Clavia nord lead, Owner'S Manual

Page 1: ...Owners Manual Software Version 2 x English Clavia DMI AB 1996...

Page 2: ...he product should be located so that its location or position does not interfere with its proper venti lation 7 The product should be located away from heat sources such as radiators heat registers or...

Page 3: ...ces 14 Monophonic and Polyphonic Operation 15 Stereo Mono 15 Pitch Stick and Modulation Wheel 15 Master Tune 16 Pedal 17 The Panic button 19 Editing Programs 21 Changing An Existing Program 21 Changin...

Page 4: ...cting Single Sounds from a Performance 35 Saving a Performance 35 Exiting Performance Mode 36 What a Performance contains 36 Panel Reference 37 Oscillator 1 37 Oscillator 2 38 Settings For Both Oscill...

Page 5: ...ifier 84 Envelopes 84 LFOs 87 MIDI Implementation 89 Controller Number List 89 System Exclusive Implementation 91 Factory Settings 99 Factory Programs 99 Factory Percussion Kits 100 Factory Performanc...

Page 6: ...Page 4 Table Of Contents...

Page 7: ...anaging to go beyond it But not all the magic lies in the sound creation A major part is in the front panel comprehensive clearly laid out and smooth to operate About This Manual If you have some basi...

Page 8: ...Page 6 Introduction...

Page 9: ...h a MIDI keyboard connect a MIDI cable from MIDI Out on the keyboard to MIDI In on the Nord Rack All signal cables used with the Nord Lead must be shielded The L R Outputs are line level R Midi in Mid...

Page 10: ...gular footswitch and cable can be used If the Pedal input should be used as a replacement for the modulation wheel an expression pedal with a stereo cable should be used For information on how to set...

Page 11: ...ns on the panel are disabled except for Master Vol ume 2 The demo songs are played back one after the other If you want to move to the next or previous demo song press the Up or Down button in the Pro...

Page 12: ...IDI Channel setting for Slot A 1 16 or off 4 Use the Program Up Down buttons to select MIDI Channel 1 5 Press Shift again to return to the normal play mode If you use Slot A when you play the Nord Rac...

Page 13: ...button above the Mod ulation wheel while pressing the buttons makes the value change in steps of ten There are 99 Programs to select from If you have a PCMCIA card inserted in the holder on the back t...

Page 14: ...s to scroll to the desired Percussion Kit location Percussion Kit P0 selected For detailed information about how to play and edit the Percussion Kits see page 29 Using the Slots To Switch Programs The...

Page 15: ...the buttons that make up the layer Polyphony How many notes you can play when layering sounds depends on two things 1 How many voices you have in your instrument the basic four or the expanded twelve...

Page 16: ...ly from A to L the letters I and K are excluded because they re hard to write clearly on the display In each Bank there are 10 Performances for a total of 100 If you have a PCMCIA card inserted the Ba...

Page 17: ...n fact there s one exception If a Program is set to Unison the instrument is switched to stereo operation Pitch Stick and Modulation Wheel Pitch Stick The Pitch Stick is used to bend the notes just as...

Page 18: ...s between five possibilities A de scription of each can be found on page 52 Master Tune To tune the Nord Lead to other instruments proceed as follows 1 Hold down the Shift button 2 With the Shift butt...

Page 19: ...Set it up as follows 1 Hold down the Shift button and press the System button 2 Press the System button until the left digit in the display is P 3 Use the Program Up Down buttons to switch the right d...

Page 20: ...pedal s up and down states 12 If needed repeat steps 5 to 10 to set pedal control function for the other slots 13 Press Shift to exit the Special menu and return to play mode No matter which function...

Page 21: ...he Shift button and press Panic the Kbd Track button in the Filter section This will execute an internal All Notes Off and reset certain parameters to normal values Filter Attack Decay Sustain Release...

Page 22: ...Page 20 Basic Operations...

Page 23: ...ams they are backed up as ROM Performances as described on page 106 Changing One Sound In A Layer If you have layered sounds you can still edit one of the sounds from the front panel Proceed as follow...

Page 24: ...l button the instrument only plays one Program layering is not possible Customizing Manual Mode When you press Manual mode the button functions waveform select modulation destinations etc will be set...

Page 25: ...y the now selected Program in this mode to decide if you want to replace it or not Only Program numbers up to 40 in internal memory Bank can be used for saving If you try to save in higher program num...

Page 26: ...ment will do this for you if you perform the following steps 1 Check that the card is not write protected This is done with a switch located directly on the card 2 Insert the card The display will fla...

Page 27: ...g The Range 1 Set the parameter to the value you want it to deliver when you play with minimum force 2 Press the Active Set button in the Velocity Morph section The LED over the button will flash indi...

Page 28: ...have reversed velocity response simply use a low value for the maximum force setting and a higher value for the minimum force setting when you are defining the range PERF MODE Velocity morph MANUAL AC...

Page 29: ...utton 3 Turn the knob a bit up and then back to its lowest value 4 Press the Velocity Morph button again The Velocity Morph function is now cleared for the knob 5 Turn the knob back up to any desired...

Page 30: ...cedure 1 Press the Mod Wheel destination button until all the LEDS for the Mod Wheel destination go out 2 Make sure the Modulation wheel is all the way down 3 Set up the basic Program as you want it 4...

Page 31: ...ular Programs and labelled P0 to P9 For example select Percussion Kit P0 Percussion Kit P0 selected in Program Slot C 3 Use the white keys to play the percussion sounds in the selected Kit There are e...

Page 32: ...sound as long as you don t press any other black key since this would select another sound for editing There is one limitation when programming the percussion sounds All of the sounds in a Percussion...

Page 33: ...ay also want to import a sound that is currently a regular Program and use it as a part of a Per cussion Kit Proceed as follows 1 Select the Program and press Store 2 Scroll to the Percussion Kit loca...

Page 34: ...slot which plays a Percussion Kit P0 P9 Using Percussion Kits in Performance Mode In Performance mode there is one big difference between regular Programs and Percussion Kits A Percussion Kit in a Pe...

Page 35: ...a dump in the beginning of your song to select sounds initialize global settings etc The Factory Performances include several life like drawbar organ simulations created using a special pseudo additiv...

Page 36: ...1 Hold down the desired slot button A to D The displays shows which Program was used for this slot when the Performance was created 2 While holding down the button select a Program for the slot just a...

Page 37: ...grams but complete Program Patches in their own right You will find several unique sounds in the factory Performances sounds that you will not find in any of the internal Program locations You may wan...

Page 38: ...cted in any way On the other hand Percussion Kits need to be saved separately Exiting Performance Mode 1 To exit Performance mode hold down Shift and press Performance Manual Now you return to the reg...

Page 39: ...This contains all harmonics and is the richest of the available waveforms It is suitable for all sorts of sounds Pulse This waveform is special in that its harmonic contents can be varied continuously...

Page 40: ...t have the expected effect Semitones This setting is used to adjust the tuning of Oscillator 2 relative to Oscillator 1 The setting is in semitone steps The range is from 5 octaves below Oscillator 1...

Page 41: ...it is a very useful addition In this FM implementation OSC1 is being modulated by OSC 2 In FM speak OSC 1 is the carrier and OSC 2 is the modulator This means that changing the pitch of OSC2 basically...

Page 42: ...y has any effect if Pulse wave is selected for either oscillator or both It adjusts the pulse width of the Pulse waves There s only one Pulse Width setting and it is common for both oscillators When y...

Page 43: ...ns During the Decay phase the sound decreases in level and continues to do so until it reaches the Sustain level see below The Decay knob is used to adjust how long this should take Sustain This is th...

Page 44: ...rs see page 79 Filter Type LP 12dB LP stands for low pass A low pass filter lets low frequencies pass and cuts out higher frequen cies Exactly which frequencies get cut out is determined by the Filter...

Page 45: ...ss and cuts out low frequencies The filter has a rather steep curve BP To select this type of filter press the Filter Type button until both the HP and LP 24 buttons light up BP stands for band pass I...

Page 46: ...tion is a sound with plenty of body some of the upper mid range bite removed but a certain amount of high frequencies still present This type of sound could be very useful for soft yet clear pads etc...

Page 47: ...the band pass filter adjusting the Resonance adjusts the width of the pass band When you raise the Resonance the band where frequencies are let through will become narrower Envelope Amount This is us...

Page 48: ...For this switch to have any effect the Envelope Amount setting can t be set to zero full left Please note that more detailed velocity control can be achieved with the velocity programming function Kb...

Page 49: ...can be controlled externally via MIDI see page 61 Destination This used to set which parameter the LFO should affect Osc 1 2 This routes the LFO to the frequency of both oscillators in equal amounts...

Page 50: ...l amounts in other words a regular vibrato Amp When this is selected LFO2 produces a triangle wave routed to the volume for tremolo effects Echo In this mode OSC1 2 and Amplifier LEDs lit LFO2 creates...

Page 51: ...is not sensitive to velocity Filter Envelope Amount Velocity and Velocity Morph are both turned off there will be no difference whatsoever between the echo repeats On the other hand it is fully possi...

Page 52: ...ion This knob is bi polar that is zero amount is in the middle twelve o clock Turning it left introduces a negative envelope and turn ing it right gives you a positive envelope Destination None You ca...

Page 53: ...of a brass type of sound Let us give a few examples If Attack is set to zero and you have a positive Amount setting Oscillator 2 pitch will decay down to nor mal pitch as set with the Decay knob If A...

Page 54: ...her with Oscillator Sync and FM to vary the timbre of the sound while playing FM Amt This routes the modulation wheel to the amount of FM see page 39 Filter This routes the modulation wheel directly t...

Page 55: ...and then press a new one Furthermore if you press a key hold it press a new key and then release that the first note is also re triggered Unison When this is activated more than one voice will be play...

Page 56: ...ave Shift This mode will automatically be selected each time you turn on the Nord Lead In this mode the Octave Shift buttons affect the Program in the selected slot only Notes sent to MIDI Out are not...

Page 57: ...d function If you for example selected the Prg Ctrl button the left digit in the display switches between P Pro gram and C Controllers when you press it TUNE LOCAL OUT MODE PRG CTRL DUMP ALL DUMP ONE...

Page 58: ...On and all the Special functions are turned off However the Special settings are saved with the Performances Master Tune Out Mode Local On Off Prog Change On Off Slot MIDI Channel LFO 1 Sync Pedal Con...

Page 59: ...tch are indicated without a dot The values are in cents hundreds of a semitone Out Mode This function is used to set how the Outputs should be used for handling stereo and individual external processi...

Page 60: ...an external mixer for example in multitimbral MIDI work or when layering sounds Local This is used to turn Local Control on and off Local On is the normal Play Mode In Local Off mode the front panel...

Page 61: ...lay switches between P Program C Control and A Arpeggio 2 Use the Program Up and Down buttons to switch between and 1 For the Program and Control parameters the 1 setting means that the respective MID...

Page 62: ...see page 69 Global MIDI Channel This is the MIDI Channel used for transmitting and receiving Program Change messages for switching between Performances To set the Global MIDI Channel proceed as follow...

Page 63: ...te Play in the sequencer so that MIDI Clock is actually transmitted The function synchronizes LFO1 s start to the incoming MIDI Clock so that the LFO starts over at certain intervals Which interval to...

Page 64: ...the Nord Lead keyboard and adjust the Rate knob in the LFO 1 section Start at approximately 12 o clock and adjust until you get eighth notes that are in sync with the sequencer If you raise the Rate...

Page 65: ...nction in the Filter section is activated the velocities of the incoming MIDI notes are routed to Filter Envelope amount This allows you to adjust the timbre of the sound with the velocity of the inco...

Page 66: ...g the Amplifier envelope the instrument will be silent Function 5 External Velocity Morph This function is used to control the Velocity Morph function via the velocity numbers of incoming MIDI notes T...

Page 67: ...Channel 2 10 Press Store again and adjust to any MIDI note number 11 Press Store again 12 Make sure all other Special functions are turned off for this slot Do this by pressing the Special button repe...

Page 68: ...ams Pitch Bend Range b This allows you to set the range of the pitch stick in semitones The value is also used to set what effect incoming pitch bend messages should have on the pitch The table below...

Page 69: ...dal input is used with a footswitch sustain this is transmitted as Controller 64 Damper Ped al All other controls knobs and switches on the front panel except Master Level are also transmitted and rec...

Page 70: ...n of Program Change messages is activated see page 59 When you select a new Program for a slot a Program Change message is transmitted via MIDI on the slot s MIDI Channel Likewise if a Program Change...

Page 71: ...MIDI Channels Which MIDI Channel the Nord Lead transmits on depends on which of the four Program slots is active see page 13 All four Program Slots always receive MIDI regardless of which one is sele...

Page 72: ...t activated and that the sequencer echoes the changes back on the right MIDI Channel or your changes will affect the wrong sound If two or more Program slots are set up to receive on the same MIDI Cha...

Page 73: ...ansmit all Programs Performances To receive a Bulk Dump proceed as follows 1 Connect a cable from MIDI Out on the transmitting device to MIDI In on the Nord Lead 2 If you are about to receive a comple...

Page 74: ...Page 72 MIDI...

Page 75: ...rs large cabinets housing separate electronic modules connected via patch cords With the advancement of technology the functionality of many of these modules could be put onto one single circuit board...

Page 76: ...n the Nord Lead although the illustration depicts far from all the possibilities in this instrument Note that the horizontal lines indicate the way the sound travels The vertical lines indicate contro...

Page 77: ...pulse wave and triangle Looking at the shape of a waveform tells very little about how it sounds Instead there s a better way to draw it called a spectrum Let s introduce some quick theory Mathematic...

Page 78: ...these have an infinite amount of harmonics Sawtooth The Sawtooth wave has a simple spectrum All harmonics are present in the wave in proportional values As you can see the high harmonics have a fairly...

Page 79: ...once between full positive amplitude and full negative and then back The thing that can be varied is where within the period you jump from maximum to minimum amplitude Let s look at three examples 95...

Page 80: ...About Inharmonic Spectra Above we have only discussed spectra where the overtones appear at perfect harmonics While this is true for the basic waveforms discussed above it is definitely not true for...

Page 81: ...of the sound in an interesting and very characteristic way The Filter The filter in a synthesizer is used to remove or emphasize frequencies in a spectrum A filter is a bit like an amplifier a volume...

Page 82: ...scuss the three most com mon the ones found in the Nord Lead Lowpass filter The Lowpass filter dampens high frequencies and let s low frequencies pass through unaf fected as in the example above It is...

Page 83: ...exact filter curve is the roll off which is measured in dB Octave decibels per octave or poles The simplest possible filter has a roll off of 6dB octave which is referred to as 1 pole The next step up...

Page 84: ...guitar etc be have the amplitude of the harmonics decreases as the sound decays Key Tracking When you play different pitches the oscillators produce different frequencies This means that the over ton...

Page 85: ...cies to the sound If the Resonance is then raised even further on some synthesizers the filter will start to self oscillate that is produce sound of its own just like an oscillator High Resonance valu...

Page 86: ...nd other parameters in a sound This is used to give the sound a varying character from the moment the key is pressed to the moment it is re leased The classic synthesizer envelope has four parameters...

Page 87: ...ld rest at after the Decay If you for example want to create a flute sound you would have a fairly high Sustain setting on your Volume envelope since a flute tone basically stays at a steady level for...

Page 88: ...If you set Sustain to full level the Decay setting is of no importance since the volume of the sound is never lowered If you set Sustain to 0 the sound will become silent after the Decay phase is fin...

Page 89: ...e is of AD type Typically it can be made to modulate the FM amplitude or the pitch of Oscillator 2 to create a different timbre during the attack part of the sounds LFOs An LFO is an oscillator just l...

Page 90: ...Page 88 About Subtractive Synthesis...

Page 91: ...cussion Kits proceed with caution The Controller message you send will affect the percussion sound that was last selected for editing by pressing a black key on the keyboard see page 30 Nord Lead Para...

Page 92: ...SB for Controller 2 Oscillator Pulse Width 79 Sound Controller 10 Oscillator Sync 35 LSB for Controller 3 Oscillator Mix 8 Balance Amplifier Envelope Attack 73 Sound Controller 4 Attack Amplifier Enve...

Page 93: ...n If the Sys Ex data for a complete Bank is sent using the Dump All command the Program location within the Bank is stored for each Patch When any or all of these Patches are sent back to a Nord Lead...

Page 94: ...Patch Dump Request message has been received specifying a Percussion Kit location or an Edit Buffer containing a Percussion Kit Percussion Kit Patch Dump messages will also be sent if the Dump All co...

Page 95: ...D Byte Hex Byte Decimal Description F0 240 System Exclusive 33 51 Manufacturer ID clavia Device ID Global MIDI Channel 0 to 15 0 F 04 4 Model ID for Nord Lead 00 to 04 0 to 4 Message Type specifies th...

Page 96: ...y in the instrument with a new one The Message Type and Message Specification then specify in which memory location the Performance should be stored If Message Type 30 Edit Buffer the Message Specific...

Page 97: ...oller values for a specified Slot see page 70 The message is never transmitted from the Nord Lead Byte Hex Byte Decimal Description F0 240 System Exclusive 33 51 Manufacturer ID clavia Device ID Globa...

Page 98: ...0 127 1 2 mix 0 127 1 3 cutoff 0 127 1 4 resonance 0 127 1 5 filterenvamt 0 127 1 6 pw 0 127 1 7 fmdepth 0 127 1 8 filterenvattack 0 127 1 9 filterenvdecay 0 127 1 10 filterenvsustain 0 127 1 11 filte...

Page 99: ...fset Name Min Max Comment 264 0 performance_patch A B C D see PATCH data format 4 264 midichan A B C D 0 15 4 268 lfo1sync A B C D 0 7 4 272 lfo2sync A B C D 0 7 4 276 filterenvtrig A B C D 0 1 4 280...

Page 100: ...ation 4 328 pgmselect A B C D 0 98 4 332 bankselect A B C D 0 3 4 336 channel pressure amt A B C D 0 7 4 340 channel pressure dest A B C D 0 4 4 344 expression pedal amt A B C D 0 7 4 348 expression p...

Page 101: ...78 Tack clav 13 Arpeggiator down 46 Brass Comp 79 Span Eyes 14 FM Metallic 47 Sync sweep 80 Floote 15 Attack bass 48 Synth strings 81 Hamplafon 16 Saw mono 49 Trumpets 82 Thumpinet 17 Osc 2 modulatio...

Page 102: ...o hi Zone 5 Mid tom Zone 5 Bongo low Zone 6 High tom Zone 6 Triangel Zone 7 Crash Zone 7 Guiro Zone 8 Cowbell Zone 8 Quica Percussion Kit P2 Percussion Kit P3 Percussion Sound Percussion Sound Zone 1...

Page 103: ...ound Zone 1 Bass drum Zone 1 Reverb kick Zone 2 Small quica Zone 2 Echo snare Zone 3 Muted Zone 3 Heavy hats Zone 4 Talking drum Zone 4 Sonar 1 Zone 5 Indian drum Zone 5 Sonar 2 Zone 6 Finger cymbal Z...

Page 104: ...en D9 Space engine B0 Sixtifive organ E0 Square organ B1 Wow pad E1 Saw pulse pad B2 Windy E2 Analog grand bass B3 Water organ E3 Raga on white keys B4 Big Morph E4 Soft string pad B5 Heavy pulse lead...

Page 105: ...wbars These are click stopped sliders usually nine each one controlling the volume of a certain partial in the organ tone The partials are indicated in the classic pipe organ way referring to the leng...

Page 106: ...otary Speaker A large part of the characteristic organ sound is due to the rotary speaker cabinet Such a cabinet moves the sound around either by rotating the actual speakers or by directing the sound...

Page 107: ...t slot A B C or D by pressing the respective Slot button The names of the recreated Prophet patches refer to their original location in the Prophet 5 program banks Performance Slot A Slot B Slot C Slo...

Page 108: ...nstructions on page 35 Performance Slot A Slot B Slot C Slot D L0 Program 01 Program 02 Program 03 Program 04 L1 Program 05 Program 06 Program 07 Program 08 L2 Program 09 Program 10 Program 11 Program...

Page 109: ...ks Basic Default Channel Channel 1 16 1 16 1 16 1 16 Default Mode Messages Altered Mode 3 Mode 3 Note Number True Voice 0 127 0 127 0 127 Velocity Note ON Note OFF O v 1 127 O v 1 127 After Key s Touc...

Page 110: ...Page 108 MIDI Implementation Chart...

Page 111: ...sion reception 59 Front panel list 89 MIDI Transmission and reception 67 Recording in Sequencer 70 Copying Programs 23 D Decay Amplifier 41 Filter 46 Introduction to 85 Mod Envelope 50 Demo Play 9 Des...

Page 112: ...2 N Noise 38 Notch LP 44 O Octave Shift 54 Oscillator 1 37 Oscillator 2 38 Oscillators Introduction to 73 Out Mode 15 57 Outputs 7 P PCMCIA Cards 24 Pedal Connecting 8 MIDI Transmission and reception...

Page 113: ...Functions 61 Stereo Out Mode 57 Output 15 Store Performance 35 Program 23 Sustain Amplifier 41 Filter 46 Introduction to 85 Sustain Pedal 17 Sync 39 78 System 66 System Exclusive Bulk Dump 71 Impleme...

Page 114: ...112 Index...