nord Stage 3, User Manual

Page 1: ...USER MANUAL Nord Stage 3 English OS version 1 X Edition C Part number 50474 Copyright Clavia DMI AB Edition C ...

Page 2: ...e arrowhead symbol within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated voltage within the products en closure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons Le symbole éclair avec le point de flèche à l intérieur d un triangle équilatéral est utilisé pour alerter l utilisateur de la presence à l intérieur du coffret de ...

Page 3: ...and Zone Select 17 Octave Shift 17 Pstick and Sustped 17 Drawbars and buttons 17 Selecting an Organ model 18 The B3 model 18 B3 drawbars 18 Percussion 18 Key click control 18 The Vox model 19 Vox drawbars 19 Vibrato 19 The Farf model 19 Farf registers 19 Vibrato 20 Pipe Organ 20 Pipe 1 20 Pipe 2 20 Pipe 1 2 registers 20 Organ Preset I II 20 Drawbar Live Compact model 20 Swell pedal 20 Rotary Speak...

Page 4: ...button 35 LP 24 LP 12 35 LP M 35 LP HP 36 High Pass HP 36 Band Pass BP 36 Filter Frequency 36 Filter Resonance 36 KB Track 36 KB Track settings 36 Drive 37 LFO Amt 37 Vel Mod Env 37 The Envelopes 37 Mod Envelope 37 Attack 37 Decay 37 Release 37 Velocity 37 Amp Envelope 38 Attack 38 Decay 38 Release 38 Velocity 38 LFO 38 Mst Clk 38 LFO Waveforms 38 Voice section 39 Mono Voice mode 39 Legato Voice m...

Page 5: ... 53 Gain 53 Sound Menu 53 1 Piano Pedal Noise Level 53 2 Piano String Res Level 53 3 B3 Organ Tonewheel Mode 54 4 B3 Organ Click Level 54 5 B3 Organ Keyboard Trigger Point 54 6 Synth Vibrato 54 Rate 54 Amnt Amount 54 7 Rotary Rotor 54 Accel Acceleration 54 Range Low Normal default High 54 8 Rotary Horn 54 Accel Acceleration 54 MIDI Menu 54 1 Local Control 54 2 Channel 54 Panel A B 54 Dual KB 54 3 ...

Page 6: ...ted waterfall keybed E E with physical drawbars Two independent panels each provide two complete instances of the Stage 3 sound engines and effects This allows for all kinds of layers and splits as well as dual manual B3 organ playing among other things NORD ONLINE On the website nordkeyboards com you will find Information about the Nord Stage 3 and other Nord instruments Latest Operating Systems ...

Page 7: ...s become available these can be download for free from the Sound Libraries section of our website DISCLAIMER Any trademarks and brand names mentioned in this manual are the property of their respective owners and are not affiliated or associated with Clavia These trademarks and brand names are only mentioned to describe certain sound qualities reproduced by the Nord Stage 3 ...

Page 8: ...th physical drawbars Finally there are two distinct Pipe Organ models including a Principal Pipe model with two variations delivering a wide range of versatile pipe church organ sounds This section is described in detail in the Organ chapter beginning on page 17 PIANO SECTION The Nord Stage 3 Piano section with its 2 GB of internal memory delivers a stunning range of piano and keyboard sounds Pian...

Page 9: ...s for a multitude of single or dual oscillator setups wave shaping frequency modulation and more An OLED display dedicated to the Synth section provides a clear overview of its current setup The Nord Sample Library gives Stage 3 owners access to a huge free library of world class sounds including the famous vintage Mellotron and Chamberlin samples User created samples can also be loaded into the i...

Page 10: ...s an OLED display in the middle Complete settings of every parameter on the panel are stored in the program memory of the Nord Stage 3 with enough room for 400 programs Programs are organized into 8 banks labeled A H All programs can be edited and replaced as you wish M M A complete set of the factory programs is available on the www nordkeyboards com web site This means that the program memory ca...

Page 11: ...tage 3 have a secondary function which is printed immediately below it These addi tional functions are accessed by pressing and holding SHIFT while operating the control The Shift button is also used to EXIT a menu or to cancel an ongoing Store operation LIST VIEW Any dial that has LIST written below it such as the Program dial can be used to access a useful list view 1 Press SHIFT and turn the PR...

Page 12: ...hat the edit was automatically stored If Live Mode is active and you decide to store the settings permanently as a program in one of the Program banks you can do so using the standard Store methods see above You can also store programs into any of the five Live Mode memory locations in which case the program settings will replace that current Live Mode memory setting Press the Live Mode button aga...

Page 13: ...x sound engines and two Extern sections assigned to it LOAD A SYNTH PRESET 1 Turn the SYNTH PRESET dial and select any of the Synth presets from the 8 preset banks perhaps a Bass Synth sound Note that the location and name of the preset is displayed at the bottom of the Program area display The Synth display will show the currently active oscillator settings All the synthesizer parameters on the p...

Page 14: ...ress the other Panel button MORPHS The modulation wheel a connected control pedal or the key board aftertouch can be used to alter one or several parame ters while playing This is achieved by using morphs In short this is done by selecting a a source the physical controller a destination parameter and the parameter range included in the morph 1 We will now morph the drawbars with the wheel so star...

Page 15: ...ning on page 35 LOADING AND ADJUSTING A SAMPLE PRESET Now let s instead set up a string pad sound based on a sample loaded from the Sample Preset bank Apart from being selectable with the Osc1 Waveform dial samples iare available as presets within the Synth Preset banks When loaded from a preset some of the Synth settings such as Amp Envelope and Velocity are automatically set to values which suit...

Page 16: ...ou could also press CLOCK Shift Tap Set to view and adjust Master Clock settings without having to keep the button pressed down The display will indicate the BPM Set this to 130 BPM for this exercise Release the button to exit or press EXIT Shift if in Clock mode Tap four times on the Mst Clk button to set the tempo on the fly 3 Turn the Arpeggio RATE knob to select the meter subdivision or note v...

Page 17: ...n pitch stick func tionality for the Organ in which case the Organ sound can be bent 2 semitones up and down using the pitch stick SUSTPED Shift Octave Shift right up button activates any attached sustain pedal for the Organ section Read more on how to configure an attached pedal in the Menus chapter on page 52 DRAWBARS AND BUTTONS The drawbars on the Nord Stage 3 88 and 76 key versions are repre ...

Page 18: ...o the signal For the Chorus effect the phase modulated signal is added to the original signal Three different types of choruses C1 C3 and three different types of vibratos V1 V3 are available Select one of these types by pressing the Vibrato Chorus selector button The effect can be activated deacti vated for both panels individually by pressing the Vibrato Chorus button for the Panel A and Panel B...

Page 19: ... setting is common for both the Panel A and Panel B Organ sections although it can be turned on and off inde pendently THE FARF MODEL The typical buzzy sound of this vintage instrument is one of the most distinct and easily recognizable organ sounds ever created yet it is ac tually possible to get quite a wide range of sounds out of the instrument Note that the voices aren t supposed to replicate ...

Page 20: ...both Pipe models correspond to those of the B3 model ranging from 16 feet to 1 foot ORGAN PRESET I II Two organ presets settings can be stored within each panel for each organ model This provides a quick way of changing between two organ sound variations with out having to change programs or panels Change between Presets I II by pressing the PRESET II button A preset stores the drawbar settings an...

Page 21: ...NO SOUNDS The Pianos in the Nord Stage 3 are organized into six types Each type can contain several instrument models New piano sounds can be downloaded from the www nordkeyboards com website and added to the Nord Stage 3 by using the Nord Sound Manager Right out of the box the Nord Stage 3 features a fine collection of carefully selected acoustic and electric pianos digital piano sounds and piano...

Page 22: ...fferent pick up combinations were select ed by pressing a number of rocker switches This functionality is faithfully simulated by the Nord Stage 3 which means that all original Clavinet D6 pickup selections are available PICK UP TYPE DESCRIPTION Clav Model A Only the neck pick up a warmer less bright sound Clav Model B Only the bridge pick up a bright sound Clav Model C Both pick ups on and in pha...

Page 23: ...rolled by the force used when the sustain pedal is operated M M If a piano is selected that is not compatible with the Pedal Noise feature this function will be disabled NORD TRIPLE PEDAL The Nord Stage 3 is compatible with the Nord Triple Pedal an optional accessory which is com prised of three pedals in one unit This pedal unlocks additional features and sounds within the Piano section of the No...

Page 24: ...high frequency range producing a bright brilliant sound which is also useful for bringing out the ping in electric pianos CLAV EQ SETTINGS An original Clavinet is equipped with 4 additional rocker switches which control the onboard EQ Most of these settings combinations are available on the Nord Stage 3 Use the PIANO CLAV button to select your preferred combination of the filter settings LAYER DET...

Page 25: ... and control pedal A Morph is set up by holding down one of the Morph Assign buttons while at the same time moving a parameter control for example a knob or a drawbar from the point where the morph should start to the point where it should end It is a good practice to have the parameter control set to the desired start position before pressing down the morph assign button The display will show the...

Page 26: ...functions in the Stage 3 that are synchronized to it The subdivisions are described in greater detail in the sections covering each syncable function the Synth LFO and arpeggiator Effect 1 and Delay EXTERNAL SYNC The Master Clock on the Stage 3 can be controlled by incoming MIDI clock messages This is an automatic behavior As soon as the Stage 3 receives MIDI clock on the MIDI input or the USB MID...

Page 27: ...t Lrg The Lrg setting provides a width of 24 semitones 12 below the split point and 12 above it M M Both panels use the same KB Zone configuration Instrument assignments are individual for each panel KEYBOARD ZONES EDITOR Thee KB ZONES editor allows for a clear overview and easy set up of keyboard zones and how sound engines are assigned to them A set up using the Organ O Piano P Synth S and Exter...

Page 28: ...re used within songs in a set list or similar Program references are referred to as song parts and a group of 5 song parts is referred to as a song There are a total of 8 banks of 50 songs each M M It is important to note that songs only contain references to pro gram locations and not copies of the programs and their data This means that if a program is edited and stored to the same location any ...

Page 29: ...from the Stage 3 keyboard The Dual KB setting is stored with a Program along with all other Panel settings M M The MIDI Channel for the Dual KB feature is set in the MIDI Menu on the Stage 3 Read more on this on page 54 SHIFT EXIT BUTTON Many buttons and some knobs have a secondary function which is accessed by holding SHIFT and pressing the button or turning the knob Shift activated functions are...

Page 30: ... by the MIDI In port or through the USB connector M M Short flashes indicates any kind of incoming MIDI data longer flashes indicates MIDI data that the Stage 3 actually uses the data has the correct MIDI channel etc PAGE BUTTONS Program pages are navigated by pressing the PAGE 3 4 buttons Each bank holds 20 pages with 5 programs in each page These buttons can also be used for switching songs when...

Page 31: ...ator configurations These enable pulse width modulation oscillator sync noise generation and a variety of waveform mix set ups There are two envelopes and one LFO for real time sound shaping Using both panels two different sounds can be played simultaneously layered or in splits The Synth sections of both panels can be layered to create complex and evolving sounds ON OFF LEVEL AND ZONE SELECT The ...

Page 32: ...bles or samples in your current selection The FAST ATK mode gives samples a faster attack Read more about how this works on page 33 CLASSIC WAVEFORMS There are four basic Classic waveforms Sine Triangle Sawtooth and Square Apart from these there are four additional waveforms Pulse 33 Pulse 10 ESaw and ESquare The table below shows all waveforms and how they behave when using the Shape Oscillator C...

Page 33: ...ge 3 left the Nord Factory and there are many more samples to be found on the www nordkeyboards com website CATEGORIES AND SAMPLE PRESETS Each sample is assigned a category and when the Nord Stage 3 is shipped samples are grouped into their respective categories Further more within the Synth Preset banks all samples are automatically dis played as individual presets Loading a sample from the Sampl...

Page 34: ...e original Sine waveform and drastic changes in tonal character are pro vided by altering the amount of modulation Traditionally FM oscillators are referred to as operators and the Dual FM configuration represents a 2 operator FM setup The number of harmonics and their intensity increase proportionally to the FM amount controlled by OSC CTRL As usual this parameter can be modulated by the Modulati...

Page 35: ... a character for the current position Let go of the Abc button to move the cursor to the next position The dial or PAGE 3 4buttons can be used to move the cursor forward or back as needed The Ins soft button is used for inserting a blank space at the current position and the Del soft button is used for deleting the currently selected character 4 Press down on the Cat soft button and turn the PROGR...

Page 36: ...s filter The area to the left up to the downward slope indicates the frequencies that passes through the filter The area to the right of the slope are those frequencies that are reduced Move the slope to the left and the sound gets duller The humps at the top indicates a resonance setting FILTER RESONANCE The morphable Resonance RES parameter is used to further adjust the characteristics of the fi...

Page 37: ...ck decay and release through out the course of the total envelope time for both the Modulation and Amplifier envelopes MOD ENVELOPE The Modulation Envelope MOD ENV is a three stage envelope which can be applied to the Osc Ctrl param eter and or to the Filter cut off frequency Used for modulating Osc Ctrl it can perform a wide variety of time based alterations depending on which oscillator configur...

Page 38: ...aveforms and can do so at very low frequencies An LFO is generally not used for generating audible frequencies Instead the output from the LFO is used for modulating other functions such as the Osc Ctrl parameter of the Nord Stage 3 oscillator or the filter frequency The rate of the LFO is set with the morphable RATE knob To modulate Osc Ctrl for instance in order to produce a vibrato effect using...

Page 39: ...lide effect M M When none of the Mono and Legato LEDs are lit the Synth section is in its default poly phonic mode GLIDE The GLIDE function makes the pitch glide from one note to the next when playing traditionally often referred to as portamento and is available in Legato and Mono mode only The glide characteristics can be described as constant rate which means that the greater the distance betwe...

Page 40: ...beats per minute BPM in the display ARPEGGIATOR MASTER CLOCK Press SHIFT and turn the Arpeggiator RATE knob to sync the arpeggio with the Nord Stage 3 Master Clock When the Arpeggio is synchronized to the Master Clock the Rate knob will be used to set the arpeggio s subdivision of the tempo of the Master Clock The Subdivisions are described in meter 1 2 equals half notes at the clock tempo 1 4 equ...

Page 41: ...f the Extern menu it is possible to select be tween Global or per program MIDI Channel settings When set to Global all programs using the Extern sections will use the same MIDI channels for Panel A and Panel B respectively With the Pro gram setting which is the default each program uses the Extern MIDI channels defined for and stored with that Program USING THE EXTERN SECTION ACTIVATING The Extern...

Page 42: ...lue encoder will control the value of the sent CC message First the controller number to transmit needs to be defined within the Extern Menu 1 Hold SHIFT and press the EXTERN button to access the Extern menu 2 Use the PAGE 3 4 buttons to select the Extern Settings Ctrl Value menu page 3 Use the PROGRAM Dial to select a MIDI CC Number 0 119 Refer to the manual for the external unit to see which par...

Page 43: ...nce The selector LED will briefly show the current effect type If the selector button repeatedly you change the effect type without turning on the effect Effect settings can also be adjusted even if the actual effect is turned off The values of the parameters will be shown in the display EFFECT 1 The EFFECT 1 section offers six different types of modulation effects Use its Selector button to switc...

Page 44: ...ts rate controlled by the RATE knob and its amount by the morpha ble AMOUNT knob PHASER 1 2 The PHASER effect produces a characteristic sweep effect commonly used with electric piano sounds The digital models for the phasers of the Nord Stage 3 are inspired by classic units such as the Bi Phase and the Small Stone FLANGER The FLANGER produces a dramatic comb filter effect giving the sound a swoosh...

Page 45: ...o 1 32 notes Apart from straight subdivisions delay taps there are also swing S triplet T and dotted D options to choose from AMP SIM EQ The AMP SIM EQ effects unit combines a three band equalizer with sophisticated amplifier and speaker cabinet simulations It also includes resonant 24 dB low pass and high pass filters which can be used to great effect with any sound engine When no Amp Model or fi...

Page 46: ...bs are more of an ambience with a short decay time With the BRIGHT switch active more high frequency content will be preserved in the Reverb signal The morphable DRY WET control sets the balance between the unprocessed and the processed signal M M If using the Rotary effect a copy of the Reverb will be routed into the Rotary speaker and applied to the sound source s using the Rotary effect Read mo...

Page 47: ...ument s Level setting If the instrument being processed by the Rotary is set to a very low level the amount of available drive will be significantly reduced Again this is very much like how it works with the real articles when you increase the organ level e g by using a swell pedal the amount of distortion from the Rotary effect increases ROTARY SPEAKER AND REVERB If Reverb is active on a panel wh...

Page 48: ...t allows for external control over every aspect of the Nord Stage 3 much like playing its own keyboard and it can be used to transmit keyboard pedal and panel actions Any MIDI data entering the Nord Stage 3 on the Global MIDI channel will reach the sound engines that are active within the active program If the program includes layers and or splits those will be acknowledged by incoming MIDI as wel...

Page 49: ...button repeatedly until the PROGRAM LED is lit Turn the Extern encoder until the desired program is selected on the external device If Bank Select data is needed for accessing the program these data will need to be manually entered into the Extern Menu 7 Press the Extern Parameter Select repeatedly until the VOLUME LED is lit Turn the Extern encoder knob to adjust the volume of the external MIDI w...

Page 50: ...IDI channel of an external device is the same as the Nord Stage 3 Global MIDI channel playing the external unit will be very similar to playing the Nord Stage 3 from its own keyboard M M Global MIDI can be turned Off in the MIDI menu This will disable both transmission and reception of MIDI from the Global component EXTERNAL SYNC The Master Clock of the Stage 3 can be controlled by incoming MIDI c...

Page 51: ...ons on the front panel are also transmitted and received as Control Change messages This can be used for recording front panel actions into a MIDI sequencer For a full list of which parameters correspond to which Controller number refer to page 58 KEYBOARD VELOCITY The Nord Stage 3 can transmit and receive Keyboard Velocity messag es Organ sounds will always be played back at nominal level regardl...

Page 52: ...d above where applicable When done press EXIT Shift to leave the menu 1 MEMORY PROTECT The memory protection setting will be On when a Nord Stage 3 leaves the factory to prevent accidental overwriting of programs or Synth pre sets Setting this to Off enables all Store operations Menu settings and the five Live programs are not affected by this setting Range On default Off 2 GLOBAL TRANSPOSE This s...

Page 53: ...10 CTRL PEDAL TYPE The Nord Stage 3 accepts many of the most commonly available control pedals through its CONTROL PEDAL input Select a setting here that matches the pedal being used If you operate a connected pedal while this option is active a percentage will be displayed from 0 to 100 to indicate the range of the connected pedal This can be used to find a suitable setting for a pedal this isn t...

Page 54: ...ettings where applicable When you are done press Exit Shift to exit the menu 1 LOCAL CONTROL MIDI Local control determines if the Nord Stage 3 keyboard and front panel controls should control internal instruments and programs or only transmit MIDI Local On is the normal play mode In Local Off mode front panel and keyboard actions are transmitted via MIDI only Range On Default Off M M Local always ...

Page 55: ...me Vol or user defined MIDI CC UsrCC messages in the Extern section should be automatically transmitted when a program is selected or not Range for PC Vol and UsrCC is Off Default On 6 PROGRAM CHANGE SETTINGS PANEL A B A complete Program Change message consists of three parts A Bank Select MSB value a Bank Select LSB value and a Program Change value M M The Nord Stage 3 can send the Program Change...

Page 56: ...w Piano sounds to the Piano partition Downloading new Samples to the Sample partition Uploading Programs from the Nord Stage 3 to a computer Uploading bundles containing programs and their associated piano and sample files Performing backups of the entire instrument Restoring the entire instrument to a previous state The Nord Sound Manager and the user manual for the application can be found at th...

Page 57: ...troller keyboards sequencers or computers MIDI OUT The 5 pin MIDI Out connection will send MIDI data to devices such as external sound modules or computers USB CONNECTION The USB port is used for connecting the Nord Stage 3 to a computer The connection can be used for transferring MIDI for OS updates and for connecting to applications such as the Nord Sound Manager or Nord Sample Editor These appl...

Page 58: ...cay 53 Synth Mod Envelope Velocity 54 Synth Osc Pitch 55 Synth Osc Ctrl 56 Synth Mod Envelope Release 57 Synth Osc Modulation 58 Synth Filter Freq 59 Synth Filter Resonance 60 Synth Filter Drive 61 Synth Filter LFO Amount 62 Synth Filter KBD Track 63 Synth Filter Type 65 Synth Amp Envelope Attack 68 Synth Amp Envelope Decay 69 Synth Amp Envelope Release 71 Synth Amp Envelope Velocity 72 Synth Filt...

Page 59: ...Clock 26 50 Extern Menu 55 Extern section 41 F Farf 19 Fast Atk 33 Fast Compressor 46 Filters Delay 45 Filter section 35 Filter selector button 35 Fine Tune 52 Flanger 44 Formant 33 Freq Synth 36 Func Ctrl Pedal 53 Func Rotor Pedal 53 Func Sustain Pedal 53 Func Swell Pedal 53 F Wave 33 G Gain Ctrl Pedal 53 Gain Swell Pedal 53 Getting started 10 Glide 39 Global MIDI 48 Global MIDI Channel 48 54 Glo...

Page 60: ...fig 34 RM Ring Modulation 44 Rotary Horn 54 Rotary Rotor 54 Rotary Speaker 46 Rotor Pedal 53 S Sample Oscillator type 33 Saw Osc Config 34 Sawtooth 32 Send On Load Extern 55 Shape Osc Config 33 Shift button 29 Sine 32 Sine Osc Config 34 Small Amp Model 46 Soft buttons 52 Soft Pedal 23 Soft Release 22 Song Edit 28 Song Mode 28 Song Parts 30 Sostenuto 23 Sound Init Synth 39 Sound Menu 53 Speed Rotar...

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Page 63: ...terference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is ...

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