Nord User Forum

Just wondering if anyone else has had an issue with their Nord Stage 3 where the Rotor Pedal suddenly stopped responding. I've been using the same pedal for a while with no issues. Yesterday when I tried it, it suddenly did not respond. The pedal I'm using is home-made, so I also tried my Yamaha sustain pedal as well as the Nord sustain pedal that came with the keyboard. No luck.

I've checked the system settings just to be sure I didn't inadvertently change anything there. They look ok. I tried all three "type" values (Closed, Open, Auto) as well as both "Func" settings (Rotor Toggle and Rotor Hold). Still no response with the pedal.

The only thing that has changed recently is that I upgraded from OS 1.40 to OS 2.00. I know it worked with OS 1.40. What I have not done yet is to take the board back to the pre-upgrade backup, which I'll try today, and update here with my findings.

Has anyone else experienced this?

BTW, I also tried the pedals in other jacks -- sustain and program change (to rule out an issue with the pedal). And they worked okay.

Mine works fine, so it is not a generic 2.00 issue.

As a work-around, you can use the sustain pedal on the organ; disable the sustain function (which is the default anyway) and in the menu set it up so that sustain works both as sustain and rotor. That's what I normally do, since I never use sustain on the organ anyway, so the two functions usually don't collide.

baekgaard wrote:Mine works fine, so it is not a generic 2.00 issue.

As a work-around, you can use the sustain pedal on the organ; disable the sustain function (which is the default anyway) and in the menu set it up so that sustain works both as sustain and rotor. That's what I normally do, since I never use sustain on the organ anyway, so the two functions usually don't collide.

They collide if you are split with organ on one side and piano on the other - something i do a fair bit of ...

kbmatson wrote:

baekgaard wrote:Mine works fine, so it is not a generic 2.00 issue.

As a work-around, you can use the sustain pedal on the organ; disable the sustain function (which is the default anyway) and in the menu set it up so that sustain works both as sustain and rotor. That's what I normally do, since I never use sustain on the organ anyway, so the two functions usually don't collide.

They collide if you are split with organ on one side and piano on the other - something i do a fair bit of ...

Yes, it's not a substitute for a working pedal; it is a workaround that may work in some situations and not in all. Just wanted to highlight this, if the OP hadn't thought about it and was about to do a gig

I prefer playing organ and piano on different keyboards, so I usually bring two in the case you mention above. But it's a valid point nevertheless that in some situations you may very need two separate pedals.

baekgaard wrote:

kbmatson wrote:

baekgaard wrote:Mine works fine, so it is not a generic 2.00 issue.

As a work-around, you can use the sustain pedal on the organ; disable the sustain function (which is the default anyway) and in the menu set it up so that sustain works both as sustain and rotor. That's what I normally do, since I never use sustain on the organ anyway, so the two functions usually don't collide.

They collide if you are split with organ on one side and piano on the other - something i do a fair bit of ...

Yes, it's not a substitute for a working pedal; it is a workaround that may work in some situations and not in all. Just wanted to highlight this, if the OP hadn't thought about it and was about to do a gig

I prefer playing organ and piano on different keyboards, so I usually bring two in the case you mention above. But it's a valid point nevertheless that in some situations you may very need two separate pedals.

yep - different needs and different workarounds when necessary. For me - one of the PRIMARY reasons i got the Stage 3 was to expressly avoid having to have more than one keyboard, so I guess I always think in those terms!

Thanks for the work-around, baekgaard. Unfortunately, I do use sustain with the organ (albeit unconventional) at times, especially when I use multiple keyboards. I usually stand when I play live, and don't often use the pedal, so it is certainly not a show-stopper. But, heck, the keyboard is less than a year old! Bummer, but even after restoring back to all factory presets (just to rule that out), it still doesn't work. So I'm going to have to assume it's broken and will need to be fixed.

Just to throw a comment in about using multiple keyboards - definitely agree that the Nord can pretty well stand on it's own. When I gig I try to take as little equipment as I can so I can set up/tear down quickly. But when I play at church, I usually use two (sometimes three) keyboards (yeah, I go crazy!) -- just because I can!

Anyway, thanks for the tips. While it is a little disconcerting that this broke on such a young keyboard (never dropped, and always carefully transported), I'm still in love with this keyboard. And from other posts I've read, it's built like a tank. So, hopefully this is just a one-off issue.

I would definitely contact Nord tech support about this. There's not a good reason that the pedal input should be 'broken' - there's precious little to break there and it's not a stressed component or something that would easily be damaged in any way. It may be an issue with your pedal itself (cables on pedals definitely go bad frequently and pedal pickups/contacts do as well) OR perhaps your Nord doesn't recognize the pedal or something. Tech support can help you rule out all possibilities, and if the Nord is less than a year old as you say, it's still in warranty and it's best to get it switched out or fixed ASAP.

Thanks 23skidoo. I've gone ahead and contacted Nord tech support before taking this in for service -- just in case there is something very obvious I've overlooked.