TIL I need to read the manual on a piano.
January 18, 2017 2:28 PM Subscribe
I'm a new Nord keyboard owner, and as excited as I am to own what all my musician friends (and pros I admire) say is the best, I'm having a hard time understanding how to use this thing. Help!
I bought a gently-used Nord Electro 4 HP to replace my beaten up Korg SV-1. The Craigslist deal was difficult to pass up -- pristine condition, original library DVDs included, and a $250 flight case, all for $800 less than the keyboard's current retail price.
I'm used to my Korg, with its 8 preset buttons that I customized and memorized, so I have easy access to the sounds I need the most often with my band. 8 presets were never really enough for me -- I always had to fumble with dials in the dark to call up additional sounds. So having the Nord, with its room for MANY more preset sounds, should be fun.
tl;dr
My questions:
1. In Sound Manager, how can I call up just the Bank 1 sound list, move those around, add/replace, etc., then call up the Program 2 sound list and do the same? It seems all I can do is view a long list of all 4 programs together. Is there an older version of the app that works differently? I was wondering, since the app has been updated but my Electro 4 piano is several years old. Maybe the newest version of the app is more geared toward newer keyboards. Maybe there's a difference between the Mac and Windows versions? I'm on a Mac, if it matters.
2. The Nord's digital display seems backward. When I press the Program 4 button and scroll with the page buttons to the 11th sound, the display says 11.4 instead of 4.11. Do I just not understand what banks and programs and pages mean?
3. Related, I know that the Nord Stage piano has the ability to group sounds into "sets." Can I safely think of the Bank buttons on the Electro 4 as set buttons, and just accept that the 3rd song in set 2 will be denoted as 3.2 on the display? Or is my idea absurd because I don't understand what Nord means by banks and programs and pages?
I found the Nord user forum website, which seems to be not as helpful as I was hoping it would be.
I bought a gently-used Nord Electro 4 HP to replace my beaten up Korg SV-1. The Craigslist deal was difficult to pass up -- pristine condition, original library DVDs included, and a $250 flight case, all for $800 less than the keyboard's current retail price.
I'm used to my Korg, with its 8 preset buttons that I customized and memorized, so I have easy access to the sounds I need the most often with my band. 8 presets were never really enough for me -- I always had to fumble with dials in the dark to call up additional sounds. So having the Nord, with its room for MANY more preset sounds, should be fun.
tl;dr
My questions:
1. In Sound Manager, how can I call up just the Bank 1 sound list, move those around, add/replace, etc., then call up the Program 2 sound list and do the same? It seems all I can do is view a long list of all 4 programs together. Is there an older version of the app that works differently? I was wondering, since the app has been updated but my Electro 4 piano is several years old. Maybe the newest version of the app is more geared toward newer keyboards. Maybe there's a difference between the Mac and Windows versions? I'm on a Mac, if it matters.
2. The Nord's digital display seems backward. When I press the Program 4 button and scroll with the page buttons to the 11th sound, the display says 11.4 instead of 4.11. Do I just not understand what banks and programs and pages mean?
3. Related, I know that the Nord Stage piano has the ability to group sounds into "sets." Can I safely think of the Bank buttons on the Electro 4 as set buttons, and just accept that the 3rd song in set 2 will be denoted as 3.2 on the display? Or is my idea absurd because I don't understand what Nord means by banks and programs and pages?
I found the Nord user forum website, which seems to be not as helpful as I was hoping it would be.
Response by poster: Thanks, Salty. To clarify, the title of this question refers to the fact that I'm amazed that I needed to read it, not that I haven't been able to read it. I have a hard copy of the manual, but thanks for the handy PDF link anyway. (At more than a glance, it does not cover my specific questions.)
posted by emelenjr at 3:26 PM on January 18, 2017
posted by emelenjr at 3:26 PM on January 18, 2017
Ah, sorry about that.
For question 2:
On page 14, it says the programs are arranged into 32 "pages" of four programs each, and that the page number and program number are printed on the display.
So I think that means e.g. 11.4 indicates the 11th page, fourth program.
I think the idea must be that you have always four programs/patches to quickly and easily switch through, without requiring any menus or more than a single button press.
This then probably has bearing on your question three, but I'll stop trying to help in case I confuse things since I don't have any first-hand experience :)
Enjoy!
posted by SaltySalticid at 3:48 PM on January 18, 2017
For question 2:
On page 14, it says the programs are arranged into 32 "pages" of four programs each, and that the page number and program number are printed on the display.
So I think that means e.g. 11.4 indicates the 11th page, fourth program.
I think the idea must be that you have always four programs/patches to quickly and easily switch through, without requiring any menus or more than a single button press.
This then probably has bearing on your question three, but I'll stop trying to help in case I confuse things since I don't have any first-hand experience :)
Enjoy!
posted by SaltySalticid at 3:48 PM on January 18, 2017
« Older Help me identify this folk tale (or tales) | Help finding video from art installation Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Here is the user manual for your new Nord Electro 4HP.
While this "stage piano" is relatively straightforward, you will have to learn the paradigms. The manual is only 26 pages long, and at a glance it seems to cover all your specific questions.
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:32 PM on January 18, 2017