Nord User Forum

Hello everybody, I currently have an inquiry About how the use The Nord Stage 2s midi capability. Please know that i am very aware of all of the posts about this but to be blunt and honest...i have no idea what this terminology means or what ports mean(water and sailing???) go where etc. I use a mac and logic pro 9. I have a midi set up currently that plays sounds from the logic library and kontakt player. I also use Native instruments maschine(don't know how to use that as midi either grrrr)...anyways that's not important. What i mean to say is: I don't want to settle playing the nord as an plain audio track. I want to play the sounds from the keyboard as if i were playing it with a set of headphones on or out an amplifier into logic pro 9 but, as midi. Is there a way to play the sounds from the actual nord and have those sounds be received as midi notes so that i can arrange them/correct the timing? Forgive my poor self i really don't know how to set these things up. I look at the nord manual and i get a head ach. Does anyone know a step by step approach i could follow. what i need to click inside logic/midi settings/nord settings, where i need to click, when i need to click sort of thing to make it work? This probably sounds dumb and i understand that at least but i would be so grateful if anyone could help me out. thanks

If I understand what you're asking, there's a section of the user manual that I think describes exactly what you're trying to do. Check out "Using the Stage 2 as a sound source with a sequencer" towards the end of the manual.

In Logic, you will be recording the performance as MIDI data, not audio data. Because it's recorded as MIDI, you can then correct any wrong notes, fix up the timing, and then play the sequence back and hear the corrected performance played using the Stage 2's sound engine.

This post might also contain some info that might help you: http://www.norduserforum.com/post21359. ... pro#p21359

Feel free to ask additional question, but first read that post please

mjbrands wrote:This post might also contain some info that might help you: http://www.norduserforum.com/post21359. ... pro#p21359

Feel free to ask additional question, but first read that post please

Again +1 for this post!

PS
If it doesn't work out, please send me a PM. I also use Logic 9 and what you want is not so complex.

OK thank you so much for your replies guys. I'm glad this forum site is active, it feels awesome. I get to where i can see notes are being sent into logic but still there is no sound. I read the back of the user manuel but again..i dont have a background of doing this stuff so when it explains that i must set channels to diffrent midi and global channels i feel lost. Man i feel dumb guys. thanks for your replies and feedback.

i get the nord stage 2 working as a midi controller for the Logic library, it just wont play sound from the nord's library. I followed everything from the post """"his post might also contain some info that might help you: post21359.html?hilit=logic%20pro#p21359

Feel free to ask additional question, but first read that post please """""

but perhaps since that is for the nord stage EX...there might be a step or 2 missing or something i still need to configure?

Don't confuse sound (audio) and MIDI, they're two quite different things.

Things will go a lot easier for you if you take some time to learn what MIDI is and how it works. The equipment and software you are using is fairly complex and full of all sorts of options and variations which can make it almost impossible to get it working by trial and error. Even if you follow mjbrands excellent and detailed instructions and get everything working, you still won't actually know what's happening and you will continue to have problems if, for example, you want to change anything or add new things to your setup.

There are plenty of basic MIDI tutorials on the internet, if you Google "MIDI tutorials" or "understanding MIDI" or something like that. You may have to look through a few until you find one that explains it in a way that works for you personally (some explanations can be very confusing if they are not done well). But MIDI is really not that difficult to understand once it has been explained well, and everything will be so much easier for you once you have a clear picture of how MIDI works.

Yes they are two different things but of course i want to hear the sound(audio) from the midi. I've been searching for about a week and a half but it seems there are no tutorials for the nord stage 2 midi set up other than the document from the NS2 Manual. The problem is i don't understand it. it states:

Here is how to record a Stage 2 performance just as you would play it
from the unit - with all the pedal actions, morphing and other things to
a MIDI sequencer. This is probably best achieved by using the Global
MIDI channel.
1 Set the sequencer track to route back incoming MIDI on the
Global Channel.
2 Set Local in the MIDI menu to Off on the Stage 2
3 Select the Program on the Stage 2 that you wish to use.
4 Start the recording on the sequencer.

It says to do these things but doesn't explain how to set the sequencer track to route anything back. Since it can be played with multiple DAW's im sure Clavia assumes that everyone knows what they are doing(lol), but i don't know how to do that. I understand if i studied midi for a while maybe things would make more sense but all i want to do is play this piano and rearrange the notes to make them on time. I have a midi 88 keyboard already for various sounds and it works somehow but i want to use Nords sample library. I got the nord to work as a midi for Logics library and it also shows a signal when i have created an externmal midi track but after i create a external midi track and then a software instrument, there is no sound. i record and i see notes but nothing plays back.

I'm new to this word i want you guys to understand that. If anyone has a nord stage 2 or understands it and could tell me what to do exactly with these in order to record the samples from the nord i would be grateful. Everyone who takes the time for helping i am extremely happy about it, not much i can do except thank you and Hopefully one day i'll be able to pay it forward
I have gone through the Nords midi menu and there are some options that i don't know what should be on/off etc. I'll list them.

MIDI CONTROL LOCAL:
MIDI GLOBAL CHANNEL:
MIDI SLOT A/B CHANNEL:
MIDI ORGAN A/B CHANNEL:
MIDI PIANO A/B CHANNEL:
MIDI SYNTH A/B CHANNEL:
MIDI DUAL KB CHANNEL:
MIDI CTRL CHANGE MODE:
MIDI PROG CHANGE MODE:
SEND CC SLOT A/B:
DUMP PROGRAM ONE:
DUMP SYNTH SLOT A/B:

EXTERN MIDI MODE:
EXTERN MIDI A/B CHANNEL:
EXTERN MIDI A/B PROG CHANGE:
EXTERN MIDI A/B BANKSEL CC00:
EXTERN MIDI A/B BANK CC32:
EXTERN MIDI A/B SEND WHEEL:
EXTERN MIDI SEND A.TOUCH:
EXTERN MIDI SEND CTRL PED:
EXTERN MIDI SEND SWELL:
EXTERN MIDI A/B VEL CURVE:
EXTERN MIDI SEND ON LOAD:
EXTERN MIDI SOFT THRU:
EXTERN MIDI A/B CC NUMBER:
EXTERN MIDI A/B CC VALUE:
EXTERN MIDI A/B VOLUME:

That's the midi menu. who comes up with this stuff??

If there are 6 instrument MIDI channels and a global channel, how do i set it up to be received in logic? if we could avoid answering in metaphor or example that would be cool. once i know 1 method that works exactly(i'll probably only use that method from hence forth) i could learn tweaking by myself later(maybe).

I'm guessing in theory i would set global to midi 1, piano A midi 2, organ A midi 3, synth A midi 4, piano B midi 5, organ B midi 6, synth B midi 7. and then from there would i need to do something in the environment window? i am getting confused with how to route things together.
I feel this is one big mess. anyways..thats where i am at :/

As you get further into things it will be necessary for you to dig in and learn more about MIDI. There's just no way around it. A good place to start is the intro to MIDI document published by the MIDI Manufacturers Association: http://www.midi.org/aboutmidi/intromidi.pdf
A lot has been written about MIDI, so you should Google around and try to absorb what you can. It takes some time to come up to speed on this stuff, so give yourself some time to do this.

The Stage 2 is is a pretty powerful machine and has by far the most flexible (and therefore most complicated) MIDI setup of all the Nords. The good news though is that you probably can ignore just about everything in the MIDI menu for now. The default values for the parameters have the Stage 2's Global MIDI channel set to Channel 1 and all the fancy stuff turned off. So when you play, the Nord transmits those events on MIDI Channel 1, so any device that's listening will be able to listen to those events and respond to them.

If you have a PC, there's a free program called MIDI-OX that will allow you to look at each MIDI message that your Nord sends. It's going to be a bit intimidating at first, but once you get used to seeing what these messages look like, it will help you a lot when debugging your setup as it grows more complex. I would recommend just connecting your Nord to your PC, running MIDI-OX, and watching the Input Monitor screen as you play notes, twist knobs, play with the pitch bend, and so on, and then Google and read up on the messages that you see displayed.

Runord wrote:It says to do these things but doesn't explain how to set the sequencer track to route anything back. Since it can be played with multiple DAW's im sure Clavia assumes that everyone knows what they are doing(lol), but i don't know how to do that.

This information will be found in the instructions for your Logic Pro 9, not in your Clavia manual. Unfortunately, I can't help you precisely as I don't know this software and I don't own a Stage 2, but hopefully someone else who uses Logic Pro 9 can give you the"quick fix" answer you need to this question to get you up and running. Basically you will need to set the sequencer's MIDI track OUTPUT to the correct MIDI Channel and MIDI Port that you have connected to your Stage's MIDI INPUT.

Then you just have to make sure that these steps you've quoted are correct:

Runord wrote:Here is how to record a Stage 2 performance just as you would play it from the unit - with all the pedal actions, morphing and other things to a MIDI sequencer.

This is probably best achieved by using the Global MIDI channel.

1 Set the sequencer track to route back incoming MIDI on the Global Channel.
2 Set Local in the MIDI menu to Off on the Stage 2
3 Select the Program on the Stage 2 that you wish to use.
4 Start the recording on the sequencer.

There are many ways to configure your Stage 2 for MIDI, but for simplicity's sake, set it like this to start with:

MIDI CONTROL LOCAL: Off

MIDI GLOBAL CHANNEL: This is what you'll be using. Set this to whichever MIDI channel you want to use, and set it to MIDI (channel something) if you are using the MIDI output socket, or USB (channel something) if you are using the USB output.

MIDI SLOT A/B CHANNEL: Off
MIDI ORGAN A/B CHANNEL: Off
MIDI PIANO A/B CHANNEL: Off
MIDI SYNTH A/B CHANNEL: Off
MIDI DUAL KB CHANNEL: Ignore this
MIDI CTRL CHANGE MODE: Off
MIDI PROG CHANGE MODE: Off
SEND CC SLOT A/B: Ignore this
DUMP PROGRAM ONE: Ignore this
DUMP SYNTH SLOT A/B: Ignore this

Ignore all these:

EXTERN MIDI MODE:
EXTERN MIDI A/B CHANNEL:
EXTERN MIDI A/B PROG CHANGE:
EXTERN MIDI A/B BANKSEL CC00:
EXTERN MIDI A/B BANK CC32:
EXTERN MIDI A/B SEND WHEEL:
EXTERN MIDI SEND A.TOUCH:
EXTERN MIDI SEND CTRL PED:
EXTERN MIDI SEND SWELL:
EXTERN MIDI A/B VEL CURVE:
EXTERN MIDI SEND ON LOAD:
EXTERN MIDI SOFT THRU:
EXTERN MIDI A/B CC NUMBER:
EXTERN MIDI A/B CC VALUE:
EXTERN MIDI A/B VOLUME:

Finally, make sure that the two External sections (on Slot A and B) are switched off, and make sure that Dual KB mode is switched off as well.

This is the most basic possible setup, and there are many things that you will not be able to do, but it will allow you to record and playback basic MIDI data (ie notes) so that you can set up up your Stage 2 and Logic Pro 9 to basically get it all to work. Once you can basically play recorded MIDI data back to your Nord successfully, you can then start learning and experimenting with other settings to get it to do whatever you want.