The Nord Stage MIDI Tutorial

the basics of understanding MIDI and how to setup your Nord

Stage (Classic, EX, and Nord Stage 2)

written by Henrik Larsson ([email protected])

with additional input from mjbrands and Johannes from
www.norduserforum.com 
Preface ................................................................ 3 Some words about Volume and Expression ..... 12
The fundamentals of MIDI ...................................3 MASTERCLOCK............................................... 13
MIDI Channels ................................................ 3
Master and Slave, Send and Receive ............ 3
Control Change messages (cc) ......................4
Program Change messages ...........................4
The Nord Stage architecture ............................... 4
Different MIDI “Sections” ................................5
About the Dual KB mode: ...............................5
Nord Stage MIDI menu walkthrough ...................6
MIDI Control Local ..........................................6
MIDI Global Channel ...................................... 6
MIDI Panel A/B Channel .................................6
MIDI Organ (Piano, Synth) A/B Channel ........6
MIDI Dual KB Channel ....................................6
MIDI Prog Change Mode ................................ 6
MIDI Control Change Mode ............................ 6
Send MIDI Ctrl ................................................ 6
Nord Stage Extern menu walkthrough ................7
Extern MIDI Mode ........................................... 7
Extern MIDI A/B Channel ................................7
Extern MIDI A/B Volume ................................. 7
Extern MIDI A/B Prog Change ........................7
Extern MIDI A/B Bank Sel cc0 ........................ 7
Extern MIDI A/B Bank Sel cc3 ........................ 7
Extern MIDI A/B CC Value ..............................7
Extern MIDI A/B CC Number ..........................7
Extern MIDI A/B Send (Wheel, A.Touch,
CtrlPed, Swell) ................................................8
Extern MIDI A/B Vel Curve ..............................8
Extern MIDI Send on Load ............................. 8
Extern MIDI Soft Thru ..................................... 8
Examples of MIDI setups .................................... 8
Simple NS2 setups ......................................... 8
Control other gear with the NS2 ..................... 8
“Play” the NS2 from outside............................9
General Examples .......................................... 9
Example 1: One slave, monotimbral mode .....9
Example 2: Two slaves, monotimbral mode ...9
Example 3: One slave, Multitimbral mode ....10
Example 4: Using the Nord Stage with a
Sequencer (maximum multitimbrality) .......... 11
How complex setups be made? 12
Preface The most basic setup - One master and one
slave 
The purpose of writing this manual was to shed some
light over what MIDI is and how to use your Nord So what are the requirements for being a MASTER?
Stage keyboard in different MIDI situations. There has Well, your keyboard has to have a MIDI OUT  jack.
been, and still are, many questions about this on the This doesn’t necessarily mean the particular keyboard
Nord user forum. Hopefully this document can help owns a black belt in mastering slaves. Just that it has
you to understand the basic ideas of MIDI and how it the ability of doing so. In the same way a SLAVE has
works. MIDI can be as complex and complicated as to have a MIDI IN jack. To connect two devices, use a
anything. I have no intentions digging too deep into it MIDI cable between the MASTERs MIDI OUT and the
within this manual. This is just a basic introduction to SLAVEs MIDI IN. Now, you’re the telephone operator.
start you up. May, 2011 Make sure the MASTER sends MIDI data on the same
channel as the SLAVE receives MIDI data to have
July 2013: Various updates and corrections, including
them communicate.
the Nord Stage 2

The fundamentals of MIDI

MIDI Channels 
Think about the MIDI technique as a telephone
operator. If the operator connects all calls to the one
and the same person, it would be one messy
conversation. The situation would end up intolerable
when everyone speaks at the same time and to wrong On the Nord Stage 2, Nord introduced
persons. The telephone operator avoids situations like also MIDI over USB. Using the standard USB cable,
these by putting through the first call on one line and you can thus use the Nord Stage 2 immediately as
the next call on another line. In MIDI language we call MIDI device from your PC/Mac. Make sure to select a
these “lines”  CHANNELS. Our MIDI operator has 16 “USBx” channel in the MIDI settings where x denotes
channels available for simultaneously chats. the number of the MIDI channel.

Master and Slave, Send and Receive 

More complex setups - One master and
To get anything out of the conventional telephone call
several slaves 
one person has to talk while the other one is listening.
In MIDI language we call the “talker”  a MASTER  and In order to use more than one SLAVE, we need to
the “listener”  a SLAVE. However this is not very much introduce the MIDI THRU  jack. Connect one MIDI
of a conversation. The MASTER tells the SLAVE what cable from the MASTER MIDI OUT to the MIDI THRU
to do and the SLAVE aren’t supposed to have any  jack on the first SLAVE. Connect another MIDI cable
opinion about it. The topics aren’t very diverse either. from the first SLAVE MIDI OUT to the next SLAVE
They don’t talk about the weather or some distant MIDI IN. To make this setup work out well you’ll need
uncle they have in common. It’s more like the the MASTER to send MIDI data on two different MIDI
MASTER says: “-I am playing an E minor here and channels. You also need to setup the SLAVEs to
you’re about to do the same!”   Or: “-When I turn this receive on different MIDI channels.
knob you will increase your volume!” 
If your SLAVEs don’t have a MIDI THRU jack, you can
When a MASTER “talks” , it SENDs MIDI data. And solve this by adding a MIDI THRU BOX to your chain.
when a SLAVE “listens” , it RECEIVEs MIDI data.
More complex setups - Several masters and You can locate the specific Nord Stage cc messages
in the manual, chapter 15; MIDI controller list . The
one slave 
Nord Stage are set to send and receive MIDI cc
There may also be situations when you want two messages by default. This means whenever you press
MASTERs to control one SLAVE. For example if you a button or turn a knob on the front panel a MIDI cc
have one sound module and dual keyboards. In this message is being sent.
case you’ll need to add a MIDI MERGE BOX  to your
If you use your Nord Stage as a master and your slave
chain. The MASTERs should send on the same MIDI
are set to receive MIDI cc’s the sound characteristics
channels as the SLAVE (sound module) receives.
will most likely change in some way when using the
controls. What will happen to the sound depends
entirely on the MIDI controller list for your s lave.

The bottom line is that the Nord Stage can send MIDI
control change messages to any other synthesizers.
But there is no guarantee that, for example, the
The MIDI language amount of reverb changes just because you turn the
reverb knob on the Nord Stage front panel.
MIDI is the common language between devices
regardless of brands. This makes it possible for a Nord
to communicate with a KORG or Roland synthesizer Program Change messages 
for example. However that is not entirely true. But i will I dare to say that all synthesizers on the market today
come back to that later. have the ability to save sound setups. These setups
All MIDI supported synthesizers with a keybed sends may have different names such as Patches, Voices
NOTE ON/OFF. Meaning that every time you press or etc. depending on what the manufacturers want to call
release a key on the keybed a MIDI message is being them. In Nord language we know them as
sent. This is necessary for playing sound modules or PROGRAMS. It is possible to send a MIDI message to
other keyboards. Beyond the note on/off messages, switch Programs on another device. These messages
there are another two fundamental categories; are named Program change messages .
CONTROL CHANGE  messages and PROGRAM There is a numerical limitation within one MIDI
CHANGE messages. message. No values higher than 128 can be sent and
today's devices can easily store more than 128
Programs. Therefore we will need yet another MIDI
Control Change messages (cc)
message, the Bank Select message . By combining
Control change messages are pretty much everything these two messages we can cover the needs of today
that affects the sound. Modulation wheel, filter (128*128=16 384 Programs).
settings, volume, organ drawbars etc are typical
control change messages. There are 120 (0-119)
destinations available for cc messages. Some of these
are standard for all MIDI devices while others are The Nord Stage architecture
model specific.
Before we proceed I shall briefly explain how the
Cc messages, such as Modulation wheel (cc001), architecture of the Nord Stage is built. Unlike many
Breath controller (cc002) and Volume (cc007), are other keyboards on the market, the Nord Stage always
standard and works regardless of brands. A list of this works in a multitimbral mode. Multitimbral means you
MIDI standard can be found here: always have the opportunity to play the different
http://www.midi.org/techspecs/midimessages.php#3. instrument sections simultaneously. Also the different
instrument sections don't have to share polyphony.
Note!  Pitch bend and After touch are not classified as cc's. They
The Nord Stage are built from three different sound
are another type of messages, but they are also standardized.
engines (Piano, Organ, Synth) which produces their
own polyphony.
 GLOAL SLOT A/B Instrument
Only SLOT A or SLOT A or B
SLOTS
active B (even if (even if
responding
slots inactive) inactive)
Split settings NO (always
YES YES
respected full range)
Instrument
responds if NO NO YES
all LEDs off
TRANSPOSE
YES YES YES
Global/Prog
Always
To the To the
Knobs, pa- applied to
corre- correspond-
rameters the sec-
sponding ing instru-
All the piano samples are exchangeable. You can (CCs) tion in
slot ment
focus
download these samples for free from
www.nordkeyboards.com. The Piano section is the
For the NS2, the different MIDI channels can be
only instrument section that is possible to upgrade.
illustrated as follows:
The Organ section and the Synth section are not. All
these instrument sections can be run through the
effect section of the Nord Stage. Together with the
Extern section these instruments and effects creates a
PANEL. There are two Panels available within one
PROGRAM. You can play the Panels one at a time or
together in a layer or a split. The Program can be
stored (and named) in the Nord Stage flash memory.
The Program also stores the system effects (reverb
and compressor), which affect both Panels equally.
The Extern section is affected neither by the
instrument effects nor the system effects.

Different MIDI “Sections”

The Nord Stage can distinguish 3 (NS2: 4) Midi
“sections” allowing a detailed configuration, as it can
be seen from the following pictures:

About the Dual KB mode:

This particular mode will allow you to use a second
keyboard to play SLOT B of the Nord Stage while the
Nord Stage keybed will control the Instruments of Slot
A. This is thus ONLY useful if you have this setup, to
play, e.g., the Organ via an external unweighted MIDI-
keyboard.

One particularity of this mode is that whatever MIDI

channel you set it up to will make the NS NOT respond
to any incoming MIDI messaged on this channel,
whatever the other MIDI settings are. So if your
instrument does not respond to incoming MIDI, it is a
good idea to check if the Dual KB channel is set to an
For the NS2, the MIDI configuration of different unused MIDI channel.
messages can be confusing at times. The following
table summarizes what MIDI messages are
transmitted/received over the different “sections”:
 Dial or use the tap-tempo button. The display will
indicate the BPM that is used internally when no
External signal is received. When an external module
is sending Master Clock, this tempo is used instead.

The Arpeggiator (Press SHIFT + Arpeggiator Button),

Delay Effect and Effect 2 (Press SHIFT + Effect Select
Button) and the LFO of the Synth Section (Press
SHIFT+LFO Waveform Button) can be synced to the
Master Clock. Once synchronized, the selected
element's speed is not anymore set in absolute values
but relative to the Master Clock signal. Changing the
speed now affects the  meter subdivision (or note
values) that the arpeggio should play. For instance, 1/4
Have a look at the picture above. Here I have routed is now half the “speed “ of 1/8. A „T“ after a numerical
the guitar part and the piano part to MIDI receive value indicates triplets.
channel 1 and the brass and string parts to MIDI
receive channel 2. If in this case we would choose to
send cc007 (Volume) on channel 1, the guitar and
piano would jump to equal levels. That would be a bad
thing, since that should devastate their internal mix.

Expression (cc011) is similar to the main out faders of

an ordinary mixer. So in order to maintain the
proportion of the mix you should rather send
Expression than Volume.

In summary one can say that Volume (cc007) is

“absolute volume”  (0-127) and that Expression (cc011)
is “relative volume” (0-127).

A swell pedal connected to the CONTROL PEDAL jack

on the Nord Stage will always send Expression
(cc011) through MIDI (if enabled in the Extern menu).
This cannot be changed.

MASTERCLOCK
When you connect your Nord Stage to a sequencer,
software, or other Synth, it can become useful to
synchronize the time dependent elements such as
LFOs, Effects (notably the Delay), and the Arpeggiator
between your keyboards and software, including the
different elements within your Nord Stage 2.

The Masterclock / MIDI beat clock feature is designed

to allow keeping various MIDI devices in Sync.
Basically it consists that the Master sends a MIDI
signal every 96th note using the set bpm tempo. All
slaves that are synced with the Master will have their
bpm-dependent elements automatically synchronized
to the received tempo so that effects, LFO and
Arpeggiator are in sync with the Master tempo.

The Nord Stage 2 only receives Master Clock so that

your external keyboard, module, or sequencer need to
act as Masters. However, it also serves as to keep the
different elements of your Nord Stage 2 of both Panels
in Sync amongst each other.

To enable Master Clock at the Nord Stage 2, press the

Mst Clk button once and dial in a tempo with the Value