Strange things happen to my Nord Stage 2 SW 73

[Shor1988]

Hi there,

For some weeks I have been a proud owner of a brand new Stage 2 SW73. However, since today there are some very strang things happening:

(1) I realized that many/all tones sound wrong in a way I cannot exatly describe. Sometimes, it seems as if at least one certain key (H, meaning B) procudes a sound which is one octave too high - sometimes in whole, sometimes only in some parts of the sound. This only happens if I play a synthesizer or an organ . However, every other instrument (pianos) sounds strange as well.

(2) When recording those phenomenons with my webcam, I recognized a further problem. No matter which instrument I play, the Stage 2 procudes crackling/creadking sounds/lags. You will be able to hear that by watching the video (for example at 00:45):



Do you have any explanations for these problems? It seems as if my Stage is cursed. Rebooting of course did not fix the problem. Please note: There is just one thing I did today which I have not done ever before. I used my Nord as a MIDI controller/keyboard and therefore I changed the MIDI settings in order to make the Stage send MIDI signals. But I cannot imagine that any misconfigurations here could have those effects. At least I hope so.

Regards,
Jens

[mjbrands]

When you made that video, did you have a cable connected to the MIDI IN port or did you have the USB cable connected? If so, could you try if it does the same with the MIDI IN/USB cables disconnected to see if that makes a difference?

Better yet, disconnect all cables except power and the audio outputs.

[cleito]

Hi, are you using the last OS update? 1.70?
maybe you can try to reload the original factory backup

[OBDave]

Either you have a bad audio connection, or something is very wrong with your Stage. Do you hear the same problem when you listen through the headphone jack?

[Darren]

Sounds like a midi loop.

[Shor1988]

Hi there,

Thanks for your answers.

When you made that video, did you have a cable connected to the MIDI IN port or did you have the USB cable connected? If so, could you try if it does the same with the MIDI IN/USB cables disconnected to see if that makes a difference?

Better yet, disconnect all cables except power and the audio outputs.

I have already tried to disconnect all cables exept for the power cord. Unfortunately, this did not help.

Hi, are you using the last OS update? 1.70?
maybe you can try to reload the original factory backup

No, I use 1.40 (Stage 2 Revision B). It might be a good idea to update the OS. Nevertheless, I need the problem to be explained/fixed as my fear of its returning will never go away even if an update would fix the problem temporarily. Also, reloading the original factory backup (you mean the sounds?) is a good point.

Either you have a bad audio connection, or something is very wrong with your Stage. Do you hear the same problem when you listen through the headphone jack?

Annoyingly, I have not tried to use the original headphone jack of the stage. I only tried the headphone jack of my Focusrite Scarlett 1816 to rule out the Yamaha HS80M as the causer. Of course this did not rule out the audio interface. However, I cannot imagine that the Focusrite lets one special key sound like an octave too high somewhat. Unfortunately, the problems disappeared eventually. I have not changed anything so far.

Sounds like a midi loop.

What exactly do you mean?

Regards,
Jens

[Darren]

If you set midi send and receive channels the same, you create a situation where when you press a note, the sound generator gets a note event twice (once from the keybed itself and another through MIDI). As these events occur ever so slightly apart, the 2 sound waves are just out of phase from eachother making it sound noticibly weird.

You can do this with any midi capable keyboard.

[Shor1988]

Hi,

Thanks again for answering that quick.

Your explanation makes sense to me. I got the feeling that this could be the reason for my problems - at least in theory. Do you own a Stage 2? If so, would you try to (re)produce the effect by only using the Stage itself? I will do so as well.

Regards,
Jens

[Darren]

I don't have my board set up with me at the moment. However It could be that you have set your send to the global receive channel (default is 16, but you may have changed this also?). That could be a way of getting the same behaviour without having a midi/usb cable attached.

[cleito]

I suggest you do an OS update before anything else.
a lot of things has been fixed from 1.40 to 1.70, including midi bugs