Nord User Forum

Hi all,

Embarrassed newbie midi user here. Just received a Viscount Exp midi interface for organ sounds to play using my Nord Piano 2 and can't figure out how to get the piano to play it out. what i've done so far:

-midi cable plugged into 'in' on Nord and 'out/through' on Viscount
-audio output only from Nord to amp
-fiddled with the midi menu on the Nord and set the channel to midi 1 (light is still flashing)
-turned on midi interface unit

but nothing is happening vis a vis sound (other than my piano when it is on 'live'. I used shift-program 2 to look around what settings are set, nothing obvious. after i set a setting (e.g. midi channel to 1), the red light is still flashing on Program 2 (midi)

i do notice that the midi light flashes on when i fiddle with the midi interface itself. but it is off most of the time.

i think my problem is not understanding how to get the Nord to receive and play the midi.

Truly appreciate your guidance, suggestions.

W

Switch the MIDI cable to come out from the Nord and in to the module. That will be one major thing that’s important as a controller is sending its MIDI data out.

frankelw wrote: 29 Apr 2026, 23:46 ... can't figure out how to get the piano to play it out. ...

There is some basic misunderstanding what MIDI is. The piano won't "play it out" in the first place.

frankelw wrote: 29 Apr 2026, 23:46 ... Viscount Exp midi interface for organ sounds ...

This naming, on the contrary, is more or less correct. You probably mean a Viscount Legend Expander which has two jobs to do: receive MIDI commands from the keyboard and create sound; allow controlling the sound via the drawbars, knobs and buttons. Did you see that the expander has audio out sockets? They are there so that the sound created inside the expander can be fed to some sort of speakers or the like.

There is no voodoo going on inside the expander. It will just translate commands from both the Nord keyboard and the built-in controllers into audio. Which means, it's some sort of data pass-through: digital input, analog output.

The connections you need: MIDI out from the keyboard to MIDI in on the expander; Audio out from the expander either to some speakers or to Monitor In on the Nord. For the latter, you will need a cable with two TS (mono) plugs on one side and one mini TRS (stereo) plug on the other.

Thanks for the reply; again, me newbie and also not using the right words.

I wondered about audio out from the expander and i tried that - it came with mono and stereo cables and i plugged a mono cable into another amplifier (using the expander's phones output - was that incorrect, is it expecting only stereo and should i have instead used the left or right output?), still no sound. at that point i also had a midi out cable from the expander back into the nord. i'll try again/

If i also want Nord piano sounds going out (not necessarily simultaneously) to the same speaker/amp as the expander audio, i would need an audio splitter - correct? Or does using 'monitor in' from the expander back to the Nord take care of that?

Sorry again for my newbieness...

W

You need to have both: right MIDI conncetion from Nord to expander + correct audio out from expander in order to hear your playing.

The Monitor-In on the Nord is probably meant to blend in play-alongs from your smartphone or things like that. But if you want to avoid a mixer to merge piano and organ sounds from the two "instruments" (Nord and Viscount), you can use Monitor-In to add the expander's sound to Main-Out of your piano.

Just have a look to this old article (yes, MIDI is existing quite long already):
https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/midi-basics/2084

As FZiegler said, your audio output from the expander must go
- directly to amp/speakers or
- to a mixer and from there to amp/speakers or
- to the nord monitor input to be mixed to the nord sounds.

I am not a piano owner, but your manual should show some examples how to connect correctly.

And please bear in mind: MIDI transfers digital music messages only (key pitch/on/off, program change messages an so on), but no analogue audio signal!

Thanks to you all; it works well now. Will have to get a mixer and/or cables with adaptors. There is a lot for me to investigate re: options on the Viscount. And with the Nord i don't have waterfall keys. But this is what i want rather than to lug around a second keyboard especially if i'm alternating not playing piano and organ at the same time.

Clarification question: the manual says the rotary simulation is best with stereo audio outputs. This may be a stupid question, but if I do stereo out into a single speaker/amp (rather than two speakers), does it basically sound the same as the mono out does?

Thx again, much appreciated.

W

frankelw wrote: 30 Apr 2026, 16:05 Clarification question: the manual says the rotary simulation is best with stereo audio outputs. This may be a stupid question, but if I do stereo out into a single speaker/amp (rather than two speakers), does it basically sound the same as the mono out does?

Not really, because summing 2 channels will partially cancel each other and you will get some kind of "strange tremolo" rather, the beauty of the Leslie is indeed in its "spacial" sound and "mono" is the opposite of that.

So, is summing two channels like that worse than if i just did a mono-out to a single speaker, or is it more or less same as mono out? I appreciate it is not the same as the spatial simulation; i would try of course to figure that out. The amp i use regularly for my piano is a PA monitor, would rather not have to lug around two of them if i don't have to. The mono out as i have it now certainly sounds better than no "Leslie" 'at all, that's for sure. Thx again. W

frankelw wrote: 30 Apr 2026, 16:57 So, is summing two channels like that worse than if i just did a mono-out to a single speaker, or is it more or less same as mono out? I appreciate it is not the same as the spatial simulation; i would try of course to figure that out. The amp i use regularly for my piano is a PA monitor, would rather not have to lug around two of them if i don't have to. The mono out as i have it now certainly sounds better than no "Leslie" 'at all, that's for sure. Thx again. W

I would say it is worse yes + in general Nord works better in Stereo (also for pianos), but we already had a loooong discussion about this topic, that you can find and consult in this forum

viewtopic.php?p=43659