User manual

22 | Nord Stage 2 USer MaNUal oS v1.X
M The bend range is fixed to -/+ 2 semitones
 In most of the factory programs, the organ has neither sustain,
nor pitch stick activated, the piano has sustain but not pitch stick
active and the synth has usually both activated. But there may
indeed be exceptions to this. Change this as you like, and do not
forget to store any changes that you wish to keep.
Output Routing
The Nord Stage 2 has four audio outputs. Each instrument can be
freely assigned to output 1&2 (default) or 3&4 in stereo, or to output
3 or 4 in mono. The output routings can be set for each program, or
globally for all programs. The Global setting is the default setting. In
global mode, the routing settings stored with the program are overrid-
den by the global settings. See the System Menu chapter on page 42 for
more information about the output routings.
Dual Slot setups
Press both Slot A and Slot B buttons. Both Slot LEDs light up, and
both Slots become active. One of the Slots is in focus, its panel
settings are currently shown and can be edited. The Slot in focus is
indicated by a flashing Slot LED. Press the other Slot’s button to shift
the focus.
To disable one of the slots , hold the Slot button for the panel you want
to keep active, and press briefly the Slot button you want to disable.
 Press and hold a Slot button and turn the value dial to copy the
entire Slot settings from another program to the one currently
active.
When you have both Panels active you have access to two of each
Instrument section, and two Effect sections. Amongst other things, this
allows you to play two sounds from each Instrument section simultane-
ously, e.g. a Clavinet and a Electric Piano or two Synths.
For the Organ section things work slightly differently. Instead of two
completely separate organ sections, you have one organ engine with
two manuals, that can be set to different drawbar settings, like on a
real B3.
Using an external keyboard (Dual KB)
If you like to use an external keyboard to control Slot B, set it up as
follows:
Select a MIDI channel to transmit on the external keyboard, and select
the same MIDI channel as the “Dual KB” channel in the Nord Stage 2
MIDI page menu - read more about this on page 44.
Press Shift and the Dual KB button, the Dual KB indicator lights up.
The internal keyboard will control Slot A and the external keyboard will
control Slot B. It is not possible to activate both Panels in this mode.
This function is ideal for live situations when you have a second
keyboard in your rig that you mostly use to play its internal sounds,
but would in certain circumstances like to use to play the Nord Stage
2 “second manual”. By activating Dual KB you can quickly switch be-
tween these modes without having to bother with MIDI menus. Having
this function easily accessible on the front panel makes it easy to turn
off and prevent the external keyboard to play when its used to play its
own sounds.
Another advantage with the Dual KB mode is that you can access the
knobs and parameters for either panel from the Nord Stage 2, while the
internal keyboard is always playing Slot A, and the external keyboard
controls Slot B. For example, you can keep on playing Slot A with one
hand on the Stage 2’s keyboard while you simultaneously adjust the
drawbars played with the second keyboard on Slot B.
Please note that the Dual KB setting is saved with a Program, together
with all other Slot settings. This makes it easy to access any complicat-
ed keyboard setup with the push of a button - ideal for live situations.
Using multiple keyboards
Sometimes you may want to control the Nord Stage 2 from more
than two keyboards. For example, you may want to have two external
keyboards for Organ A and B, while keeping the internal keyboard for
the piano sounds. Thanks to the flexible MIDI configuration of the Nord
Stage, this is no problem at all.
MIDI Input Only
The Nord Stage 2 can be set up to receive on a separate MIDI channel
for each instrument (see “MIDI Menu” on page 44, for both the Slots.
When such a MIDI channel is assigned, the instrument can be assigned
to no Keyboard Zone at all (when no KB Zone indicator is lit). This
means that the instrument is active and you can adjust all parameters
on the panel as usual, but it can only be played via MIDI, from your
external keyboard (or a sequencer)