Home

User manual

Contents

1. V We Y The volume envelope curve to the left determines how the amplitude of the waveform changes over time ENVELOPES ADSR Envelope Envelopes are used to modulate pitch amplitude filter cutoff and 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 Attack Decay Sustain and Release and is there fore often referred to as an ADSR envelope When you press a key the envelope is triggered This means is starts rasing from zero to maximum level How long this should take depends on the Attack setting If the Attack time is set to 0 the envelope will instantly reach full level If it is raised it will take longer If you for example have an envelope controlling volume raising the attack will give the sound a softer character If you have the envelope routed to the filter it might give the sound a wab type of start Level Time About Subtractive Synthesis Page 85 After the envelope has reached full level it starts to fall back again How long this should take is set with the Decay parameter Level The level of the envelope does not necessarily have to fall all the way back to zero level at the end of the Decay Instead the ADSR envelope has a Sustain setting used to determine the level
2. V When the Pedal input is used with a footswitch sustain this is transmitted as Controller 64 Damper Ped al Y All other controls knobs and switches on the front panel except Master Level are also transmitted and received as Control Change messages This can be used to record your actions on the front panel into a MIDI sequencer for playback together with the musical performance For a full list of which parameters correspond to which Controller number see page 89 You can turn the transmission reception of the front panel Controllers on off see page 59 Aftertouch The Nord Lead can receive but not send Aftertouch channel pressure messages For each program slot you can set which parameter if any should be controlled by the Aftertouch messages While holding down the Shift button press the Special button 2 Press the Special button repeatedly until the left character in the display is a t for touch 3 Select a slot for which you want to set the aftertouch function 4 To assign a parameter for the aftertouch press Store The display will flash showing one of the abbreviations in the table below Page 68 MIDI 5 Use the Program Up Down buttons to select one of the following control functions Display shows Pedal assigned to I LFO 1 Amount LI CT Filter Cutoff Frequency Fy FM Amount Fn Oscillator 2 Pitch oc 6 After you have made your
3. COQ virtual analog OWNERS MANUAL Software Version 2 x English Clavia DMI AB 1996 The lighting flash with the arrowhead symbol within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to presence of uninsulated dangerous voltage within CAUTION E TRIG SHOE the product s enclosure that may be of sufficient DO NOT OPEN magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons ATTENTION RISQUE DE CHOC ELECTRIQUE NE PAS OUVRIR CAUTION TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle DO NOT REMOVE COVER OR BACK is intended to alert the user to the presence of impor NO USER SERVICABLE PARTS INSIDE tant operating and maintenance servicing instruc REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONELL tions in the literature accompanying the product INSTRUCTIONS PERTAINING TO A RISK OF FIRE ELECTRIC SHOCK OR INJURY TO PERSONS IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS WARNING When using electric products basic precautions should always be followed including the following 1 Read all the instructions and observe the graphic 6 The product should be located so that its location symbols above before using the product or position does not interfere with its proper venti 2 This product must be grounded If it should mal lation function or break down grounding provides a path 7 The product should be located away from heat of least resistance
4. Level Time Page 52 Panel Reference MOD WHEEL DESTINATION O ro O osc 2 FMAMT FILTER SHIFT morPH This is used to decide what effect moving the Modulation wheel should have LFO When this is selected the Mod Wheel adjusts the amount of output from LFO 1 This allows you to for example add vibrato with the mod wheel Osc 2 With this selected the Modulation wheel is directly routed to Oscillator 2 pitch This can be used for ex ample together 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 to the filter frequency Please note that modulation wheel routing is in addition to the basic setting of the control it is routed to If you for example route the modulation wheel to the filter and the filter is already fully open moving the modulation wheel has no effect Morph When no LED is lit the modulation wheel is used for morphing See page 28 Panel Reference Page 55 POLY LEGATO MONO The play mode Portamento switch and LEDs POLY LEGATO UNISON MONO The play mode switch is used for deciding exactly how your keyboard playing should be interpreted by the synthesizer Poly This mode allows you to play chords Legato This makes the instrument monophonic Furthermore if you press a key without releasing the
5. Model ID for Nord Lead Message Type specifies All Controllers Request Message Specification specifies the Program Slot End Of Exclusive Page 96 Patch and Performance Data Formats In the Patch and Performance Dump Messages the Data Bytes contain the actual Patch Performance set tings MIDI Implementation W All parameters are in 8 bit format 2s complement signed Each Byte is Nybbleized and coded into two MIDI bytes with the low Nybble transmitted first W A Patch contains 66 parameters which means the data block of a Patch Dump is transmitted in 132 66 2 Bytes See the Patch Dump Format table below V A Performance consists of five blocks The first four blocks contains the four Patches A to D This block is 528 MIDI Bytes 4 66 2 After this follows 136 68 2 of data for parameters local to the Performance See the Performance Data Format table on page 97 Patch Dump Format Size Offset Name Min Max Comment 1 0 osc2pth 0 20 midde 60 1 1 osc2pitchfine 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 Li fmdepth 0 127 1 8 filterenvattack 0 127 1 9 filterenvdecay 0 127 1 10 filterenvsustain 0 127 1 11 filterenvrelease 0 127 1 12 ampenvattack 0 127 1 13 ampenvdecay 0 127 1 14 ampenvsustain 0 127 1 15 ampenvrelease 0 127 1 16 portamento 0 127 1 17 gain 0 127 1 18 modenvattack 0 127 1 19 modenvdecay 0 127
6. keyboard see page 30 Nord Lead Parameter Gain Oct Shift Mod Wheel Destination Unison Poly Legato Mono Portamento Auto Portamento Time LFO 1 Rate LFO 1 Waveform LFO 1 Destination LFO 1 Amount LFO 2 Arpeggio Rate LFO 2 Destination Arpeggio Mode LFO 2 Amount Arpeggio Range Modulation Envelope Attack Modulation Envelope Decay Main Volume General Purpose 2 General Purpose 3 General Purpose 1 Undefined Portamento On Off Portamento Time General Purpose 4 Undefined Undefined U rdefined Undefined Undefined Undefined Undefined Undefined Y Y Y Y Modulation Envelope Destination Undefined Page 90 MIDI Implementation Nord Lead Parameter gt r gt E y gt z gt o i n n T s 5 K In addition to the above following controllers are used N NO Modulation Envelope Amount Ov Osc 1 Waveform Ov Ha Osc 2 Waveform Osc 2 Semitones Osc 2 Fine Tune Oscillator FM Depth Osc 2 Keyboard Tracking Oscillator Pulse Width Oscillator Sync Oscillator Mix Amplifier Envelope Attack Amplifier Envelope Decay Amplifier Envelope Sustain Amplifier Envelope Release Filter Envelope Attack Filter Envelope Decay Filter Envelope Sustain Filter Envelope Release Filter Mode Filter Cutoff Filter Resonance Filter Envelope Amount Filter Velocity Filter Keyboard Track W The Modulation wheel transmits an
7. 20 modenvlevel 0 127 middle 64 1 21 Ifolrate 0 127 1 22 Ifollevel 0 127 1 23 lIfo2rate 0 127 1 24 arprange 0 127 1 25 osc2pitch_sens 128 127 velocity morf sens 1 26 osc2pitchfine_sens 128 127 0 OFF 1 27 mix_sens 128 127 1 28 cutoff_sens 128 127 1 29 resonance_sens 128 127 1 30 filterenvamt_sens 128 127 1 31 pw_sens 128 127 i 32 fmdepth_sens 128 127 1 33 filterenvattack_sens 128 127 1 34 filterenvdecay_sens 128 127 1 35 filterenvsustain_sens 128 127 1 36 filterenvrelease_sens 128 127 1 37 ampenvattack_sens 128 127 1 38 ampenvdecay_sens 128 127 1 39 ampenvsustain_sens 128 127 1 40 ampenvrelease_sens 128 127 MIDI Implementation Page 97 Size Offset Name Min Max Comment 1 41 portamento_sens 128 t27 1 42 gain_sens 128 127 1 43 modenvattack_sens 128 127 1 44 modenvdecay_sens 128 127 1 45 modenvlevel_sens 128 127 1 46 Ifolrate_sens 128 127 1 47 Ifollevel_sens 128 127 1 48 Ifo2rate_sens 128 127 1 49 arprange_sens 128 127 1 50 osclwaveform 0 2 1 51 osc2waveform 0 3 3 noise 1 DI sync 0 1 1 53 filtertype 0 4 1 54 osc2kbdtrack 0 1 1 55 filterkbdtrack 0 1 1 56 lfolwave 0 2 1 gt Ifoldest 0 3 1 58 voicemode 0 2 1 59 modwheeldest 0 4 1 60 unison 0 1 1 61 modenvdest 0 2 1 62 auto 0 1 1 63 filtervel 0 1 1 64 octshift 0 4 1 65 Ifo2dest arpmode 0 4 For Percussion Kit Sys Ex Dumps the above parameters will be repeated eight times once for each sound in the Percussion Kit P
8. I Set the keyboard to transmit on MIDI Channel 2 Press the Program Slot A button so that the LED above the button is lit OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL 3 Hold down the Shift button and press the MIDI Ch Unison button MO gt C BUNSO MONO The MIDI Ch button Pitch bend The Shift button The display will now show the MIDI Channel setting for Slot A 1 16 or off 4 Use the Program Up Down buttons to select MIDI Channel MIDI Channel 1 selected The Program Up Down buttons PROGRAM 5 Press Shift again to return to the normal play mode If you use Slot A when you play the Nord Rack if you like together with other Slots this simple setting should be sufficient in most situations even when playing Layers and Performances as described later in this manual For more information see page 69 Basic Operations Page 11 SELECTING PROGRAMS Program are sounds that you have prepared in advance The basic memory in the Nord Lead contains 99 Programs 40 of these can be used for storing your own Programs see below There are also four Program slots labelled A to D The slots can be used for layering and quickly switching between programs as described below They are also used when the Nord Lead is played via MIDI Select a Program Slot to play by pressing one of the four buttons A to D When you are only playing one sound at a time as you are now you can select any slot This slot is selected
9. The value means that no data of that type is transmitted or received 1 means that type of data is both transmitted and received The Arpeggio MIDI Out feature requires some explanation Arpeggio and MIDI Out If you want to generated arpeggios can be sent out as MIDI notes This makes it possible to arpeggiate chords on connected synthesizers and sound modules and to record arpeggios in a sequencer You ac tivate it using the Prg Ctrl menu I Press the Prg Ctrl button to select parameter The left character in the display switches between P Program C Control and A Arpeggio 2 Use the Program Up and Down buttons to switch between and I W For the Program and Control parameters the 1 setting means that the respective MIDI data is transmit ted and received by the Nord Lead while the setting means that it is not W For the Arpeggio parameter the 1 setting means that generated arpeggios can be sent out as MIDI notes This makes it possible to arpeggiate chords on connected synthesizers and sound modules and to record arpeggios in a sequencer With the setting the chord you play on the keyboard is sent to MIDI Out regardless of whether the Nord Lead arpeggio is activated or not Be sure to turn the Arpeggio MIDI Out feature off if you are using Nord Lead in Local Off mode and or ina Thru loop with a sequencer other MIDI instruments etc Un
10. Up Attack This control is used to adjust how long it takes for the sound to reach full volume after a key has been pressed If the knob is turned fully counter clockwise the Attack is instantaneous If the knob is turned all the way to the right it lasts many seconds Decay After the attack phase is finished and you haven t released the key the Decay begins 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 the level the sound will reach after the Decay phase Once this has happened the sound will stay steady at this volume until the key is released Please note that the Sustain parameter is used to set a level while Attack Decay and Release all are used to set times Release This knob is used to adjust how long time it will take for the sound to decay to silence after you have released the key Gain This is used to adjust the overall Level of the Sound This parameter is mainly used to balance one Pro gram against another Page 42 Panel Reference FILTER FILTER Filter type HP 24 dB BP NOTCH LP LP 12 dB l LP 24 dB SAW Sustain Release VELOCITY KBD TRACK A Resonance Envelope amount The Filter is the most important section for shaping the overall timbre of the sound Nord Lead s filter can be switched between various t
11. the sequencer to a position before the recorded filter opening The problem is that the Nord Lead s filter will remain opened although it really should be as it was before you recorded the filter opening To solve such problems several sequencers include a function called chasing which keeps track of Controller changes and tries to adjust the settings on the instrument ac cording to the current position in the sequencer song However in our case this wouldn t help much because the filter opening was the first Controller mes sage recorded in the song The sequencer has no information about the filter setting before the recorded change and therefore cannot chase the settings properly To solve this you could record a snapshot of all Controller settings on the Nord Lead panel at the beginning of your sequencer song This is best done by sending an All Controllers Request Sys Ex message from the sequencer to the Nord Lead which will respond by dumping all its Controller values into the sequencer for recording The All Con trollers Request message is described on page 95 MIDI Page 71 BULK DUMP OJ OJ To dump one or more Programs or Performances via MIDI as System Exclusive data for reprogramming of another Nord Lead or for recording the data into another MIDI device proceed as follows Connect a cable from MIDI Out on the Nord Lead to MIDI In on the other device Set
12. will show the selected Program for the slot TUNE OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL Performances Page 35 Layering and Editing This is done just as in non Performance mode The only thing to note is that when you save the Per formance you save the edited Program s inside the Performance The original Program that you used as a basis for the Performance is not affected This is not true for Percussion Kits which are only referenced in the Performances Any editing done to a Percussion Kit in Performance mode will affect the original Percussion Kit and all references to it in other Performances Shift Functions Again these parameters are set just as in non performance mode Most of these are also saved with the Performance as indicated in the table on the next page EXTRACTING SINGLE SOUNDS FROM A PERFORMANCE The text below does not apply to Percussion Kits in Performances As stated earlier the sounds used in the Slots of a Performance are not references to regular existing Pro 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 want to extract such a sound for use as a single Program or to make it part of another Performance layer Proceed as follows Select the Performance containing the sound you want to extract Make sure the Slot with the desire
13. 240 51 4 O to 4 16 to 19 or 99 to 108 247 Page 93 Description System Exclusive Manufacturer ID clavia Global MIDI Channel 0 to 15 0 F Model ID for Nord Lead Message Type specifies the Bank 0 Edit Buffer 1 to 4 Bank 1 to 4 Message Specification specifies the exact memory loca tion see below Patch data for eight percussion sounds See page 96 End Of Exclusive W If Message Type 0 Edit Buffer the Message Specification can be 0 to 3 corresponding to Patch Slot buttons A to D W If Message Type 1 to 4 then the Message Specification 99 to 108 corresponds to the Percussion Kit locations PO to P9 Patch Dump Request This message is used for requesting the Nord Lead to transmit one Patch or Percussion Kit Dump Mes sage The Message Type and Message Specification are used to specify which Patch should be transmit ted This message is never transmitted from the Nord Lead Byte Hex Byte Decimal FO 240 33 51 lt Device ID gt 04 4 SA to E 10 to 14 00 to 03 or 0 to 3 or 0 to 108 00 6C F7 247 Description System Exclusive Manufacturer ID clavia Global MIDI Channel 0 to 15 0 F Model ID for Nord Lead Message Type specifies the Bank A Edit Buffer B to E Bank 1 to 4 Message Specification specifies the exact memory location see below End Of Exclusive V If Message Type 10 Edit Buffer the Message Specificat
14. D to add Click to the sound 880 000 000 Slot B Pere Slot C Hum G7 888 600 000 G8 G9 HO H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 Straight Jazz Perc 888 000 000 Slot B Perc Slot C Hum 124 686 421 IS All Even Harmonics 808 808 008 Factory Settings Page 105 ABOUT THE PROPHET 5 FACTORY SOUND RECREA TIONS Over 40 of the 120 original factory sounds from the classic vintage Prophet 5 synthesizer have been faithfully recreated and stored in the Factory Performances of the Nord Lead You find the Prophet sounds in Performance memory locations H8 to J9 Since each of these sounds uses one Slot only four different Prophet sounds have been stored in each Performance To try out the different Patches in one Performance select 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 Bank rar Bank P22 Bank 125 Bank 126 Bank L4 Bank ha Bank 241 Bank 152 Bank 155 Bank 156 Bank312 Bank 236 DS gt co Page 106 Factory Settings RESTORING THE FACTORY PROGRAMS IN RAM Don t hesitate to replace the Factory Programs in RAM locations 01 to 40 with sounds of your own The Factory Programs are duplicated in ROM Performances LO to L9 as listed below To extract one of these sounds from its Performance and store it as a Program follow the instructions on page 35 o ETT DC EE ET TN MIDI Imp
15. The effect of this switch is pretty obvious when you have selected Mono or Legato Play mode If on the other hand Poly is selected the Portamento effect will be slightly unpredictable if Auto is on espe cially on a twelve voice synthesizer For Poly mode we therefore recommend you to turn Auto off OCT SHIFT The Octave Shift buttons have two functions Slot and Keyboard Octave Shift explained below To switch between the two Octave Shift modes simultaneously press both Octave Shift buttons and hold them pressed until the LEDs change indication mode as shown in this figure OCT SHIFT OCT SHIFT eo en C Co Slot Octave Shift default Keyboard Octave Shift LEDs inverted Slot Octave 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 transposed This means that in this mode the Nord Lead can only send MIDI Notes over a range of 4 octaves Keyboard Octave Shift In this mode LEDs inverted the actual keyboard is affected by the Octave Shift buttons This means that all active slots are affected as well as all notes sent to MIDI Out This mode is suitable if you want to control other MIDI instruments from the Nord Lead since it lets you control a note range of eight octaves It is also the mode to use if you re playing a Performance consisting of two or more slots
16. an LFO to pitch you get a vibrato If you route it to the filter s cutoff frequency you get a wah wah type of effect And if you route it to the amplifier of an instrument you get a tremolo The three basic parameters for an LFO are Waveform Rate frequency and Amount Y The waveform determines the type of vibrato for example regular triangle or sine ramp sawtooth or random W The Rate determines the speed of the vibrato Y The Amount controls to what degree the LFO affects its destination Page 88 About Subtractive Synthesis MIDI Implementation 12 MIDI IMPLEMENTATION CONTROLLER NUMBER LIST Page 89 The following is a list of the MIDI Controller numbers used for all knobs and buttons on the front panel See page 70 W The reception and transmission of Controllers can be turned on off See page 59 Y Buttons that control on off functions have a Controller value of 0 corresponding to the off position and a value of 1 corresponding to the on position W Buttons that step through various possibilities start with a Controller value of 0 for the lowest setting and then increment with a value of 1 for each step upwards If you want to send Controllers to Percussion 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 MIDI Controller MIDI Controller Name
17. first digit then indicates the parameter and the second the value Page 56 Shift Functions Shift Function Listing The table below shows you what Shift Functions are available for each of the seven buttons and an ex ample of what the display might look like for each function TUNE OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL MIDI CH SPECIAL SYSTEM Master Tune Out Mode Local On Off Prog Change Slot MIDI LFO Sync Pedal On Off Channel Controllers Global MIDI LFO 2 Sync Pitch Bend On Off Channel Range Arp MIDI Out Filter Enve Unison De On Off lope Trig tune Amplitude Env Trig External Ve locity Morph Aftertouch Assignment Exp Pedal Assignment Each time you turn on Power Local On Off is set to On and all the Special functions are turned off However the Special settings are saved with the Performances Shift Functions Page 57 About Global and Slot Functions W If the function you select can be set independently for each Program Slot A to D the selected Program slot flashes To make settings for a certain slot select it W If the selected function is global for all slots the selected Function button is steadily lit Which slot is se lected is then of no relevance for the setting Setting the Value Once a function is selected the value is set using the Program Up Down buttons Returning to the normal display To go back to the regular functions press the Shift button once again T
18. for Low Frequency Oscillator It is used for repeating variations in a sound such as vibrato or tremolo CONNECTIONS THE There are many ways in which the modules outlined above can be connected in a synthesizer but the one in the picture below is a basic and common one used in the Nord Lead although the illustration depicts far from all the possibilities in this instrument Oscillator 3 A A A A A A UV A A page FO Envelone LFO 0 LFO SSN Ill AS Rome MASAS AA Audio Signal pan Control Signal Note that the horizontal lines indicate the way the sound travels The vertical lines indicate control sig nals The envelopes for example only modulate control the oscillator filter and amplifiers they do not affect the sound directly OSCILLATORS AND WAVEFORMS The two basic qualities of an oscillator is waveform and pitch Pitch The picture of the sawtooth on the Nord Lead front panel displays a sawtooth during one period of sound During this time the wave raises gradually up to maximum level and then instantly drops back to minimum level About Subtractive Synthesis Page 75 The length of the period determines the pitch frequency of the sound The shorter the period the high er the pitch If you for example make the oscillator play at a frequency of 440Hz there will be 440 periods of identical Sawtooth waves generated per second gt One Period Normally there are three wa
19. from the card see page 11 Storing Performances On the Card This is described on page 35 Before storing make sure the card is not write protected If it is write protected the display will not stop flashing when you press Store the second time to indicate the Program hasn t been stored Updating Older Cards A number of new parameters were introduced with the Nord Lead Software version 2 x If you have a PCMCIA S RAM card formatted with a previous Nord Lead software version you need to update the card to be able to properly save settings for the new parameters This updating procedure will not erase or alter any sound already on the card Proceed as follows Check that the card is not write protected Insert the card The display will flash with the letters UP 3 To update the card press Store Programming Velocity Sensitivity Page 25 Da PROGRAMMING VELOCITY SENSITIVITY THE FILTER VELOCITY FUNCTION Press this button to make the Filter Envelope Amount respond to velocity The LED indicates that the Velocity function is activated VELOCITY O a a e e Frequency Resonance Envelope amount The quickest way to make a Program velocity sensitive is to activate the Velocity function in the Filter section This makes the Filter Envelope Amount vary with striking force to a pre determined degree See page 46 for details MAKING ANY PARAMETER VELOCITY DEPENDENT OJ You can make any c
20. however works normally This mode is used with sequencers when the Nord Lead is used both for recording and playing back MIDI and when the sequencer has a MIDI Thru function sometimes called Merge or echo back When you turn on power the instrument is always in Local On Mode About Local Control and Control Change Transmission The Local Control setting also affects the front panel W In Local Off mode the front panel controls can not be used to change the sound directly they must be routed via MIDI just as the keyboard Y However if you use the Prog Ctrl function to turn off reception and transmission of Control Change mes sages altogether the front panel controls can again be used to change the sound directly since otherwise there would be no way to use the front panel controls at all Shift Functions Page 59 PROG CTRL This is used for setting how Program Change and Control Change MIDI messages should be handled and for turning the Arpeggio MIDI Out feature on and off These parameters are Global for the entire instrument that is the settings are valid for all Performances and Programs To switch between the three different parameters press the Prog Ctrl button The left character in the display switches between P Program C Control and A Arpeggio For the two first parameters P and C you use the Program Select buttons to switch between and 1
21. lit Use these four but up tons to select a Program slot OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL 2 Use the Program Up Down keys to select a Program for that slot Holding down a button scrolls the value quickly Holding down the Shift key the button above the Mod ulation wheel while pressing the buttons makes the value change in steps of ten Press these buttons to increase If you hold down the Shift button 7 decrease the Program number while you press the Up Down keys the Program value will change in steps of ten FILTER SHIFT MoRPH There are 99 Programs to select from If you have a PCMCIA card inserted in the holder on the back to do this you must have the expansion card installed you may have another 297 on this arranged in three banks Dots to the right and between the numeral in the display indicate new Banks A single dot to the right indicates Bank 1 A single dot between the numerals indicate Bank 2 x Dots both to the right and between the numerals indicate Bank 3 Page 12 Basic Operations SELECTING PERCUSSION KITS In addition to the 99 Programs in the basic memory there are 10 Percussion Kits Each Percussion Kit consists of eight different virtual analog percussion sounds arranged in zones across the keyboard The Kits are located above Program number 99 and numbered PO to P9 Y To select a Percussion Kit for a Slot proceed just as when selecting a regular Prog
22. reception 68 Recalling 14 33 Saving 35 Pitch Bend see Pitch Stick Pitch Stick MIDI Transmission and reception 67 Range Using 15 Poly 15 53 Portamento 54 Prog Ctrl 59 Program Change Activating transmission reception 59 Described 68 Recording in Sequencer 70 Program Slots Introduction to 11 Programs Copying 23 Editing 27 Layering 15 MIDI Channel 68 MIDI Transmission and reception 68 Selecting 11 Selecting in a Performance 34 Storing 23 Pulse Width 40 Index R Rout 7 Rate LFO 1 47 LFO 2 48 Release Amplifier 47 Filter 46 Introduction to 86 Resonance 45 S Semitones 38 Shift Functions 55 Special Functions 61 Stereo Out Mode 57 Output 15 Store Performance 35 Program 25 Sustain Amplifier 41 Filter 46 Introduction to 85 Sustain Pedal 17 Sync 39 78 System 66 System Exclusive Bulk Dump 71 Implementation 97 Tune 16 57 U Unison 53 Unison Detune 66 V Velocity Morph via MIDI 64 Programming 25 to Filter 46 W Waveform LFO 1 47 Osc 1 37 Osc 2 56 111 112 Index
23. the envelope should 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 as long as you play it On the other hand for a piano sound you would want a Sustain level of O since a piano sound decays to silence if you hold the key long enough Level Sustain level Please note that the Sustain parameter represents a level but all other envelope parameters represent times Page 86 About Subtractive Synthesis As described above the envelope stays at the Sustain level until the key is released It then falls back to zero level The time it should take for this to happen is set with the Release parameter which works just as the Decay only it is not applied until you lift your finger off the keys Level Sustain level Time AM sa t t______ gt Attack Decay Release time time time aora pre Key Down sss Key Up W If you set Sustain to full level the Decay setting is of no importance since the volume of the sound is never lowered Level W If you set Sustain to 0 the sound will become silent after the Decay phase is finished With short Attacks moderate Decay times this can be used to simulate the behaviour of a plucked string instrument guitar piano etc where the sound always decays to silence after a while Level
24. 00 If you have a PCMCIA card inserted the Banks on the card are found after the internal ROM Banks and labelled in the same way but indicated with a dot to the right of the digits in the dis play Page 54 Performances 2 If you want to select another Bank A to L hold down Shift and press the Up and Down buttons 3 To select a Performance in the Bank use the Up and Down buttons The Performance is instantly loaded and you can try it out Use the Up Down buttons to change Performance indicated by the digit 1 9 to the right in the display If you hold down the Shift button you can change Performance Bank A L with the Up Down buttons FMAMT 0 FILTER SHIFT MORPH You can also select Performances via MIDI see page 68 Please note that selecting a new Performance changes a lot of parameters including MIDI Channels and Special modes for each Program slot This might lead to silent sounds EDITING THE PERFORMANCE Selecting Programs To replace a Program in a Performance proceed as follows 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 as you would in non Performance mode See page ll Hold down the desired slot button Use the Up and Doun buttons to select an its LED will blink and the display other program for the Performance Slot
25. 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 follows I Press the Program Slot button that you want to edit Its LED will flash to indicate it is the active slot 2 Use the front panel to change the sound GETTING BACK TO THE PROGRAMMED SOUND If you have edited a Program and want to get back to the programmed original proceed as follows I Select another Program for that slot 2 Select the first Program again It will now have reverted back to the way it was when you selected it last Page 22 Editing Programs USING MANUAL MODE The Manual button Ta If you want to use the front panel to make up a sound from scratch press the Manual button This leaves you with exactly the sound that the knobs and buttons on the panel indicate just as if the Nord Lead was an old non programmable instrument When you press the Manual 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 to some default values for a basic sound However if you would like Manual mode to be different the next time you turn on power proceed as follows I Enter manual mode 2 Set all button functions as you want them 3 Press Store twice Editing Programs Page 23 STORING PROGRAMS OJ Storing is d
26. 24 buttons light up BP stands for band pass In this mode the filter let s frequencies in the mid range band pass through while lower and higher frequencies are cut out Each slope in this filter has a 12dB 2 pole roll off Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency Page 44 Panel Reference Notch LP To select this type of filter press the Filter Type button until both the LP 12 and LP 24 buttons light up A notch or band reject filter can be seen as the opposite of a band pass filter It cuts off frequencies in a mid range band letting the frequencies below and above through However a plain notch filter is not very musically useful since it often lets too many frequencies through resulting ina very sharp harsh sound Therefore the notch filter in Nord Lead is combined with a 12dB Lowpass filter resulting in a filter curve that looks like this Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency The audible result of this filter combination 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 The special characteristics of the Notch LP filter will be most obvious with low Resonance settings Frequency This is the overall control for which part of the frequency spectrum the filter should operate W If you for example select t
27. A card 3 Make the Performance refer to this Kit location 4 Be sure not to use this certain Percussion Kit in any other Performance or other context to avoid editing and changing it in any way Performances Page 33 7 PERFORMANCES WHAT ARE PERFORMANCES Performances allow you to call up four Programs at a time in a live situation or to recall complete setups when sequencing via MIDI The Nord Lead comes with 100 Factory Performances in ROM Some of these make use of two three or four slots while some are single slot Performances effectively serving as extra ROM Patches Please note W You can edit the selected ROM Performance as desired but you cannot save your changes internally W To save an edited Performance you need an expanded Nord Lead and an optional PCMCIA S RAM card On a card there is room for 100 Performances located after the ROM Performances and indicated with a dot to the right of the digits in the display W You can transmit edited Performance data via MIDI Sys Ex for storage in an external sequencer etc If the Performance contains a Percussion Kit only the referenceto the Kit Location will be saved with the Sys Ex dump To include the parameters for the Percussion Kit you need to make a separate Sys Ex dump of the Percussion Kit from Program mode not from Performance mode W You can receive Sys Ex data for one Performance at a time into the edit buffer If you for example use Nord Le
28. About Subtractive Synthesis Page 87 W If you release a key before the envelope has reach its sustain it will immediately jump to the Release The effect of this can be studied in the illustration below Level 7 eee ee ee ee eee ee Hy Key Down Key Up Y Often envelope levels can be made to vary with how hard you play the keys This is used to make a sound vary with your playing style for example to make the sound brighter filter envelope or louder amplifier envelope AD Envelope A simpler form of envelope has Attack and Decay parameters only and is therefore called an AD enve lope In effect the AD envelope behaves like an ADSR envelope with Sustain set to 0 see the picture at the top of this page This type of envelope often with amount and inversion controls is suitable when you want to affect the start of the sound only On the Nord Lead the Modulation Envelope 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 like the ones that produce the sound in a synthesizer but with two main dif ferences Y The LFO produces very low frequencies most often below the hearing range up to 20Hz W The LFO is not used to produce sound instead it is connected to other modules to provide modulation of parameters If you for example route
29. C 2 X FM Amount This is classic deep linear FM as used in pure FM based synthesizers The FM function is a bit of depart from the analog concept of the Nord Lead but as you will find 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 does not affect the pitch of the sound but the timbre For classic FM sounds use triangle wave on both oscillators Modulation of FM Amount Please note that the amount of FM can be modulated from the Mod Env and also controlled manually from the Modulation wheel Sync When this switch is activated Oscillator 2 is synched to Oscillator 1 This means that each time a period in Oscillator 1 s waveform starts Oscillator 2 is forced to start over with a new period as well See page 78 for a more in depth explanation The effect of this is that if Oscillator 2 s pitch is higher than Oscillator 2 its resultant waveform will have a pitch determined by Oscillator 1 but a timbre depending on the pitch of Oscillator 2 See page 78 for a basic explanation Page 40 Panel Reference The easiest way to try this out is probably to activate Sync and adjust the Tune setting for Oscillator 2 while holding down a note When trying out Sync make sure you listen to Osc2 since it is this that is affected by the changes Modulation of O
30. If Message Type 31 the Message Specification corresponds to the Performance Number 00 to 99 MIDI Implementation Performance Dump Request Page 95 This message is used for requesting the Nord Lead to transmit one Performance Dump Message The Mes sage Type and Message Specification are used to specify which Performance should be transmitted This message is never transmitted from the Nord Lead Byte Hex Byte Decimal FO 240 33 51 lt Device ID gt 04 4 28 or 29 40 to 41 00 or 00 63 0 or 0 to 99 F7 247 Description System Exclusive Manufacturer ID clavia Global MIDI Channel 0 to 15 0 F Model ID for Nord Lead Message Type specifies Performance Fdit Buffer 40 or the PCMCIA card Performance Bank 41 Message Specification specifies the Performance number see below End Of Exclusive W If Message Type 40 Edit Buffer the Message Specification should always 0 W If Message Type 41 or 42 then the Message Specification 00 to 99 corresponds to the Performance Number AO to L9 All Controllers Request This message instructs the Nord Lead to send all current Controller values for a specified Slot see page 70 The message is never transmitted from the Nord Lead Byte Hex Byte Decimal FO 240 33 51 lt Device ID gt 04 4 14 20 00 03 0 to 3 F7 247 Description System Exclusive Manufacturer ID clavia Global MIDI Channel 0 to 15 0 F
31. MIDI Channel will select Perform ances not Programs MIDI Page 69 Bank Select Bank Select messages are only received not transmitted If you use a PCMCIA card received Bank Select messages can be used to switch between the internal Bank and the three Banks on the card on the slot s MIDI Channel just as with Program Change see above The lowest Bank Select number selects the internal Bank the second selects the first PCMCIA Bank and so on Bank Select must always be used in combination with Program Change or no Bank change will take place System Exclusive Program settings can be transmitted as a System Exclusive bulk dump See page 71 USING NORD LEAD WITH A SEQUENCER Connections Connect MIDI Out on the Nord Lead to a MIDI In on your sequencer 2 Connect a MIDI Out from your sequencer to a MIDI In on the Nord Lead Local On Off If your sequencer echoes all received MIDI signals via its MIDI Output s which it probably does look for a function called MIDI Thru MIDI Echo MIDI Merge Soft Thru or similar the Nord Lead should be set to Local Off See page 58 MIDI Channels Y Which MIDI Channel the Nord Lead transmits on depends on which of the four Program slots is active see page 13 W All four Program Slots always receive MIDI regardless of which one is selected or if layering of one or more slots is activated or not However all Slots used in a Layer i e al
32. NTRODUIRE LA LAME LA PLUS LARGE DE LA FICHE DANS LA BORNE CORRESPONDANCE DE LA PRISE ET POUSSER JUSQU AU FOND Table Of Contents TABLE OF GONTENTS INTRODUCTION WEONES Read aed de ht De te gt aie pee needed bags ee ie eee About TS Manta ads UA La ath tie Bowe Bee ether dy Lena dot Glamaron the Neta a a Seine beh need we la Satie oe eee Se CONNECTIONS COnnmectin oa PeCalins shun bie ch dw Rese Sone See es Aes ee ese ee ERS BASIC OPERATIONS Demo Play EUN cio ad Gat tre a ee eee ad meta Che ee id ee ed Basic MIDI Settings for the Nord Racks cng a ee Lie Secun Pro rd DA he ee ee a ee ia I dda SCleCHne Percussion Kisii wks er riale lissone ee oe wha Sees es Using the Slots Lo Switch Prostate es Cho ede eel ill oa A oo ha ace era iena Replacing One Proctam Inthe Layeb a padre eee oe ee eee de SCICCHM PCHONMANCESt saune NEAR SASA BE A Monophonic and Polyphonic Operation LL SEO MONO rd TIR RIONERO TELO RISI TI Pitch sick and Modulation Wheel cnc sii iii ii Vows pedala dita EDITING PROGRAMS Changing An Fxisting Program y hehe oe e Lendl Chaneine One sound INA Layer 1 24414 site renee eee Leeds dee aye Getting Back To The Programmed Sound LL sio WMantalMo desta AE Customizing Manual Mode arte da ea SONNE PLO SEATS stas e as A COpyiie PrOStanis as dales daa i is A a A A USPE PCMCIA CAN Ss dt ti gee iaa iD era POR PROGRAMMING VELOCITY SENSITIVITY The Fiter Velocity FUNCHON eis jos idad dr dde ads as Ma
33. Programs 41 99 are in ROM swore Singer 2 Neto sings 35 Solo pulse 68 legnobass Resonance de pad 38 Sawlegnosolo 71 s I E E n E E E NO ke 9 z gt 2 gt 7 gt x 7 x gt z 5 5 DI Page 100 Factory Settings FACTORY PERCUSSION KITS Factory Settings Page 101 Page 102 Factory Settings FACTORY PERFORMANCES sce a O tes TE seme ICI TODI memi de EST TOSI CCC Factory Settings Page 105 Please note that many of the Performances consist of two three or four slot layers which will lead to reduced polyphony especially noticeable on a 4 voice Nord Lead ABOUT THE ORGAN SOUNDS Among the Factory Performances there are reproductions of 13 classic organ sounds By using layers of several Slots combined with a special pseudo additive synthesis Clavia have filtered out a minor number of partials from each Oscillator and combined them into different drawbar configurations suc cessfully emulating the sound of drawbar organs such as the classic B3 Drawbar Organ Essentials To make best use of the organ emulations and their special features some knowledge about the original instruments might be of use Briefly the following building blocks were combined to create the unique drawbar organ sounds Tonewheels These are the basic sound generating devices In the Nord Lead they are of course replaced by the Oscillator section Drawbars These
34. Shift Functions An Example of LFO Synchronization Select a Program for slot A that plays a stable sound with infinite sustain for example a string or pad sound 2 Lower the Filter Envelope Amount to 0 3 Set the Filter Cutoff to nine o clock 4 In the LFO section select a sawtooth wave set destination to Filter and set the Amount to full value 5 Play the keyboard You should hear a repeating sound 6 Hold down Shift and press Special The display should show the setting for Special function 1 7 Press the Program Slot button A 8 Use the Up Down buttons to set the value to 5 eighth notes 9 Make sure all other Special functions are turned off for this slot Do this by pressing the Special button repeatedly and check that the left digit in the display is set to for all Functions except 1 10 Press Shift again to return to normal mode I Set up your sequencer or other MIDI device to transmit MIDI clock to the Nord Lead Set the tempo to around 120 BPM and activate Play in the device so that MIDI clocks are actually transmitted 12 Play the Nord Lead keyboard and adjust the Rate knob in the LFO 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 slightly from this position you ll get a shuffle 16th note repeat etc Function 2 Synchronizing LFO2 Arpegg
35. a tion see below lt Patch Data 1 gt See page 96 lt Patch Data 2 gt lt Patch Data 3 gt lt Patch Data 132 gt F7 247 End Of Exclusive Y If Message Type 0 Edit Buffer the Message Specification can be 0 to 3 corresponding to Patch Slot buttons A to D W If Message Type 1 to 4 then the Message Specification 00 to 98 corresponds to the Program Number within the Bank 01 to 99 Percussion Kit Patch Dump This message contains all settings in a Percussion Kit It is transmitted from the Nord Lead in one of two cases Y When a Patch Dump is initiated from the front panel and a Percussion Kit is selected Y When a valid 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 command is used This message should be sent to the Nord Lead when you want to replace a Percussion Kit currently in the instrument with a new one When it comes to the location of the received Percussion Kit Dumps the same rules apply as when receiving regular Program Dumps Just remember that the internal Percussion Kit locations in the Nord Lead cannot be overwritten MIDI Implementation Byte Hex FO 33 lt Device ID gt 04 00 to 04 10 to 13 or 63 6C lt Patch Data 1 gt lt Patch Data 2 gt lt Patch Data 3 gt lt Patch Data 1056 gt F7 Byte Decimal
36. ad multitimbrally together with a sequencer it is often practical to place a Sys Ex Performance data 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 additive synthesis method Some of the sounds include famous sound artifacts such as hum and click as well as rotating speaker effects accomplished with Nord Lead s Morph function Among the Performances you can also find recreations of over 40 original factory patches from the classic vintage synthesizer Prophet 5 Sounds and applications are described on page 102 Later in this text follows a detailed list of what settings are contained in a Performance To store Performances you need an expanded Nord Lead with a PCMCIA card inserted see page 24 RECALLING A PERFORMANCE When you recall a Performance you replace the four current Programs in the slots A to D with the Pro grams in the Performance You also recall other settings as listed in the table later in this chapter Enter Performance mode by holding down Shift and pressing Performance Manual The display shows the latest selected Performance The Performances are organised in 10 Banks named alphabetically 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 1
37. and want to be able to Shift all slots simultaneously Low high octave settings in combination with extreme Tune settings for Oscillator 2 may produce pitches outside the hearing range Shift Functions Page 55 9 SHIFT FUNCTIONS ACCESSING THE SHIFT FUNCTIONS Some functions do not have dedicated buttons but share buttons with other functions and settings These are called the Shift Functions and are printed in blue on the front panel Selecting a Shift Function Hold down the Shift button 2 Press any of the buttons labelled Tune to System Most of the front panel LEDS go out and the program display now shows the selected function Hold down the Shift button and press one of these seven buttons UNISON MONO AUTO OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL MIDI CH SPECIAL a lesi O ro OCT SHIFT O osc 2 FMAMT Lr FILTER DUMPALL DUMP ONE Pitch bend O SHIFT MORPH 3 If the Function button you pressed is used for more than one parameter press it repeatedly until the display shows the desired 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 Press the function button to switch between the possibilities In this picture the Program P and Controller C functions When a Function button is used for more than one param eter the two digits are separated by a dot The
38. 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 length of the organ pipes Thus the standard drawbar configuration is from the bottom up By using the drawbars to change the balance between the partials the harmonic content of the organ tone can be changed In the Nord Lead organ sounds the oscillators are used to generate the partials In some cases there is a direct one oscillator one drawbar relation other sounds use more complex waveforms to simulate up to three combined partials with one oscillator Usually the oscillators in each slot are paired so that Os cillator 1 generates the lower partial s and Oscillator 2 the higher Therefore you can give the sound more bottom or edge by changing the Oscillator balance with the Mix knob for each Slot Page 104 Factory Settings Percussion To add some attack to the sound most classic organs feature Percussion an accent like tone with fast attack short decay and no sustain Usually the pitch of the Percussion tones are 4 or 2 2 3 or both mixed in effect replacing the corresponding drawbar partials Some of the Nord Lead organ sounds make use of Percussion in Slot B You can vary the balance between the two Percussion pitches with the Mix knob and also change the Decay time of the Percussion tone to make it fit your play
39. ave to be in Program mode Page 72 MIDI About Subtractive Synthesis Page 73 11 ABOUT SUBTRACTIVE SYNTHESIS INTRODUCTION THE Subtractive synthesis is one of the oldest and most widely spread forms of synthesizing sounds It is the method employed in such classics as the Moog synthesizers the Sequential Prophet 5 and 10 Arp syn thesizers most Oberheim synthesizers the Roland Jupiter models the TB 303 etc the list is practically endless Even new digital instruments such as workstations and sample playback devices employ many of the basic principles of subtractive synthesis So what s the big deal about the Nord Lead then Simply another subtractive synthesizer Well the Nord Lead is the first modern digital instrument that combines a faithful reproduction of the behaviour of the old analog favourites with the convenience and stability of the newer designs The purpose of this chapter is to give you a quick introduction to this world of subtractive synthesis as used in he Nord Lead and its analog predecessors If you d like to know more there are number of text books on the subject BUILDING BLOCKS Subtractive synthesis started its life in modular synthesizers 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 But functionality wise subtractive synthesizers are s
40. choice press Store again You return to the t display 7 Use the Program Up Down buttons to select a control amount value or I to 7 This value shown to the right of the t in the display determines how much the assigned parameter should be affected by a received maximum aftertouch value gt If you don t want the slot to be affected by aftertouch messages select amount value 8 If needed repeat steps 3 to 7 to set aftertouch assignment for the other slots 9 Press Shift to exit the Special menu and return to play mode Program Change The descriptions below are only true if transmission reception of Program Change messages is activated see page 59 Y When you select a new Program for a slot a Program Change message is transmitted via MIDI on the slot s MIDI Channel Y Likewise if a Program Change message is received on a certain MIDI Channel all Program slots set to that MIDI Channel will switch to a new Program Y When you select a new Performance a Program Change message is transmitted on the Global MIDI Channel For information on how to set the Global MIDI Channel see page 60 Y When a Program Change message is received on the Global MIDI Channel a new Performance is select ed If the Global MIDI Channel happens to be set to the same number as one of the Program slots the Per formance takes precedence That is Program Change messages on this
41. cillator 1 to 5 octaves above Oscillator 1 However the full range may not be available depending on the Oct Shift setting see page 54 To aid you in setting the value the LED above the knob lights up when the tuning is in perfect octaves Fine Tune This parameter is for tuning Oscillator 2 just as the Tune control is The difference is that this parameter operates within one semitone If you set the two oscillators to equal volume see Balance below make sure Sync is turned off set the two oscillators to the same Tune value and raise or lower the Fine Tune Parameter slightly the slight difference in Pitch will make the sound richer W The LED above the Semitone knob will flash briefly when you set Fine Tune to 0 Panel Reference Page 39 Keyboard Track When this parameter is activated Oscillator 2 will have different pitches when you play different keys just as Oscillator 1 always does When this parameters is turned off Oscillator 2 will always play the same pitch There are mainly three situations when this is useful Y When Sync is activated in this mode the basic pitch of the sound is determined by Oscillator 1 anyway V When FM is used to get inharmonic sounds with very varying timbre across the keyboard W For special effects and percussion sounds which are supposed to sound the same all across the key board SETTINGS FOR BOTH OSCILLATORS Osc Bosc 2 SYNC ru L Pulse width OS
42. d receives Controller 1 Y If the Pedal input is used with an expression pedal this is transmitted and received as Controller 11 W If the Pedal input is used for sustain this is transmitted as Controller 64 Damper Pedal Y Bank Select messages Controller 0 and 32 are received MIDI Implementation Page 91 SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE IMPLEMENTATION Numbers are in decimal except when preceded by a character in which case they are in hexadecimal format General Message format Byte Description FO System Exclusive 33 Manufacturer ID clavia lt Device ID gt Global MIDI Channel 0 15 04 Model ID for Nord Lead lt Message Type gt See each type of message below lt Message Specification gt See each type of message below lt Data 1 gt This and following bytes depend on the Message Type and Message Specification Some messages have no data bytes at all lt Data 2 gt lt Data 3 gt lt etc gt F7 End Of Exclusive Patch Dumps This message contains the actual Patch Dump One complete message contains the data for one Patch It is transmitted from the Nord Lead in one of two cases Y When a Patch Dump is initiated from the front panel Y When a valid Patch Dump Request message has been received This message should be sent to the Nord Lead when you want to replace a Patch currently in the instru ment with a new one The Message Type and Message Specification bytes in the Sys Ex message contains informat
43. d sound is selected LED is flashing Press Store Hold down Shift and press the Perf Mode Manual button to exit Performance mode Scroll to a suitable Program location 01 40 in the internal memory or any location on a PCMCIA card and press Store again The sound is stored as a regular Program This can now be played as usual or included in another Per formance as described on the previous page SAVING A PERFORMANCE To be able to save edited Performances you need an expanded Nord Lead with a PCMCIA S RAM card inserted Set up the Performance as desired 2 Press the Store button The Program display flashes 3 Select one of the Performance memory slots as described above Page 36 Performances 4 If you change your mind at this point press any of the Program Slot buttons 5 If you decide to go ahead with overwriting the existing Performance press Store again The display stops flashing to indicate that the Performance has been saved Programs in Performance Slots are actually saved complete with all parameter settings when the Perform ance is saved Percussion Kits on the other hand are only saved as references to existing Percussion Kits The above point means that there is no need to store the Programs separately As soon as you save the Performance all Programs that it uses are also saved inside the Performance This also means that if you later change any of your Programs from Program mod
44. der such conditions the Arpeggio MIDI Out feature will either prevent the instrument from sounding at all or cause a MIDI feedback loop MIDI CHANNEL Program Slot MIDI Channel To set the MIDI Channel that a certain Program slot receives and transmits on proceed as follows I Hold down Shift and press MIDI Ch 2 The display shows the MIDI Channel for the active Program slot 3 Select the Program slot you want to make settings for The Program slot s LED flashes Page 60 Shift Functions 4 Use the Up Down buttons to set the MIDI Channel If you don t want the slot to respond to or send MIDI set it to Off display shows oF For more information on Program slots and MIDI Channels 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 follows I Hold down Shift and press MIDI Ch 2 Press MIDI Ch again The display now shows the Global MIDI Channel 3 Use the Up Down button to set the MIDI Channel For more information on the Global MIDI Channel see page 69 Shift Functions Page 61 SPECIAL There are five special functions that make it possible to use MIDI for functions that have previously been reserved for users of analog modular synthesizer systems Accessing the Functions Hold down Shift and press Special 2 Press th
45. diting There is one limitation when programming the percussion sounds All of the sounds in a Percussion Kit will share the same LFOs The Nord Lead will use the LFO rate waveform and destination settings of the last played percussion sound 4 When you re satisfied with the first sound press another black key to select another percussion sound for editing according to the figure above Edited Percussion Kits cannot be saved in the ROM Bank of the Nord Lead To save Percussion Kits you can either use an optional PCMCIA S RAM card or dump MIDI Sys Ex data to a sequencer or MIDI record er see page 71 Percussion Kits Page 51 COPYING EXTRACTING AND IMPORTING INDIVIDUAL PERCUSSION SOUNDS OJ UJ You can easily copy a percussion sound for use in another zone This zone can be in the same Percussion Kit or in another one You can also extract the percussion sound and save it as a regular Program If you want to copy the percussion sound to a zone within a Percussion Kit the destination Percussion Kit must be on a PCMCIA S RAM Card since you cannot save any changes in the ROM Percussion Kits Locate the zone of the percussion sound you want to copy extract Hold down a black key in this zone and press Store The display flashes Scroll to the Program or Percussion Kit location to which you want to copy the percussion sound If you have selected a regular Program to save the sound in just press Store again I
46. dphones you might want to know something about how the sounds get positioned in the stereo image The complex answer is that this depends on the Out Mode settings as described on page 57 However the simple truth is that in the basic mode which the Nord Lead is set to when it comes from the factory all Programs are in mono In 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 with a pitch bend wheel on traditional instruments The pitch stick differs from other pitch bend devices in a couple of ways Y There is no dead centre in the middle of the throw This allows you to use the pitch stick for natural vi brato pretty much like a guitarist can W The effect on pitch is logarithmic that is the further you move the stick away from the centre position the more drastic the effect will be To set the range of the Pitch Stick proceed as follows I Hold down the Shift button Page 16 Basic Operations 2 With the Shift button down press the button labelled System Hold down the Shift button O ro O osc 2 FMAMT FILTER SHIFT MoRPH UNISON MONO AUTO C C aa kerra re 3 Press the System button repeatedly until the character to the left in the display says b for Bend and press the button labelled System the LED above t
47. e C The product has been exposed to rain or near a bathtub washbowl kitchen sink in a wet D The product does not appear to operate nor basement or near a swimming pool or the like mally or exhibits a marked change in perform 4 This product should be used only with a cart or ance or stand that is recommended by the manufacturer E The product has been dropped or the enclo 5 This product either alone or in combination with sure damaged an amplifier and headphones or speakers may be 12 Do not attempt to service the product beyond that capable of producing sound levels that could described in the user maintenance instructions cause permanent hearing loss Do not operate for All other servicing should be referred to qualified a long period of time at a high volume level or at a service personnel level that is uncomfortable If you experience any hearing loss or ringing in the ears you should consult an audiologist For the USA for equipment with polarized line plug This product may be equipped with a polarized line plug one blade wider than the other This is a safety feature If you are unable to insert the plug into the outlet contact an electrician to replace your obsolete out let Do not defeat the safety purpose of the plug For Canada for equipment with polarized line plug CAUTION TO PREVENT ELECTRIC SHOCK MATCH WIDE BLADE OF PLUG TO WIDE SLOT FULLY INSERT ATTENTION POUR EVITER LES CHOCS ELECTRIQUES I
48. e the Programs in the Performances are not af fected in any way On the other hand Percussion Kits need to be saved separately EXITING PERFORMANCE MODE To exit Performance mode hold down Shift and press Performance Manual Now you return to the regular Program mode You will note that the four slots now play the four Pro grams that were selected before you entered Performance mode Likewise Layering and Shift functions are restored to the way they were set before you entered Performance mode WHAT A PERFORMANCE CONTAINS The following is a list of what a Performance contains that is what you actually save and recall when you work with Performances For Each Program Slot Y The selected Program complete with parameter settings ora reference to a Percussion Kit Y The MIDI Channel setting W The Special settings W Expression pedal assignment W Aftertouch assignment For the Entire Instrument W The Layer configuration Y Which Program is active for editing W The Pitch Bend Range setting Y The Out Mode setting Y The Unison Detune setting Panel Reference Page 37 S PANEL REFERENCE OSCILLATOR 1 Waveform This switches between on of three waveforms for Oscillator 1 Triangle This is a waveform with only odd and not very strong harmonics It is suitable for flute sounds and similar Sawtooth This contains all harmonics and is the richest of the available waveforms It is suitable for all sort
49. e 102 AA o A hla te eee oe een Ate aed hae a ey af oaths hata ANE pal 103 About the Propheto factory sound recreations Lars SOE de aes 105 Restoring the Factory Programs I RAMI o RA AG toes Sh ene A 106 MIDI IMPLEMENTATION GHART 107 INDEX 109 Page 4 Table Of Contents Introduction Page 5 1 INTRODUCTION WELCOME We d first like to thank you and congratulate to the purchase of a Nord Lead You re about to begin a journey into the world of virtual analog synthesis Analog because the Nord Lead mimics traditional an alog synthesizers in a way no one thought was possible Virtual because the Nord Lead is actually a dig ital instrument remaining true to the traditional analog concept and still managing 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 basic knowledge about programmable synthesizers you probably won t need this manual much Therefore it is arranged mainly as a reference text for those rare situation where something isn t as obvious as it should be CLAVIA ON THE NET If you have access to the World Wide Web you can get free sounds for your NordLead on www clavia se Here you will also find all the latest information about the Nord Lead and other Claiva products Page 6 Introduction Connections Page 7 2 GONNECTIONS Y Make all connections before turning on your
50. e Special button as many times is need to make the left digit in the display show the desired function Es aes ane A and 5 OJ Select the Program Slot A to D that you want to make settings for 4 Use the Program Up Down buttons to set values the right digit The Special Functions can be set up differently for each slot and each slot can use all and any of the Spe cial functions at the same time if desired Function 1 Synchronizing LFO To MIDI Clock For this to work you need to feed MIDI clock from a sequencer or similar into the MIDI In of the Nord Lead and activate 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 use is set with the parameter value o Peet Please note that this only makes the LFO restartat the specified note value In between those restarts the LFO runs at the rate set with the Rate knob Therefore to hard sync the LFO to the tempo of the song when triangle or sawtooth waves are used set the LFO rate as close to the tempo in the sequencer as possible On the other hand unusual Rate val ues can lead to interesting rhythmic effects When random is selected or when the Arpeggio is used see below to hard sync you only need to make sure the set rate is lower than the rate imposed via MIDI Page 62
51. e display is set to for all Functions except F Press Shift again to return to normal mode If you play the keyboard now there will not be any velocity control because you have set the instrument up to only do this via MIDI Set up your sequencer to play a sequence of notes with drastically different velocity values The pitches of the notes does not matter only the rhythm and velocity Hold down a few keys on the keyboard and start the sequencer The sound should now vary in character with the velocity values coming out from the sequencer Aftertouch and Expression Pedal Settings The Special menu also contains settings for Aftertouch t and Expression pedal E parameter assign ment These functions are described in their respective contents on page 17 Expression pedal and page 67 Aftertouch Page 66 Shift Functions SYSTEM Under this menu you will find three different functions labelled P b and U To select one of the functions hold down Shift and press the System Then press the System button re peatedly until the left digit in the display shows the desired letter Pedal P This is used to set how a connected pedal should be used See page 17 for details This parameter is Global for the entire instrument that is the setting is valid for all Performances and Programs Pitch Bend Range b This allows you to set the range of the pitch stick in semito
52. e has no harmonics at all In other words if you add a number of sine waves together each one with its own pitch frequency and volume amplitude then you can build any waveform you like The lowest harmonic is called the fundamental The fundamental determines the basic pitch of the sound If the fundamental has a frequency of 440Hz we will perceive the entire sound as having a pitch of 440Hz Other harmonics are then added to the fundamental called overtones Normally the first overtone ap pears at a frequency twice the fundamental in our example 880 Hz The next harmonic appears at a frequency three times the fundamental in our example 1320Hz and so on In a spectral display of a waveform you can see the frequency pitch of each harmonic and its amplitude level This is done by drawing each harmonic as a line raising up from a horizontal scale Each line s position on this scale indicates the harmonic s frequency The line furthest to the left is the fundamental the next is the first harmonic etc To make life easier one usually doesn t label the horizon tal scale with frequency in Hz but rather with the number of the harmonic Page 76 About Subtractive Synthesis The height of each line represents the amplitude of each harmonic If you understand the principle you also understand that if the harmonics with high numbers have a high amplitude the sound will be perceived as bright Let s take a look a
53. e 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 2 What Play modes and Unison settings each Program uses See page 53 REPLACING ONE PROGRAM IN THE LAYER You might want to select another Program for one of the slots in the layer Press the Program Slot button that you want to select Programs for Its LED will flash to indicate it is the active slot 2 Select a new Program for that slot Page 14 Basic Operations SELECTING PERFORMANCES A Performance is a collection of four Programs one for each slot Furthermore the Performance contains information about which Programs should be active layered In fact a Performance also contains information about what MIDI Channels to use for each slot and a number of other settings but this is described in detail on page 33 This text is only meant as a quick introduction to playing the factory Performances I If you have the rack version of the Nord Lead make sure you transmit on MIDI Channel This is because the factory Performances are set to receive on MIDI Channel 1 2 Enter Performance mode by holding down Shift and pressing Performance Manual The display shows the latest selected Performance The Performances are organised in 10 Banks named alphabetically from A to L the letters I and K are excluded because they re hard to write clea
54. e way up Press Velocity Morph button and adjust the knobs so that the Program sounds the way you want it at the other end of the Morph Press Velocity Morph again Play and move the Mod Wheel to try out the effect You can also use an Expression pedal for Morphing see page 17 Please note that the Velocity function in the Filter section can be used even if Morphing is active so that a Program can be basically Velocity sensitive even though Morphing is activated Percussion Kits Page 29 6 PERCUSSION KITS The Nord Lead Percussion Kits consist of eight different virtual analog percussion sounds arranged in zones across the keyboard They allow you to incorporate percussion patterns in your music without us ing up more than one Nord Lead Program Slot SELECTING AND PLAYING A PERCUSSION KIT Select the slot where you want the Percussion Kit You can select Percussion Kits for all four slots if you like giving you a total of 32 different percussion sounds available simultaneously 2 Use the Program Up Down buttons to scroll past Program number 99 and select one of the Percussion Kits There are ten Percussion Kits in ROM located directly after the regular Programs and labelled PO to P9 For example select Percussion Kit PO TUNE OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL Percussion Kit PO selected in Program Slot C 3 Use the white keys to play the percussion sounds in the selected Kit There are e
55. elocity value Y When a Note Off message comes in the Velocity Morph function is reset to the minimum value Please note that you must play the keyboard to hear anything Also note that the Velocity Morph must be set up beforehand for this function to have any effect on the sound Shift Functions Page 65 OJ Use the Up Down buttons to set the value to An Example of External Velocity Morph Select a Program for slot A Edit the Program so that you get a morphing effect you like when you move the modulation wheel It is not actually necessary to assign the velocity programming to the Modulation wheel but it is a prac tical way to try out the effect before you apply it via MIDI Hold down Shift and press MIDI Ch Set the MIDI Channel for slot A to I Press each of the other Program slot buttons and set them to MIDI Channel 16 This is just to make sure they do not get used in this example Hold down Shift and press Special Press the Special button until the left digit in the display is 5 Make sure Program Slot A is selected Otherwise press its button ee on Press Store Use the Up Down buttons to select MIDI Channel 2 Press Store again and adjust to any MIDI note number Press Store again Make sure all other Special functions are turned off for this slot cc gt Do this by pressing the Special button repeatedly and check that the left digit in th
56. erformance Data Format Size Offset Name Min Max Comment 264 0 performance patch A B C DI see PATCH data formato gt 4 264 midichan A B C D 0 15 4 268 Ifolsync A B C D 0 7 4 2 2 Ifo2sync A B C D 0 7 4 276 filterenvtrig A B C D 0 1 4 280 filterenvtrigmidichan A B C D 0 15 4 284 filterenvtrignotenr A B C D 23 127 23 off 4 288 ampenvtrig A B C D 0 1 4 292 ampenvtrigmidichan A B C D 0 15 4 296 ampenvtrignotenr A B C D 23 127 23 off 4 300 morftrig A B C D 0 1 4 304 morftrigmidichan A B C D 0 15 4 308 morftrignotenr A B C D 23 127 23 off 1 312 bendrange 0 8 1 313 unisondetune 0 8 1 314 outmode 0 3 1 315 globalmidichan 0 15 not received 1 316 midiprogchange 0 1 not received 1 317 midicntrl 0 1 not received 1 318 mastertune 99 99 not received 1 319 pedaltype 0 2 not received 1 320 localcontrol 0 1 not received 1 321 Keyboard Octave Shift 0 4 not received 1 322 selected_channel 0 3 1 323 Arpeggio MIDI Out 0 1 not received 4 324 channel_actived A B C D 0 1 Page 98 mr RRR AR 328 332 336 340 344 348 pgmselect A B C D bankselect A B C D channel pressure amt A B C D channel pressure dest A B C D expression pedal amt A B C D expression pedal dest A B C D Espoo aa Ha NI a NI OY MO MIDI Implementation Factory Settings Page 99 13 FACTORY SETTINGS FACTORY PROGRAMS Programs 1 40 are in the RAM bank
57. es as indicated in the illustration below Amplitude Frequency UE 0 00000010 The reason for using this switch is related to basic acoustics If you raise the pitch of a waveform the harmonics naturally raise in frequency If the filter frequency is then constant the sound will be per ceived as getting muddier the higher up the keyboard you play To avoid this effect use KBD Track Panel Reference Page 47 LFO 1 LFO 1 Waveform Destination OSC 1 2 OSC2 FILTER o P WIDTH Amount LFO stands for Low Frequency Oscillator An LFO is an oscillator producing waveforms with a certain pitch just like Oscillator 1 and 2 The differences are two V The LFOs produce waveforms with very low frequencies V You never hear the actual output of the LFO Instead the output from the LFO is used for modulating that is controlling other functions like for example the main oscillator frequency vibrato or the filter frequency wah wah Waveform This is used to set the shape of the output from the LFO Triangle This is suitable for normal vibrato effects and for classic pulse width modulation Sawtooth This creates a ramp which can be used for example for auto repeats when applied to the filter Random This adds random modulation to the destination This is mainly useful for effect sounds Rate This is used to set the frequency of the LFO in other words the speed
58. esizer sound By using an envelope you can for example have a high cutoff at the beginning of a sound which is then gradually lowered the filter clos es as the sound decays This would emulate the way most plucked string sound piano 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 tones in the waveform appear at different frequencies The cutoff frequency of the filter however is fixed This means that different overtones will be cut off at different pitches To be more precise the fur ther up the keyboard you play the muddier the sound will be To remedy this problem many synthesizers have a parameter called Filter Keyboard Tracking When this is activated the filter Cutoff Frequency varies with which key you play just as the oscillator frequency does This ensures a constant harmonic spectrum for all keys Amplitude via F Frequency TI Resonance Resonance in a filter is created by connecting the output of the filter to its input in other words setting up a feedback loop The amount of feedback is then controlled with a Resonance parameter on the front panel of the instrument mm About Subtractive Synthesis Page 83 When you apply resonance the frequencies just around the cutoff point of the filter will be e
59. f you want to save the sound in a zone in a Percussion Kit hold down a black key in the destination zone and press Store You may 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 Select the Program and press Store Scroll to the Percussion Kit location to which you want to copy the sound Hold down a black key in the zone to which you want to copy the percussion sound and press Store again Again the destination Percussion Kit must be in one of the three Banks on a PCMCIA card SAVING PERCUSSION KITS OJ As already stated an edited Percussion Kit cannot be saved internally in the Nord Lead To save your changes you have to use a PCMCIA S RAM card After editing the percussion sounds press Store The display flashes Use the Up and Down buttons to select a Percussion Kit location in one of the Banks on the PCMCIA card In each of the three Banks on the card there are ten Percussion Kits located above program number 99 and labelled PO to P9 like in the ROM Bank As with regular programs on the PCMCIA card dots are used to indicate which of the three Banks is currently selected see page 11 Press Store The edited Percussion Kit is saved at the selected location on the card Page 32 Percussion Kits SYS Ex DUMPS OF PERCUSSION KITS You can transmit and receive Sys Ex data that contains all settings
60. for a single Percussion Kit just as for a regular Program However there are a couple of things to note Y You ve got to initiate the dump from Program Mode not from Performance mode If you make a Sys Ex dump from Performance mode the actual parameters of the Percussion Kit will not be included in the dump only a reference to which Percussion Kit is used in the Performance W Before receiving a Percussion Kit data dump you must select a Percussion Kit for the receiving slot If you attempt to receive a Percussion Kit into a slot which plays a regular Program 1 99 nothing will happen Likewise you cannot receive regular Program Sys Ex data into a slot which plays a Percussion Kit PO 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 Performance is only a reference to the original This means that if you edit the percussion sounds in a Kit in Performance Mode you will in fact be chang ing the original Percussion Kit and all Performances that use this Percussion Kit will be affected by the changes If you want to use a Percussion Kit within a Performance e g for use in a sequencer song and want to be absolutely sure that you get the right percussion sounds every time you select the Perform ance proceed like this Edit a Percussion Kit as desired 2 Save it on one of the Percussion Kit locations on a PCMCI
61. for electronic current to reduce sources such as radiators heat registers or other the risk of electric shock This product is equipped products that produce heat with a power supply cord having an equipment 8 The product should be connected to a power sup grounding conductor and a grounding plug The ply only of the type described in the operating plug must be plugged into an appropriate outlet instructions or as marked on the product which is properly installed and grounded in 9 The power supply cord of the product should be accordance with all local codes and ordinances unplugged from the outlet when left unused for a DANGER Improper connection of the equipment long period of time grounding conductor can result in a risk of electric 10 Care should be taken so that objects do not fall shock Do not modify the plug provided with the and liquids are not spilled into the enclosure product If it will not fit the outlet have a proper through openings outlet installed by a qualified electrician Do not 11 The product should be serviced by qualified serv use an adaptor which defeats the function of the ice personnel when equipment grounding conductor If you are in A The power supply cord or the plug has been doubt as to whether the product is properly damaged or grounded check with a qualified serviceman or B Objects have fallen or liquid has been spilled electrician onto the product or 3 Do not use this product near water for exampl
62. g it left introduces a negative envelope and turn ing it right gives you a positive envelope Destination None You can turn off both LEDs to completely turn off the effect of the Modulation envelope While this is the same is setting Amount to its centre position this method is simply quicker FM Amt When this is selected the envelope is routed to the amount of FM modulation Varying the amount of FM changes the harmonic contents of the sound so this can be used to have the timbre change pretty much like when the Filter envelope is used to change the Filter Frequency Please note that this parameter operates in addition to the FM amount setting in the Oscillator section Panel keference Page 51 OSC 2 When this is selected the envelope changes the pitch of Oscillator 2 This can be used in a number of situations For example Y With Sync to create distinct sweeping sounds Y With FM for effect type sweeps W To create bleeps in the beginning 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 Level Time If Amount instead is set to a negative value the pitch will rise up to normal Level Time If Attack and Decay are both used and you have a positive Amount setting the sound will start at normal pitch when you press the key rise and then fall back
63. he 24dB filter and turn the Frequency knob clock wise more and more high frequency material will be allowed to pass through the filter Amplitude Filter Frequency Frequency Please note that if the Envelope Amount setting is raised from its full left position turning the Frequency knob might not change the sound as expected For more information see below Panel keference Page 45 Resonance This control is used to further adjust the characteristics of the Filter W If you are using the 12 or 24dB low pass filter increasing resonance will emphasize frequencies around the set Filter Frequency making the sound thinner Further raising the knob will make the sound reso nant to a point where the filter adds a ringing quality to the sound Exactly where in the frequency spec trum this ringing appears depends on the Filter Frequency setting Amplitude Resonance Filter Frequency Frequency W If you have the high pass or LP Notch filter selected increasing Resonance will work pretty much as with the LP filter Y When you use 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 used to set to what degree the Envelope see below should affect the filter The more you raise this knob the more drastic the effect will be This knob operates i
64. he button lights up 4 Use the Program Up Down buttons to the left of the display to change the value The table on page 66 shows you how many semi tones each value in the display represents If the Pitch Stick should be malfunctioning on startup the display will scroll the message PITCH BEND ERROR The Nord Lead will then work as usual but the Pitch Stick will be disabled Modulation Wheel The effect of moving the Modulation wheel can be different for each Program You can change the func tion by pressing the button just above the Modulation wheel It steps 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 Hold down the Shift button 2 With the Shift button down press the button labelled Tune Hold down the Shift button O ro osc 2 FMAMT FILTER SHIFT MORPH and press the button labelled Tune the LED above the button lights up 3 Use the Program Up Down buttons to the left of the display to change the value 00 is normal 440Hz tuning Lower pitches are indicated by a dot to the right of the number and values higher than normal pitch are indicated without a dot The values are in cents hundreds of a semitone 4 Press the Shift button again Basic Operations Page 17 PEDAL OJ OJ Use the Program Up Down buttons to switch the right digit between As sho
65. here is no need to store the Shift settings The settings will automatically remain in memory However some functions are reset to default values when you turn off power see the description of each function for details TUNE MASTER TUNE This is used to tune the Nord Lead to other instruments 00 is normal 440Hz tuning Lower pitches are indicated by a dot to the right of the number and values higher than normal pitch 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 processing of sounds The Out mode setting is global for the entire instrument which means all Programs share the setting made here Basically there are three possibilities for how a sound appears in the outputs W The first is that a Program appears with equal level at both outputs which is what we refer to as mono Y The second option is that the voices the keys you play appear alternating between the left and right outputs which we refer to as stereo If you play chords in stereo mode the sound will be spread out in the stereo image When Unison is activated more than one voice will be used each time you press a key as described on page 54 Ifa Unison Program is played in stereo mode each time you play a key you will get at least one voice at the Right output and at least one at the Left output which will result i
66. ic Operations Page 9 3 BASIC OPERATIONS DEMO PLAY FUNCTION Before you try out the new features for yourself you may want to listen to what can be done with the instrument Luckily the Nord Lead is equipped with a built in demo playback function There are six demo songs in ROM showing the instrument s versatility and features in different contexts To listen to the demo songs proceed like this Simultaneously press the Shift and Sync Demo buttons osc Bosc 2 SYNC Amount Portamento POLY Pa by Flan LEGATO ONIG Ll 70D SYSTEM FILTER SHIFT moppu The Shift and Sync buttons Playback starts During playback all knobs and buttons 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 Program section of the panel 3 To exit demo play mode press any other button on the panel Please note that some of the demo songs make use of 12 voices and will therefore only be played back on an expanded Nord Lead If you use a 4 voice Nord Lead you will not be able to select these demo songs Page 10 Basic Operations BASIC MIDI SETTINGS FOR THE NORD RACK If you are using the Nord Rack and controlling it from a MIDI keyboard the Nord Rack must be set to receive on the same MIDI channel that the keyboard transmits on To get started proceed as follows
67. ight different percussion sounds in each Percussion Kit arranged in zones across the key Il Li LITI If you for example press the lowest keys F G A or B with Percussion Kit PO selected you will play a snare sound A list of the ROM Percussion Kits and their sounds is supplied in page 100 The keys in a zone will produce different pitches just as if you played the sound as a regular Program However some percussion sounds are not programmed to respond to keyboard pitch Page 50 Percussion Kits EDITING THE SOUNDS IN A PERCUSSION KIT While the white keys are used to play the percussion sounds the black keys are used for selecting which sound to make changes for ALLELE AOO If for example you want to edit the snare sound in kit PO proceed as follows Select Percussion Kit PO as described on the previous page 2 Press one of the keys F G A in the lowest octave The display will briefly show 2 indicating that percussion sound number 2 is selected for editing 3 Now you can use the knobs and buttons on the panel to edit the selected percussion sound to your liking just as in regular Nord Lead programs You can play the other sounds freely while editing the selected sound as long as you don t press any other black key since this would select another sound for e
68. ilter in a synthesizer is used to remove or emphasize frequencies in a spectrum A filter is a bit like an amplifier a volume control that is applied differently to different parts of the spectrum For example a filter might make low frequencies louder while at the same time making high frequencies weaker Ap plying such a filter would make a sound have more bass and less treble Let s imagine a sound with a spectrum where all harmonics are available at full level It would look like this Let s now pass this spectrum through a lowpass filter this type of filter is discussed in more detail below The filter has a characteristic which can be drawn as a curve Page SO About Subtractive Synthesis As you can see the curve is flat in the low register which means it doesn t affect this part of the spectrum at all and then at a certain point gradually starts falling When applied to the wave above this filter cuts away some of the high frequency material in the wave like this Filter Types There are many types of filters all with their different purposes We will here discuss 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 exam
69. imum force T e OSCI OSC2 Mix Pulse width POLY PHONIG LEAD S Y If you have set the range as described in the previous picture the value you get when playing with maximum force will be this Play the Program to try out the effect Please note that any two values can be used when setting the range To make a parameter value decrease when you play with more force i e 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 Programming Velocity Sensitivity Page 27 Moving the Range As explained above step 1 to 4 sets the range of the parameter how far it should be between the mini mum and maximum values If you then turn a knob that has been programmed for velocity sensitivity without holding any buttons or anything you will adjust the minimum value only and the maximum value will move with it accord ingly If you adjust the value for a parameter programmed for velocity control you move the entire velocity control range up down This minimum value will result in this maximum value This minimum val gt eae ue will result in this Pulse vadth maximum value CLEARING VELOCITY PROGRAMMING FOR ONE KNOB Turn the knob to its lowest value 2 Press the Velocity Morph button 3 Turn the knob a bit up and then back to its lowest value 4 Press the Veloc
70. ing style Click Though not an intended feature on the classic organs the short non pitched click noise when keys are pressed has become a popular characteristic In the organs the sound came from oxidation on the key switches in the Nord Lead you can add or remove the click as desired All of the Nord Lead organ Performances has the click sound on Slot D although it is by default turned off for some of the sounds Hum This disharmonic thin sound is also an unintended artifact generated by leakage between the tonewheels in the organs It is included in some of the Nord Lead organ sounds adding even further re alism Rotary 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 sounds with rotating baffles or horns Usually the rotation speed can be changed from slow producing a full chorus like effect to fast producing a very special doppler shifted tremolo sound Several of the organ sounds in the Nord Lead include a Rotary Speaker effect emulated by the LFO s and the Morph function Change the rotor speed from slow to fast by raising the Modulation wheel This table shows the drawbar configurations simulated by each organ Performance The configuration is indicated by 9 numbers volume settings 0 8 for each drawbar in the simulated sound For all Performances you can activate Slot
71. io to MIDI Clock This works exactly as Special Function 1 only that it operates on LFO 2 and the Arpeggio instead Please note that the explanation about the relation between the LFO rate and the restart via MIDI Clock also applies to the Arpeggio This function will not be enabled when Echo is selected on LFO2 Function F External triggering of Filter Envelope This function can be used to trigger the Filter envelope via notes coming in via MIDI instead of by play ing the keyboard The Filter envelope is triggered from its own MIDI Channel and note number s com pletely independent of the MIDI Channel used for defining which keys should be played This can be used to play back preprogrammed rhythms in your MIDI sequencer while inputting the actual pitch es by playing the keyboard or via MIDI You can use the Program Select buttons to switch between and 1 The setting means that the function is turned off and 1 means that it is activated Shift Functions Page 03 To set which MIDI Channel and possibly which MIDI note number to use for triggering proceed as fol lows Activate the function In other words set the display to F 1 Press Store The display shows the MIDI Channel currently used Set the value with the Up Down buttons Press Store again The Displays shows which MIDI Note number is currently used The numbers start at CO MIDI note number 24 and a d
72. ion about from which location the Patch Dump was sent When a Patch is sent to the Nord Lead it will end up in this location Y 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 they will be stored at their original Program Location but in the Bank that is currently selected on the Nord Lead Y If the Sys Ex data for a single Patch is sent using the Dump One command it is considered being sent from the Edit Buffer of the selected Slot This means that when the Patch is sent back to a Nord Lead it will not actually be stored but temporarily placed in the Edit Buffer of its original Slot Page 92 MIDI Implementation W If the Sys Ex data for a single Patch is sent upon receiving a Patch Dump Request message either the Program Location or the Edit Buffer will be stored depending on the Message Type byte in the Request message This will also determine where the Patch will be placed when it is sent back to a Nord Lead Byte Hex Byte Decimal Description FO 240 System Exclusive 33 51 Manufacturer ID clavia lt Device ID gt Global MIDI Channel 0 to 15 0 F 04 4 Model ID for Nord Lead 00 to 04 0 to 4 Message Type specifies the Bank O Edit Buffer 1 to 4 Bank 1 to 4 00 to 03 or 00 62 Oto 3 or 0 to 98 Message Specification specifies the exact memory loc
73. ion can be 00 to 03 corresponding to Patch Slot buttons A to D Page 94 MIDI Implementation W If Message Type 11 to 14 then the Message Specification 00 to 98 corresponds to the Program Number within the Bank 01 to 99 Performance Dump This message contains the actual Performance One complete message contains the data for one Perform ance This message is transmitted from the Nord Lead in one of two cases Y When a Performance Dump is initiated from the front panel Y When a valid Performance Request message has been received This message should be sent to the Nord Lead when you want to replace a Performance currently in the instrument with a new one The Message Type and Message Specification then specify in which memory location the Performance should be stored Byte Hex FO 33 lt Device ID gt 04 1E or 1F 00 or 00 63 lt Perf Data 1 gt lt Perf Data 2 gt lt Perf Data 3 gt lt Perf Data 688 gt F7 Byte Decimal 240 51 4 40 or 31 O or 0 to 99 247 Description System Exclusive Manufacturer ID clavia Global MIDI Channel 0 to 15 0 F Model ID for Nord Lead Message Type specifies Performance Edit Buffer 30 or PCMCIA Card Performance Bank 31 Message Specification specifies the Performance number see below See page 97 End Of Exclusive W If Message Type 30 Edit Buffer the Message Specification should always 0 W
74. is F Make sure Program Slot A is selected Otherwise press its button Use the Up Down buttons to set the value to 1 on Press Store Use the Up Down buttons to select MIDI Channel 2 Press Store again and adjust to any MIDI note number Press Store again Make sure all other Special functions are turned off for this slot Page 64 Shift Functions dc gt Do this by pressing the Special button repeatedly and check that the left digit in the display is set to for all Functions except F Press Shift again to return to normal mode If you play the keyboard now you will not get any sound because the Cutoff is all the way down and the Filter envelope is no longer triggered by the keyboard Set up your sequencer to play a simple repeating note pattern on MIDI Channel 2 The pitches of the notes does not matter only the rhythm Hold down a few keys on the keyboard and start the sequencer The keys you press should be played with the rhythm from the sequencer Function A External triggering of Amplifier Envelope This function can be used to trigger the Amplifier envelope via notes coming in via MIDI instead of by playing the keyboard Just as with the previous function this can be used to play back preprogrammed rhythms in your MIDI sequencer while inputting the actual pitch es by playing the keyboard You must play keys on the keyb
75. ity Morph button again The Velocity Morph function is now cleared for the knob 5 Turn the knob back up to any desired value When velocity programming is cleared for all knobs the Velocity Morph LED goes out CLEARING ALL VELOCITY PROGRAMMING To clear all velocity programming press the Clear button in the Velocity Morph section Page 28 Programming Velocity Sensitivity MORPHING OJ U1 Morphing is a term used to describe a continuous blend or transfer between two images sounds or sim ilar As described above Nord Lead s Velocity Morph function is normally controlled by velocity But you can route the function to the modulation wheel instead which allows you to continuously fade between two sounds morphing The only thing you have to do to activate morphing for a sound that s already set up for velocity control is to press the Mod Wheel destination button until all the LEDS for the Mod Wheel destination go out Push this button until none of these four LEDs are lit SHIFT MoRPH When the four LEDs are dark the fifth printed Morph LED is con sidered lit However if you are setting up a Morph sound from scratch we recommend the following procedure Press the Mod Wheel destination button until all the LEDS for the Mod Wheel destination go out Make sure the Modulation wheel is all the way down Set up the basic Program as you want it Move the Modulation wheel all th
76. king Any Parameter Velocity Dependent 2 2 4 4 ninas aa Clearing Velocity Programming For One Knob Li da Clearing All Velocity Pr grammi g ais died ios MOPON kk ave te trana eo E ee a Rae ak a ae EA E E Page 1 5 Sih open ee eae eae 5 Page 2 Table Of Contents PERCUSSION KITS 29 Selecting and playing a Percussion MiS ol Ed 29 Editune the sounds ina PERCUSSIONASIE i rt isa ai it Dee ee eee 30 Copying Extracting and Importing individual Percussion sounds LL 31 Savio Percussioni tia e OG eer A AE ae ia E A 31 Sys Ex Dumps Ob Percussion KS israel SA e cap hawks 32 Using Percussion Kits ia Pertormance Mode cards ropa at ok ea ed ea eee ee bees 32 PERFORMANCES 33 Whar Are Per ornan eS ts A arena 33 Recalling APEA A ars ia A o ee eh a 33 Editing he Performan cE cus bia we ue ee tibiale Chabad iero Guo 34 Extracting Single Sounds from a Performance lt tyne pee he oe a as Ve 35 Savio PCMOlMMANCS A VIE i RARI thee cote cda DI EX Periormance MO 25 34 titan AS ES i 36 Whata Peformance contas eds bbdd redada ia 36 PANEL REFERENCE 37 Se RA 37 OSMA A e See o E o dls 38 De US FORD As AAA A Eee et Sch horn eel eee Bee GEO ed Rea Ew AS 39 AMPIE 5 20 She dd er is Sas Sh Bn ae i a as se ch elisa tee RO ah Ane en aa arte gh 40 ZARE RR CERTO PO FE RIA PERITI TOSTI CITI TOI a SDE aa 42 DET enel nata 47 LEO Pa PPP rate eV tea 48 Moedulanon Envelopeisis ta litiluiole bian peli A A a E S 50 Mod N heel Destinati Ome Le lat ide SUS A SS wa
77. l Slots that are activated will also receive on the MIDI channel set for the leftmost active Slot This means that if you have a layer consisting of Slots A B and D and Slot A is set to MIDI channel 1 both Slots B and D will receive on channel 1 as well as on their respective set channels Therefore if you want the sequencer to control the four Program Slots independently i e not in a layer make sure only one of the Slots is active on the Nord Lead only one Program Slot LED is lit Set up the Program slots that you plan to use so that they transmit receive on the desired MIDI Channels To set a slot s MIDI Channel hold down Shift and press MIDI Ch Then select the Program slot and set the value See page 59 for details Set the program slots that you don t plan to use to MIDI Channel Off This is to ensure they don t play any sound unintentionally 3 Select the desired Program for each Program slot Page 70 MIDI If your sequencer requires you to transmit on a certain MIDI Channel the same MIDI Channel as the slot receives on select the desired slot before recording If needed set the sequencer up to record and play back on the desired MIDI Channel Activate recording and play the Nord Lead For an overdub with a new sound either select the next Program slot or just select a new Track and a new MIDI Channel in the sequencer Which of the two alternatives that is right for you depends
78. lected for the Pedal input E 1 or 2 on the System menu the Nord Lead will recognize Sustain and Expression pedal messages via MIDI Controller message 64 and 11 re spectively For example it is possible to connect a regular sustain pedal to the Pedal input on the Nord Lead and simultaneously accept Expression pedal messages via MIDI controlling a parameter assigned as described above Basic Operations Page 19 THE PANIC BUTTON If notes get stuck or the Nord Lead behaves strangely all you need to do is hold down the 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 Filter type HP 24 dB BP NOTCH LP LP 24 dB LP 12 dB Attack Sustain Release VELOCITY Frequency Resonance Envelope amount The Panic button Page 20 Basic Operations Editing Programs Page 21 4 EDITING PROGRAMS CHANGING AN EXISTING PROGRAM Actually how to change a programmed sound can be described in one sentence twist the knobs and press the buttons It is as simple as that W For information about editing Percussion Kits refer to page 30 V Don t be afraid to edit and overwrite the RAM Programs in the internal memory Program 01 40 If later you want to restore any of the original RAM factory programs they are backed up as ROM Performances as described on page
79. lementation Chart Page 107 14 MIDI IMPLEMENTATION CHART Model Clavia Nord Lead Keyboard and Rack Date 96 03 21 Version 2 X Basic Default 1 16 1 16 Channel Channel 1 16 1 16 Default Mode 3 Mode 3 Mode Messages X X Altered KKKKKKKKKKKk Note 0 127 0 127 Number True Voice ici 0 127 Velocity Note ON Ov 1 127 A 1 127 Note OFF X After Key s X Touch Ch s X Control a page 89 Change Prog O 0 109 O 0 109 Change True System Exclusive See page 91 System Song Pos Song Sel Common Tune System Clock Real Time O RO Aux Local ON OFF Mes All Notes Off sages Active Sense Reset T li HH Mode 1 OMNI ON POLY Mode 2 OMNI ON MONO O Yes Mode 3 OMNI OFF POLY Mode 4 OMNI OFF MONO xX No Page 108 MIDI Implementation Chart Index INDEX A Aftertouch 67 Amount LFO 1 48 LFO 2 49 Mod Envelope 50 Amplifier Envelope 40 Introduction to 73 Triggering Envelope via MIDI 64 Amplitude Envelope 40 Arpeggiator 48 Arpeggiator range 49 Arpeggiator type 48 Arpeggio to MIDI Out 59 Attack Amplifier 47 Filter 46 Introduction to 84 Mod Envelope 50 Auto Portamento 54 B Band Reject 44 Bandpass 43 Bank Select 69 BP 45 Bulk Dump 71 C Cards 24 Controllers Activating transmission reception 59 Front panel list 89 MIDI Transmission and reception 67 Recording in Sequencer 70 Copying Programs 23 109 D Decay Amplifier 47 Filter 46 Introduction
80. les oa aa 32 POly LESH OMONO e r pride o e AO eo EOE a 53 DA O rra AAA ESO TORE TOA Ad Ae E eR Dat tn S 53 POMARIS CO O eh E a E E E a IO ld is de 54 OCC SI stig thd ae at heed ee reale A aes oe SAE KEETE AR a IAE Ee es 54 SHIFT FUNCTIONS 55 ACCESSING The Shi FUNCIONS se in oo os wae PA e hes BI ok oe ee She He Rew eee oe hoe ee 55 Lune Master TUNE ar enka a ey A ei A AAA ee e esi 37 DE E o EE E a da et DI LOCA iii Cheat ici elle ATA E ia 58 boiler hh an aka gine AES LILLA 59 MID Channel cat ee Gd et waree a bets pediatri 59 A beg cc saan lees wea eis eed oe aw Ee eee aaa ee cent eine eel 61 BY EIR oe eset ZII OS E N TOTTI TITO 66 MIDI 67 Aboutthe MIDI im plementalonei4i 03 44 0822244 5 dade tee e eh ad abd de ipa 67 Using Nord Lead With a Sequencer isa RO dd EE oA Rhee OARS 69 eI op E boa Lee A 71 Table Of Contents Page 3 ABOUT SUBTRACTIVE SYNTHESIS 73 ra ac rela ie ar A ed E eB ae ea N 73 The Duldmo BES copada dora ee eee pit N E 73 COMDECHONS sas Aas te dia idas adn aid Mins Se Sa dale da cid e 74 Tis Oscllators and WIVELO ROS A A A A A ad ee eo ool 74 TTC A Bee ee ee Ge eas 79 o A para 84 O ClO De A E A E 84 LOS do ai elisa erica ATRAE e a ma OER O EIA AREA A AS 87 MIDI IMPLEMENTATION 89 Controller Numbers eri bado det o ata id andas br ae 89 System Exclusive maple menta lonas a 91 FACTORY SETTINGS 99 VACIO ELO TAMOS EA A A ERA RS RAI ASA ee a 99 FACON CETE STONE sa AAA E EAS ha aloe 100 Factory Perrone ace by AS A ee ee
81. mphasized louder As you increase the Resonance further and further the filter will start to behave more an more like a bandpass filter where only the frequencies around the cutoff point are let through The filter will start to ring which means it almost sounds like it is adding frequencies 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 Amplitude Q 4 Filter Frequency Frequency High Resonance values are also visible in the waveform They appear as a superimposed waveform with a frequency equivalent to the filter s cutoff frequency The three examples above show the same wave with increased resonance Q 0 5 If you add Resonance to a sound and then vary the Cutoff frequency for example with an envelope you will get a very typical synthesizer sound Page 84 THE About Subtractive Synthesis AMPLIFIER An amplifier is most often used at the final stage of a synth signal chain to control volume By modulating the amplifier with an envelope the sound can be given its basic shape In fact the volume shape is one of the most important factors to how we identify the sound By setting up a proper volume envelope you can make a sound soft hard plucked static etc Nal
82. n a wide stereo sound W The third option is that when playing several Programs at the same time some Programs can appear at the right output only and some at the Left output only Page 58 Shift Functions The Out Mode function can be set to one of four values Mode l In this mode all sounds are mono as described above except if Unison is activated in which case the instrument automatically switches to stereo If one Unison and one non unison Program are lay ered stereo is used Mode 1 is not recommended when using the Nord Lead multitimbrally since one Program can be set to Unison and another not which might lead to a stereo image you might not expect Mode 2 This is a straight Mono mode All Program always appear with equal level at both outputs Mode 3 This is a straight stereo mode All Program always appear with voices alternating between out puts Mode 4 In this mode Programs assigned to slot A and C will appear at the Left output while Program as signed to slot B and D will appear at the Right output This mode can be used when it is desired to treat two sounds differently in an external mixer for example in multitimbral MIDI work or when layering sounds LOCAL This is used to turn Local Control on and off W Local On is the normal Play Mode Y In Local Off mode the front panel actions and your keyboard playing are transmitted via MIDI but are not used to play the synthesizer directly MIDI Input
83. n addition to the Filter Frequency setting This means that if you for example set the Frequency knob half ways the filter will be already half ways open the moment you press a key The envelope will then be used to open the filter further Exactly how much further is determined by the En velope Amount setting Amplitude Frequency Filter Frequency Filter Envelope Setting Amount Setting Total Filter Frequency Page 46 Panel Reference Let s take another example of the relation between Frequency and Envelope Amount If the Filter Fre quency knob is already turned fully right the Envelope Amount setting has no effect at all since the filter is already fully open the moment you press the key Attack Decay Sustain and Release These are the parameters for the Filter Envelope They are identical in functionality to the settings in the Amplifier Envelope described on page 40 Velocity When this switch is activated the Envelope Amount varies with Velocity how hard you play the key board 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 Kbd Track W With this switch turned off the Filter Frequency setting is constant regardless of where on the keyboard you play Y When this switch is activated the filter frequency setting will be higher for higher not
84. n use a standard PCMCIA computer memory card in the slot at the back of the instrument This allows you to save another three Banks for a total of 297 programmable memory slots and 30 programmable Percussion Kit locations and 100 Performances which in practice includes an additional 400 Programs PCMCIA cards are also per fect for backing up making safety copies of important Programs and Performances You can purchase Clavia cards at your Nord Lead dealer These come with sounds for your instrument but can be used to store your won Ask your dealer for the Nord Lead Sound Library Series If you purchase the card at a computer retailer you should ask for this A 64 kilobyte S RAM based bat tery backed PCMCIA card There are cards with larger memory capacity than 64 kByte but using one with the Nord Lead is simply a waste of money Formatting of New Cards For the Nord Lead to be able to use a new PCMCIA card it has to be formatted The instrument will do this for you if you perform the following steps Check that the card is not write protected This is done with a switch located directly on the card Insert the card The display will flash with the letters Fo To format the card press Store Storing Programs On the Card This is nothing different from storing into the internal memory Bank When specifying where to store Pro gram simply select one of the memory slots above 99 as when selecting Programs
85. nes The value is also used to set what effect incoming pitch bend messages should have on the pitch The table below shows you how many semi tones each value in the display represents This parameter is global for all Program slots However it is saved with a Performance Unison Detune U This allows you to set how far detuned the voices should be when you have Unison activated For more info on Unison see page 53 This parameter is global for all Program slots However it is saved with a Performance MIDI Page 67 10 MIDI ABOUT THE MIDI IMPLEMENTATION The following MIDI messages can be transmitted and received from the Nord Lead Notes Y Note On and Off messages are of course transmitted when you play the keyboard If you use the Octave Shift buttons in their Keyboard mode see page 54 you can shift the Nord Lead keyboard 2 octaves giving you an effective keyboard range of 8 octaves Y Notes can be received over the entire MIDI range That is when playing via MIDI you have access to a pitch range wider than 10 octaves Pitch Bend W Pitch Bend messages are always transmitted from the Pitch Stick V The Pitch bend range used when receiving pitch bend messages can be adjusted see page 66 Controllers Y The Modulation wheel is transmitted and received via MIDI as Controller 1 Modulation wheel Y When the Pedal input is used with an Expression pedal this is transmitted as Controller 11
86. oard or via MIDI Con the Program slot s basic MIDI Channel to get any sound The parameters are the same as for the Filter Envelope function see above If this function is activated and no MIDI notes are triggering 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 This differs from the way Velocity Morph is normally applied Normally the velocity is applied each time you press a key With the External Velocity Control function however you can press and hold notes and vary their timbre via the velocity of the incoming notes without releasing the keys that is without re triggering the envelopes 6 gt You can use the Program Select buttons to switch between and 1 The setting means that the function is turned off and 1 means that it is activated The velocity control happens on its own MIDI Channel and note number s completely independent of the MIDI Channel used for defining which keys should be played It can be controlled from all notes on one MIDI Channel or one specific note number on one MIDI Channel see Function 3 above for how to specify the MIDI note number and the MIDI Channel Y When this function is activated and a Note On message comes in the parameters values are adjusted according to the note s V
87. of the vibrato The rate 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 Together with the triangle waveform this creates traditional vibrato Osc 2 This routes the LFO to the pitch of oscillator 2 only This can for example be used together with Sync see page 39 to create a pulsating change in timbre Filter This routes the LFO to the Filter Frequency This can for example be used for wah wah effects tri angle wave and for auto repeating sounds sawtooth wave P Width This routes the output of the LFO to the Pulse Width of both oscillators For this to have any ef fect pulse wave must of course be selected for at least one of the oscillators This destination can be used with an LFO triangle waveform to create a chorus like sound suitable for strings and pads Please note that this function operates relative to the Pulse Width setting For optimal results please match the Pulse Width and LFO Amount settings see below Page 48 Panel Reference Amount This is used to set to what extent the signal from the LFO should be routed to the destination Please note that the Amount can also be controlled from the Modulation wheel see page 52 LFO 2 ARPEGGIATOR LFO 2 ARPEGGIATOR OSC 2 CHO RND OCTI ARP AMP ARP UP OFF ARBON Amt A
88. on your sequencer not the Nord Lead Program Change For the Nord Lead to transmit and receive Program Change messages Program Change must be activat ed see page 59 Y To record a Program Change for a certain Program slot activate recording in the sequencer and simply select a new Program for the slot Y To record a change of Performance go into Performance mode activate recording in the sequencer and select the Performance from the front panel When playing back the Performance Program Change message from the sequencer make sure it gets transmitted on the Nord Lead s Global MIDI Channel see page 60 Controllers For the Nord Lead to transmit and receive Control change messages from the front panel this must be activated see page 59 Modulation wheel and pedal however are always transmitted received Y When you record front panel movements make sure you have the right Program slot activated and that the sequencer echoes the changes back on the right MIDI Channel or your changes will affect the wrong sound W If two or more Program slots are set up to receive on the same MIDI Channel both will be affected by the changes W Please read the note about Controller transmission in Local Off mode on page 58 Some notes about Controllers and Chasing Consider a situation in which you record a Controller message e g a filter opening in the middle of your sequencer song Then you rewind
89. one identically regardless if you are saving an edited Program or if you are saving from Manual mode Saving a Program will permanently overwrite an existing Program Be careful so that you don t acciden tally erase a Program you d like to keep However there is no danger of permanently losing the Factory Programs in RAM locations 01 40 since these are backed up as ROM Performances see page 106 Press the Store button The display flashes Use the Program Up Down button to select a Program number You can play 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 numbers nothing will happen If you change your mind at this point press the Program Slot you want to return to or press the Manual button to return to Manual Mode If you decide to go ahead with overwriting the existing Program press Store again The display stops flashing to indicate the Program has been saved COPYING PROGRAMS Copying Programs between memory slots is just a variation on Storing Select the Program you want to copy 2 Press Store 3 Use the Program Up Down button to specify the memory location you want to copy the program to 4 Press Store again Page 24 Editing Programs USING PCMCIA CARDS If you have the eight voice expansion card installed in your Nord Lead you ca
90. onic number Frequency gt Harmonic number Frequency gt Harmonic number Frequency Page 78 About Subtractive Synthesis In the first the jump happens 5 in from the beginning of the period This is referred to as a pulse wave with a 5 pulse width sometimes called duty cycle The second wave has a pulse width of 10 The third wave has a pulse width of 50 This third wave is a special case of the pulse wave called a square wave and this has one peculiarity it only contains odd number harmonics which gives it a hollow quality On many synthesizers including the Nord Lead the pulse width can be adjusted to set the timbre of the pulse wave The more narrow the pulse width the more thin the sound will be You can also have the pulse width vary continuously for example from an LFO or envelope This is re ferred to as pulse width modulation Modulating pulse widths from an LFO creates a rich chorus like effect often used in string sounds 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 all sound If you for example use the frequency modulation FM capabilities in the Nord Lead with the two oscillators set to an unu sual interval not octaves or fifths for example you will get a spectrum where the overtones appear at frequencies somewhere be
91. ontinuous parameter those controlled with knobs react to velocity You can also set the maximum and minimum boundaries for this yourself Setting The Range Set the parameter to the value you want it to deliver when you play with minimum force Press the Active Set button in the Velocity Morph section The LED over the button will flash indicating that the Nord Lead is in Velocity Learn mode Turn the knob to the value you want it to have at maximum striking force You can try out different settings for maximum velocity until you find the most suitable While the Nord Lead is in Velocity Learn mode you can set ranges for as many parameters as you wish Press the Velocity Morph button again Page 26 Programming Velocity Sensitivity The Velocity Morph LED is now lit to indicate that at least one parameter in the sound is velocity depend ant What you have done now is to set the range the span within which the parameter will change with velocity If you press the Velocity Morph button Velocity morph and move a knob from here to there this range will be the one that the parameter varies within mL Pulse width MANUAL a POLY P HON I 5 Turn the knob back to the value you want it to have when you play with minimum force What you did now was moving the entire range as described below Set the value you want the pa osc Bosc 2 rameter to have when you play SYNC with min
92. ot between the figures indicates a sharp For example F 3 means F 3 Middle C is indicated as C3 The value means that note number is ignored that is all notes on the set MIDI Channel will be used for triggering This value is found below all the number values Guidelines for Using Filter Envelope Triggering Y If you have notes transmitted from your sequencer that you want to use only for triggering the envelope make sure the MIDI Channel you use for this function is not used by any of the Program slots W Please note that if the Velocity function 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 incoming MIDI notes An Example of Filter Envelope Triggering Select a Program for slot A that plays a stable sound with infinite sustain for example a string or pad sound Lower the Filter Cutoff to 0 Raise the Filter Envelope amount and adjust the Filter envelope so that the sound has a short snappy charac ter Hold down Shift and press MIDI Ch Set the MIDI Channel for slot A to I Press each of the other Program slot buttons and set them to MIDI Channel 16 This is just to make sure they do not get used in this example Hold down Shift and press Special Press the Special button until the left digit in the display
93. ple above It is the most common synthesizer filter since it can be used to round off the sharp sound of sawtooth waves and pulse waves Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency Highpass Filter This is the opposite of the lowpass filter It let s the high frequencies of the sound pass through and cuts off the low frequencies This removes bass from a sound without affecting the high end Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency About Subtractive Synthesis Page 81 Bandpass filter This let s frequencies in a certain range of the spectrum the band pass through while dampening frequencies both below and above this range This accentuates the mid range of a sound Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency Notch filter This filter type also known as Band Reject can be seen as the opposite of a band pass filter It cuts off frequencies in a mid range band letting the frequencies below and above through Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency In the Nord Lead the Notch filter is combined with a 12 dB Lowpass filter for greater musical versatility see page 44 Roll off Filters of one and the same type lowpass highpass etc can have different characteristics One of the factors determining the 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
94. power amplifier W If you are using a Nord Rack together with a MIDI keyboard connect a MIDI cable from MIDI Out on the keyboard to MIDI In on the Nord Rack W All signal cables used with the Nord Lead must be shielded W The L R Outputs are line level Midi in Midi out Pedal R out L out Headphone E3 E 9 e Expression pedal Headphones or footswitch ojo o olo o olo oi A oooO OO 7 OJO IOJOlOlOljoloF E OJO o Ojol ojolo OJO Ojo olojolo OO O OO OO S 7 J QC J MIDI equipment sequencer etc Audio equipment mixer PA etc Page 8 Connections CONNECTING A PEDAL W If the Pedal input should be used for sustain a regular footswitch and cable can be used Y If the Pedal input should be used as a replacement for the modulation wheel an expression pedal with a stereo cable should be used Pedal O 3 W For information on how to set the Nord Lead up for sustain or expression pedal see page 17 Bas
95. previous the pitch will change but the envelopes will not start over That is there will be no new at tack Mono This also makes the instrument monophonic But if you press a key without releasing the previous the envelopes are still retriggered like when you release all keys 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 The Unison switch Portamento and LED POLY LEGATO UNISON MONO C es When this is activated more than one voice will be played when you press a key This gives you a fatter sound but at the same time reduces polyphony W If Poly mode is selected two voices are used for each key This allows you to play two notes at the same time on a basic four voice instrument and six notes on an expanded 12 voice instrument W If Mono or Legato mode are selected four voices are used for each key This makes the Program mono phonic Page 54 Panel Reference PORTAMENTO The Portamento Portamento controls POLY LEGATO I NUNIo Ne EONO C es Portamento Time This is used to set how long it takes for the pitch to slide from one pitch to the next If you don t want any Portamento at all set this knob to zero Auto When this is activated LED is lit the pitch only slides if you play legato that is if you play a new key before lifting the previous
96. ram Use the Program Up Down buttons to scroll to the desired Percussion Kit location TUNE OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL Percussion Kit PO selected For detailed information about how to play and edit the Percussion Kits see page 29 USING THE SLOTS TO SWITCH PROGRAMS The four Program Slots A to D can be thought of as four independent synthesizers each capable of play ing one Program or Percussion Kit When you select one of the slots you will switch to play the Program set for that slot For live performance for example you can set up each slot to play a different Program and quickly switch between those four by pressing the buttons A to D Basic Operations Page 15 LAYERING Activating You can play more than one Program at a time Proceed as follows Set up the Program slots to play the Programs you want to use 2 To activate more than one Program slot simply press all the Program Slot buttons you want to use at the same time All those slots LEDs light up The last one you pressed is blinking This will be the one you are editing from the front panel but more on this on page 21 PROGRAM Slots A and D LEDs lit are activated D Slot C LED dark is not activated JODE LOCAL PRG CTRL Slot B blinking is selected Any editing will apply to this Program slot Deactivating To turn of the layer press a slot button that is not part of the layer or press all the buttons that make up th
97. rly on the display In each Bank there are 10 Performances for a total of 100 If you have a PCMCIA card inserted the Banks on the card are found after the internal ROM Banks and labelled in the same way but indicated with a dot to the right of the digits in the dis play 3 If you want to select another Bank A to L hold down Shift and press the Up and Down buttons 4 To select a Performance in the Bank use the Up and Down buttons The Performance is instantly loaded and you can try it out Fora list of the factory Performances see page 102 Use the Up Down buttons to change Performance indicated by the digit 1 9 to the right in the display If you hold down the Shift button you can change Performance Bank A L with the Up Down buttons 0 FILTER SHIFT MoRPH OUT MODE LOCAL PRG CTRL 5 When you are done exit Performance mode by again holding down Shift and pressing Performance Manual Basic Operations Page 15 MONOPHONIC AND POLYPHONIC OPERATION For each Program you can set a Play Mode Poly Mono Legato The exact nature of these modes is de scribed on page 53 To make a sound fatter you can activate Unison This reduces polyphony See page 53 for details Press this button to turn Unison on and off The LED Portamento above the button indicates that Unison is activated POLY a LEGATO C BUNSO ONO eS SYSTEM STEREO MONO If you are using both the Left and Right outputs or hea
98. rp range Rate W For conventional LFO effects vibrato and tremolo this is used to set how fast the LFO should run Y When Echo is selected see below the Rate setting determines the speed i e the delay time between each echo A higher Rate setting gives a faster echo shorter delay time V When arpeggio is selected see below this adjusts the speed of the arpeggio The LFO rate arpeggio speed can also be controlled externally via MIDI see page 61 Destination OSC 1 2 When this is selected LFO 2 produces a triangle wave routed to the pitch of Oscillator 1 and 2 in equal 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 an echo effect by using repeated triggering with decreasing velocity see explanation on the next page Arp Up In this mode LFO 2 works as an arpeggiator The keys pressed on the keyboard will be played one after the other from top to bottom at a speed set with the Rate button For more details see Arp Range below Arp Down As Arp Up but downwards Arp Up Down To get an up down arpeggio press the Destination button until both Arp Up and Arp Down are lit Rnd Arp In this mode ARP Up and Amp LEDs lit Nord Lead will create random arpeggios from the chords you play on the keyboard This means that
99. s of sounds Pulse This waveform is special in that its harmonic contents can be varied continuously by adjusting the Pulse Width see below The pulse wave can also be modulated by LFO 1 This waveform is suitable for many type of sounds but has a more hollow character than the Sawtooth Wave For an introduction to waveforms see page 74 Page 38 Panel Reference OSCILLATOR 2 12 0 12 IN i a _ 36 48 60 Semitones CC KBD TRACK Fine tune Waveform The first three waveform alternatives for Oscillator 2 are identical to those of Oscillator 1 see above But Oscillator 2 has one more waveform alternative Noise and Noise Color With Noise selected Oscillator 2 produces noise rather than a pitched waveform The exact color frequency contents of the noise can be adjusted with the Oscillator 2 Tune knob The further you turn the knob clockwise the brighter the noise will be All the way to the right its fre quency characteristics is very close to that of white noise where all frequencies are represented with equal energy Please note that the sound of the noise is affected by the filter setting as all other sound from the Nord Lead If the filter frequency is turned down adjusting Noise color might not 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 Os
100. scillator 2 pitch Please note you can modulate the pitch of Oscillator 2 in various ways from LFO 1 the Mod Env and from the Mod Wheel for example This can be used to create harmonically var ying timbres with a very characteristic sound Pulse Width This setting only 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 Y When you turn the knob all the way to the left you get a perfect square wave which has a characteristic hollow quality Y When you turn the knob clockwise the sounds gets progressively thinner See page 77 for a general in troduction to pulse waves and pulse widths Pulse Width Modulation Please note that the Pulse Width can be modulated by LFO 1 This creates a sweep ing chorus like effect suitable for pads and string sounds AMPLIFIER AMPLIFIER Y T e e e Attack Sustain Release The Amplifier section is used to adjust the volume of the sound Panel Reference Page 41 The Amplifier Envelope consists of the Attack Decay Sustain and Release parameters The Amplitude En velope is used to give the sound it s basic shape soft slow short long etc for an introduction to enve lopes see page 84 Level Sustain level Time gt ea Attack Decay Release time time time Sea Wve eat gt ui VANI gt
101. should not be a problem when using the echo effect with short sounds but if you play long sus tained notes with echo you could experience notes being cut off by the echo repeats The solution is to lower the Amt setting decrease the number of repeats and possibly play shorter notes W The echo function may give unexpected results if you use another Play mode than Poly For example in Mono mode each sustaining note will be cut off by the next echo repeat and in Legato mode you may end up with no sound at all since new notes will not re trigger Page 50 Panel Reference MODULATION ENVELOPE Destination FM AMT osc2 gt 7 0 Attack Amount This is a simple type of envelope only comprising Attack Decay and Amount controls Level Amount Attack Decay time time Attack This is used to set the time it takes for the envelope to reach full level after you have pressed a key Decay When the attack phase is over the envelope drops back to zero level The Decay knob is used to set how long this should take There s another difference between the way this envelope works compared to the other It will start over from zero each time you press a new key regardless of which value it had when you released the key Amount This is used to set to what degree the envelope should affect the destination This knob is bi polar that is zero amount is in the middle twelve o clock Turnin
102. ssing one of the buttons A to D If you want the connected pedal to duplicate the functionality of the Modulation wheel press the Program Down button until the right character in the display is a dash With this setting the expression pedal will have the same function as the Modulation wheel If you instead want to select an independent control function for the pedal press Store The display will flash showing one of the abbreviations in the table below Page 18 Basic Operations 9 Use the Program Up Down buttons to select one of the following control functions Display shows Pedal assigned to I LFO 1 Amount LI CT Filter Cutoff Frequency Fy FM Amount Fn Oscillator 2 Pitch og 10 After you have made your choice press Store again You return to the E display I 1 Use the Program Up Down buttons to select a control amount value 1 to 7 This value shown to the right of the E in the display determines the range of the pedal control signal Lower values give a smaller difference between the pedal s full up and full down states High values give a big difference between the pedal s up and down states 2 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 is se
103. t some common waveforms and their spectra In the illustrations below only some of the first harmonics are displayed In reality waveforms like 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 high amplitude which makes this waveform sound bright Amplitude A Amplitude Time gt Harmonic number 10 20 30 40 Frequency Triangle The triangle wave does not have very strong harmonics Furthermore they only appear at odd harmonic numbers The first fact makes the tone pure a bit like a flute and the second fact gives the sound a slight ly hollow character Amplitude A Amplitude Tme Harmonic number 10 20 30 40 Frequency About Subtractive Synthesis Pulse Wave Page 77 The pulse wave is slightly more complicated because it is not one waveform it is many different ones A pulse wave is a waveform that during one period jumps 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 Amplitude A Amplitude 5 Time gt 95 10 20 30 Amplitude A A Amplitude 0 Time gt 90 10 20 30 Amplitude A a Amplitude 50 Time gt 50 10 20 30 40 40 40 gt Harm
104. the notes in the chord are played back one at a time but in random order and in random octaves Panel keference Page 49 Amt Arp range Y When Osc 1 2 or Filter is selected for destination this knob is used to control the amount of vibrato Y When Echo is selected this knob determines the number of echo repeats 0 8 Y When any type of arpeggio is selected this knob is used to set the octave range of the arpeggio as the panel indicates The Off position turns off the arpeggio completely You can select if you want the generated arpeggio notes to also be sent to MIDI Out See page 59 About the Echo function It is important to understand that the Echo function is not the same as a regular audio delay What hap pens when you play a note with Echo activated is that the same note is triggered played again the set number of times with gradually decreasing velocity This has the following consequences W If the sound you are playing 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 Y On the other hand it is fully possible to use the Velocity Morph function to make the sound change com pletely with the echo repeats making the function ideal for special effects Y The echo consumes polyphony i e each echo repeat steals one voice just as if you had played the repeats from the keyboard yourself This
105. till built out of the same modules or building blocks as they were decades ago We will now take a closer look at these building blocks Let s first talk about the three that actually create and process sound Oscillator The Oscillator is actually the only thing in a synthesizer that actually produces any sound all the other modules only shape the sound from the oscillator The oscillator is a bit like the string on a string instru ment it vibrates to create sound Filter The signal from the oscillator is sent through the Filter which shapes the timbre of the sound to make it bright dull thin etc Amplifier The Amplifier shapes the volume of the sound making it soft or hard slow or short In addition to these major three modules all synthesizers also have modulators devices that can make the volume timbre pitch and other qualities of sound vary continuously when you play a key It is these modulators that basically add animation to the sound taking it from a dull organ drone to a dynamic and interesting timbre The two most common modulators are Envelopes and LFOs Page 74 About Subtractive Synthesis Envelopes An envelope is used to give a sound a shape If you apply an envelope to the amplifier which controls the volume you are able to make the sound for example slowly fade in and then fade out when you press and hold a key LFOs LFO is an abbreviation
106. to 85 Mod Envelope 50 Demo Play 9 Destination LFO 1 47 LFO 2 48 Mod Envelope 50 Drum Kits Copying Sounds To and From 31 Editing 30 Playing 29 Selecting 29 Dump One All 71 E Echo 49 Envelope Amplifier 40 Filter Amount 45 Introduction to 74 Expression Pedal 17 F Filter Introduction to 73 79 Triggering Envelope via MIDI 62 Type 42 Velocity 25 Fine Tune 38 FM Amount 39 Frequency Filter 44 Frequency Modulation 39 G Gain 41 H Headphone 7 Highpass 43 SO HP 24dB 43 110 K Kbd Track Keyboard Tracking Filter 46 Osc 2 59 L L out 7 Layering 15 Layers Playing via MIDI 69 Legato 53 LFO 1 47 LFO 1 Synchronizing to MIDI Clock 61 LFO 2 48 LFO 2 Synchronizing to MIDI Clock 62 LFO Introduction to 74 Local Control 58 Lowpass 42 SO LP 45 LP 12dB 42 LP 24 dB 43 M Manual 22 Master Tune 16 MIDI 59 MIDI Channel Global 60 68 Program Slot 59 Program slot 68 With Sequencer 69 MIDI Connections 7 69 Modulation Envelope 50 Modulation wheel Destination 52 Morphing From 28 Using 15 Mono Mode 15 53 Out Mode 57 Output 15 Morphing 28 52 N Noise 38 Notch LP 44 Index 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 6 MIDI Transmission and reception 67 Morphing 28 Setting Up 17 Performances Defined 36 Editing 34 Introduction to 33 MIDI Transmission and
107. tween the perfect harmonics This results in an inbarmonic sound which of ten sounds metallic Amplitude Amplitude Tme Harmonic number Frequency Sync One some instruments including the nord Lead two Oscillators can be synchronized If you for exam ple synchronize Oscillator 2 to Oscillator 1 Oscillator 2 will start over with a new period of the waveform each time Oscillator 1 does so If Oscillator 2 then has a higher frequency than 1 it will get a complex waveform that depends both on its own pitch and on that of the other oscillator Oscillator Oscillator 2 synchronized About Subtractive Synthesis Page 79 THE When sync is applied the basic pitch of Oscillator 2 is locked to that of Oscillator 1 If you change the pitch of Oscillator 1 you will affect the basic pitch of both oscillators Furthermore when you vary the pitch of the synchronized oscillator Oscillator 2 this will be perceived as a change in timbre rather than in pitch This leads to a spectrum with deep resonances at Osc2 s harmonics like this Amplitude A Osc 2 Harmonics ae Harmonic number 10 20 30 40 Frequency If you go even further and let the pitch of the synchronized oscillator vary continuously for example from an LFO or envelope you will change the harmonic content of the sound in an interesting and very characteristic way FILTER The f
108. up the receiving device so that it accepts System Exclusive data To Dump Performances enter Performance Mode see page 33 To Dump Programs or Percussion Kits make sure you are not in Performance mode If you want to transmit one Program Performance only select it If needed set the other device to its recording mode Hold down the Shift button and press Dump One Oct Shift to transmit the current Program Perform ance only or Dump All Oct Shift to transmit all Programs Performances To receive a Bulk Dump proceed as follows Connect a cable from MIDI Out on the transmitting device to MIDI In on the Nord Lead If you are about to receive a complete Bank you need to scroll to a program number in the Bank single Sound Bank or Performance Bank you want to replace with the received Bank Initiate the transmission on the transmitting device If the dump contained a complete Bank it will take the place of the selected Bank in the Nord Lead If the dump contained one Program Performance only this will be put in the edit buffer of the active slot instead of the Program Performance you were playing However it is not saved permanently To save it use Store as described on page 23 and page 35 Remember that any Percussion Kits in a Performance will only be included as references when you dump the Performance If you want to dump Percussion Kits including all parameters you h
109. which is referred to as 1 pole The next step up is 12dB 2 poles 18db 3 poles etc The most common synth filters are the 12dB and 24dB lowpass filters The difference between the two can be studied in the graph below The 12dB filter let s more of the high frequency pass through which gives the sound a brighter and buzzier character than the 24dB filter does Amplitude alc Cutoff Frequency Ce ma m m s m m an a a am a aa m aa iii Y 1248 2 pole 24dB 4 pole Frequency In the Nord Lead the lowpass filter can be switched between 12 and 24dB modes For sounds with high resonance see below similar to those in the Roland TB 303 we recommend the 12dB variation For most other sounds we recommend 24dB Page 52 About Subtractive Synthesis Cutoff Frequency The most important parameter for a filter is its cutoff frequency which is the setting that determines where in the frequency material it should start cutting If the cutoff frequency in a low pass filter is set to a very low value only the lowest harmonics the bass will pass through If you raise the cutoff all the way up all frequencies will be let through as the figure below illustrates Amplitude Filter Frequency Frequency Changing the cutoff frequency is often referred to as sweeping the filter This is probably one of the most important ways of shaping the timbre of a synth
110. wn in the picture on page 8 the Pedal input accepts either a foot switch or an expression pedal The procedures for setting up and using a connected foot pedal differs depending on the pedal type Using a Foot Switch A connected foot switch works as a sustain pedal Set it up as follows Hold down the Shift button and press the System button Press the System button until the left digit in the display is P j Sustain pedal closed when pressed and 2 Sustain Pedal open when pressed Press the Shift button again Using an Expression pedal As indicated in the illustration on page 8 a regular expression pedal can be connected using a stereo ca ble The connected pedal will either duplicate the Modulation wheel or independently control one of a number of parameters Set it up as follows Hold down the Shift button and press the System button Press the System button until the left digit in the display is P Use the Program Up Down buttons to switch the right digit to E This tells the Nord Lead that the connected pedal is supposed to be an expression pedal Now it s time to assign a control function for the pedal While holding down the Shift button press the Special button Press the Special button repeatedly until the left character in the display is an E for Expression Pedal Select a slot for which you want to set the pedal function by pre
111. ypes It has the standard main Frequency and Resonance control The At tack Decay Sustain and Release parameters make up the Filter Envelope These together with the En velope Amount knob can be used to make the Filter frequency vary as the sound progresses when you press and hold a key For an introduction to filters 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 Frequency setting and various oth er controls as described below In the 12dB low pass mode the filter has a gentle roll off curve 12dB 2poles This mode leaves more harmonics than the 24dB variation discussed below This type of filter has been used in various Oberhe im synthesizers and others Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency Panel keference Page 43 LP 24 dB This is the classic synth filter used in the Minimoog and Prophet 5 among others It cuts out high frequencies rather drastically 24db 4 poles Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency HP 24dB HP stands for high pass This filter is the opposite of the lowpass filter that is it lets the high frequencies pass and cuts out low frequencies The filter has a rather steep curve Amplitude Fc Cutoff Frequency Frequency BP To select this type of filter press the Filter Type button until both the HP and LP
112. ys to change the frequency of an oscillator Y By making settings on the front panel On the Nord Lead for example you have an Oct Shift setting for both oscillators and separate Semitone and Fine Tune adjustments for Oscillator 2 Y By playing the keyboard The keyboard is if course connected to the oscillator so that pressing different key produces different pitches In some cases this connection can be turned off so that the oscillator always plays the same pitch regardless of which key is pressed In the Nord Lead this can be done for Oscillator 2 by deacti vating Kbd Track Y By Modulation Modulation allows you to make the pitch vary automatically The most common example is probably to use an LFO to make pitch go up and down to create a vibrato But you can also put the pitch under envelope control or make the pitch vary with your striking force velocity Waveform The waveform of the oscillator affects its harmonic content and thereby its sound quality timbre The three most common waveforms are sawtooth 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 Mathematically all waveforms can be considered as built from a number of harmonics added together Each of the harmonics consists of a sine wave the purest and simple waveform there is a sine wav

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents

201510公立はこだて未来大学市民公開講座  osmoseur samap mode d`emploi et notice d`utilisation - Samap-eco  exhibitor prospectus - International Wireless Communication Expo    Leica M9 Instruction Manual  Plato magnético circular de imán permanente  Portraits en série  SIXXIS SX 5000 PRO MANUAL  くらしの情報  Targus Trek 15.6''  

Copyright © All rights reserved. Failed to retrieve file