Using "Swell" to control Organ Volume

[reggoboy]

Hi guys!

NS2 owner here. I've learned that swell is not the same as volume, and I definitely like the swell effect. And I'd generally like to use it to as a dynamic volume replacement for the Hammond while playing songs. However, the range of volume is pretty narrow. I have tried setting Swell Pedal Gain up to 10, but that doesn't seem to have much effect.

Is the problem that I'm using it wrong, and swell isn't really supposed to be a volume substitute? It seems perfect, for example, to help transition between verse and chorus in Tom Petty's Refugee. But the volume dynamic range of the swell pedal isn't great enough to pull that off.

Suggestions??

Thanks!

[FZiegler]

Swell mimics the swell pedal of a Hammond. So it doesn't go down to 0. But there is a dynamic range, of course. It's not the same as volume as it handles differently the key click and distortion of the organ.

What pedal are you using? And what pedal did you set? With my Yamaha FC-7, I didn't have to set Pedal Gain to anything - just leave it.

[analogika]

Complementing and summarizing what Fziegler already correctly said:

- the "Gain" parameter in the System menu Ctrl/Swell pedals settings has to do only with adjusting the reading of the physical pedal position, in case the pedal pot is out of the nominal range (usually with common exp pedals it is not required to go beyond 2, you can check the swing is full 0-100% by moving the pedal while in the pedal type selection menu, the % is shown on top of the screen), but it won't influence how Swell is handled by the Organ Section/B3 clone engine

- Organ section Swell response (vs 0-100% Swell pedal swing) is defined by the B3 engine model, that basically mimicks (or tries to) the behavior of the original Hammond swell pedal (including things such as min volume not being 0, dynamic range and harmonics change) and there is no parameter in the NS2 directly related to that.

Bottom line, Swell is not a Volume substitute, but a specific function of the Organ Section/B3 model; if your need is to use a pedal to control any section's volume 0-100% you should rather use the CtrlPedal Morph applied to teh desired sections volume control (applicable also to Organ section's volume).

[paolo60]

Hi Guys one more question about swell function for NS3

I use a FCB1010 pedal board connected to MIDI IN of my NS3 and I set a FCB1010 pedal as CTRL04 to control Swell.

Question: is it possible to configure a proper setting of FCB1010 Swell pedal in System menu (type, func, gain) or those settings apply only to pedals connected to swell pedal input (not through MIDI) ?

[reggoboy]

Question: is it possible to configure a proper setting of FCB1010 Swell pedal in System menu (type, func, gain) or those settings apply only to pedals connected to swell pedal input (not through MIDI) ?

Those System (not mIDI) settings are only for the pedal physically connected to the Nord as they are related to how the pedal pot value is being read by the NS3 converters, nothing to do with MIDI data (which is the responsibility of the source, in your case the FCB, to generate properly; if you have issues check Pedal Calibration procedure on FCB manual)