Nord User Forum

Is there a way I can access the samples on my Nord Stage 3 so I can try them out on my keyboard? (For example, Sample 120 is Contra Bass Plucked, Sample 150 is Persian Santur)? Pressing Synth seems to only go through the synth instruments and not the acoustic ones like violins. I’ve looked around on Google and the manual, and I found nothing.)

Hi (and welcome to NUF),

I think you need to read the manual again and more carefully, particularly about the Synth section: samples are just waveforms of the Synth oscillator when in "SAMP" mode, so to try them you need to do a Synth "Sound Init", then select "SAMP" OSC mode and finally the Sample you want to try

(from the manual)
SAMPLES
the SAMPLE option uses samples from the nord Sample Library as an oscillator waveform, which can in turn be processed by other parts
(...)
Samples are selected with the OSC1/WAVEFORM dial, or by loading a Sample Preset from the Synth Presets banks.

Welcome to NUF

It's a good idea to init the synth first, but then it's best to use the synth preset dial to go through them. If you scroll through samples using the osc1/waveform dial, the settings stored with the sample (such as default velocity settings) are NOT loaded. If you instead use the synth preset dial, then the defaults are loaded when you select the sample -- which is typically what you want when you audit them.

So just press shift-SYNTH PRESET, change mode to SAMP using the OSC2 dial (IIRC) and then scroll through the list by using the SYNTH PRESET dial. When you're happy with your selection, you can save this as a new program together with other engine settings (piano, organ, ext).

If those samples come from Nord's library, there is usually some mp3 samples to listen to on the website.
Same for custom samples from the Nordusersounds website, creators usually also post a small mp3 sample of the sample.

Fred