Nord User Forum

I own an Electro 6D, and the only thing I miss is a Pitch bend + mod wheel. I know it supports pitch bend via MIDI in, but the limitation is that it only works for the External KBD to LO mode. In other words, you can only use MIDI pitch bend when you're also using the keys on the external keyboard.

What I intend to do is to use a spare part from some older synth and hook it up to an Arduino. Set the electro to External KBD to Lo, route the midi out to the Arduino, merge it with the pitch bend and output it to the Electro's MIDI in. This would allow you to use the Electro's own keybed but you will lose split functionality. Not too much of a loss as you probably wouldn't split when using pitch bend anyway. Heck, you could even add a modwheel with a pot for speed control for vibrato via midi messages. (Which would be limited by MIDI's transmission rate but I haven't calculated that yet).

Has anyone tried something like this?

You can do it and not too complicated (if you have some DYI expertise), but it's quite an effort so, before going in that direction, have you thought or tried to use a smartphone with a PB/MW App instead (if you have an iPhone/iPad there is the ModWheels App or other MIDI apps) or considered using a small and cheap secondary keyboard (e.g. an Alesis Q25)?

Beside if, as you wrote, PB only works in "External KBD to LO" mode, you willl... need an external keyboard to make that LO section(s) produce any sound, before you can Pitch Bend it...

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not a big fan of touchscreens. With a wheel or stick you can manipulate it without looking. Routing the midi out from the Electro to the Arduino and then routing the keys and pitch bend midi back to the Midi In of the electro would allow it to work when set to EXT KBD to LO.

Sure, that would work, in case you don't have yet spare MW/PB parts from an older synth you can use a generally available XY Joystick or buy a Mod Wheel kit from Doepfer (which includes the spring to make it work as a centrally retained PB).

I was looking into the same but ultimately decided to return my Electro (just purchased) and get a S3C instead.

deenigewouter wrote:I own an Electro 6D, and the only thing I miss is a Pitch bend + mod wheel. I know it supports pitch bend via MIDI in, but the limitation is that it only works for the External KBD to LO mode. In other words, you can only use MIDI pitch bend when you're also using the keys on the external keyboard.

What I intend to do is to use a spare part from some older synth and hook it up to an Arduino. Set the electro to External KBD to Lo, route the midi out to the Arduino, merge it with the pitch bend and output it to the Electro's MIDI in. This would allow you to use the Electro's own keybed but you will lose split functionality. Not too much of a loss as you probably wouldn't split when using pitch bend anyway. Heck, you could even add a modwheel with a pot for speed control for vibrato via midi messages. (Which would be limited by MIDI's transmission rate but I haven't calculated that yet).

Has anyone tried something like this?

I made a controller with Arduino and a SparkFun MIDI Shield. It merged the Midi In with the generated Midi data to the USB-Midi port. I didn't use the Midi Out, so I can't tell you if it will also merge the Data to the Midi Out. Apart from this, the rest of the project would meet your expectations, and is easy if you have a little experience in electronics and programming.

Ramon

maxpiano wrote:You can do it and not too complicated (if you have some DYI expertise), but it's quite an effort so, before going in that direction, have you thought or tried to use a smartphone with a PB/MW App instead (if you have an iPhone/iPad there is the ModWheels App

Gday Mate.. I've downloaded this app, but i cant get it to work ... have you tried it and been successful? if so can i steal your brain? Whats the setup?


Cheers
Al - TJP

The Joker Pokers wrote:

maxpiano wrote:You can do it and not too complicated (if you have some DYI expertise), but it's quite an effort so, before going in that direction, have you thought or tried to use a smartphone with a PB/MW App instead (if you have an iPhone/iPad there is the ModWheels App

Gday Mate.. I've downloaded this app, but i cant get it to work ... have you tried it and been successful? if so can i steal your brain? Whats the setup?


Cheers
Al - TJP

Hi, actually I haven't used this one (I used a few times a different one, almost identical, from Yamaha called "Sound Controller" https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical ... index.html which unfortunately is no longer available), however it is all explained in the developer's app Support page http://www.schosoft.com/mod-wheels/ and maybe you can also contact him for questions.

The Joker Pokers wrote:

maxpiano wrote:You can do it and not too complicated (if you have some DYI expertise), but it's quite an effort so, before going in that direction, have you thought or tried to use a smartphone with a PB/MW App instead (if you have an iPhone/iPad there is the ModWheels App

Gday Mate.. I've downloaded this app, but i cant get it to work ... have you tried it and been successful? if so can i steal your brain? Whats the setup?


Cheers
Al - TJP

Hi,

I‘ve downloaded and tested this app. If I remember correctly it was me some two or three years ago who suggested it here. The app itself works fine, but the handicap is that my electro 5 can only handle pitchbend for the „external“ section. This means, I can set up the board with one sound played by the electro‘s keys AND have a second sound set up that way that an external keyboard can play it on a seperate MIDI channel. Only this sound can get pitch bent. So this does only make sense when you have a controller keyboard with a built in pitchbender. On a stand-alone app you cannot play notes, unfortunately

This was the situation on my electro 5. It may differ from NE6. Perhaps the manual says more.

And, if you‘d ask how do I know that it works? My korg X50 handles it perfectly.

Cheers from Germany

maxpiano wrote:This was the situation on my electro 5. It may differ from NE6. Perhaps the manual says more.

And, if you‘d ask how do I know that it works? My korg X50 handles it perfectly.

Cheers from Germany

Thanks mate - yeah I've had the nord pitch bend by midi'ing it to my roland and running the lower through that - I was hoping there's a solution so I didn't need to lug 2 boards (laziness is the mother all invention )