentioned thatthis would work, in C2 mode:

http://shop.keyboardpartner.de/HX3-dbc_en

Note that only the drawbars will work - the rest of the MIDI controller implementation is quite different for the Stage 3, compared to the C2D.

However the best choice for a Nord is probably the Ocean Beach DB-1, but unfortunately it is not manufactured anymore, so if you can find a used one, get it (I have one myself, and it's just great):

http://www.oceanbeachdigital.com/products.html

With the DB-1 you either run it in Electro 3 or C2D mode, or define your own control mapping, with the editor software (this is what I do).

And about drawbars and MIDI - as I said the MIDI CC's for drawbars, are more or less the same for the Stage 3, Electro 3/4/5 and the C2D, but the similarities end there. I posted a new topic earlier today, with a complete list of MIDI Control Changes for Stage 2, Stage 3, Electro 3, Electro 5, C2D and the A1:

http://www.norduserforum.com/nord-stage ... 14435.html

My issue is with the drawbar buttons only so that might not be an issue. I'll look into a DB-1 but I was hoping that there was some other modern alternative.

Ebay has an Ocean Beach DB 1 listed for $290

Iconoclast wrote:My issue is with the drawbar buttons only so that might not be an issue. I'll look into a DB-1 but I was hoping that there was some other modern alternative.

I'm not 100% on this, but I believe you could use an iPad or other touch device and something like touchOSC and get a set of virtual drawbars. I'm pretty sure you could set this up to both send and receive drawbar info so the display would stay in sync with any program changes.

Not quite as useful as real drawbars because you have to look at the display to get your fingers in the correct place and there is no tactile feedback, but it would give you the correct visual display and ability to slide your fingers back and forth in the same manner that you do with real drawbars.

You could also adapt a number of midi control surfaces to do the same thing with the added benefit of having motorized faders that would sync to the current program setting.

Breathing life to this thread again....
Have anyone tried any of the other brands of midi-drawbars on Nord-instruments?
For example: Crumar, Hammond, Voce, NativeInstruments?

catosim wrote:Breathing life to this thread again....
Have anyone tried any of the other brands of midi-drawbars on Nord-instruments?
For example: Crumar, Hammond, Voce, NativeInstruments?

Check this one out GM Lab D9U, it's ad DYI project (but also available preassembled) and it is re-programmable so you can easily set it up to match any (Nord) model drawbars CCs

maxpiano wrote:Check this one out GM Lab D9U, it's ad DYI project (but also available preassembled) and it is re-programmable so you can easily set it up to match any (Nord) model drawbars CCs

Seems hard to find. The Norwegian distributor has no items left. Couldn't find any at Sweetwater, Thomann og KraftMusic, neither at eBay or Amazon.