Specifications

NORD STAGE Eighty Eight V1.1x 10. The Extern section: About the Extern section
Page 57
10. THE EXTERN SECTION
ABOUT THE EXTERN SECTION
A good stage instrument wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t allow you to control exter-
nal MIDI instruments. Normally you can do this by simply connecting an external
instrument via MIDI. Although this works, it usually doesn’t provide the flexibility
and control that you need in live situations. Perhaps you want to use splits, perhaps
you want to be able to switch the external instrument on or off at will, or perhaps you
wish to change programs on the external instrument from your stage keyboard. All
this is possible via MIDI of course, but it isn’t always so easy to set up. And no musi-
cian wants to deal with complicated MIDI menus in a live situation.
When developing Nord Stage, Clavia aimed to make external control an integrated
feature of the instrument, where all the essential external MIDI control functions
would be as accessible and easy to use as the functions and parameters for the built-in
instruments. And that’s what you get in the Extern section!
SETTING UP
1. Connect a MIDI cable from Nord Stage’s MIDI Out to the MIDI In on the exter-
nal device.
2. Press S
HIFT
and the E
XTERN
button to access the Extern menu.
3. Use The P
AGE
buttons to access the “Extern MIDI Channel” page.
4. Use the V
ALUE DIAL to select the MIDI channel (1-16) you would like to transmit over. Press the
E
XTERN
button again to exit the menu.
5. Set the external instrument to receive on the same MIDI channel.
USING THE EXTERN SECTION
A
CTIVATING
Before Extern MIDI is sent out from Nord Stage, you have to activate the Extern section. This is done by
pressing the O
N
button under the P
ARAMETER rotary encoder.
A
BOUT
K
EYBOARD
Z
ONES
You can activate Keyboard Zones to create splits and layers just as for the internal instruments. If you set
the Extern section to only play in the LO Zone, the external instrument will only respond to notes played
in this Zone. In other words, it works transparently together with the built-in instruments! See “Keyboard
Zones and Dual Panel setups” on page 50 for information on how to set up and use Keyboard Zones.