Learn the Nord Stage 3 Synth Engine (Part 5) | Tutorial / Training 

Hi Marc. I have been watching your instructional videos for a number of months now, while I try to save my pennies to purchase a North Stage 3 Compact. I want to let you know that I have thoroughly enjoyed them all, and I know that I will be using them as important references down the road! Also, as someone who taught high school & 1st-year college-level Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, and Geology for 30+ years, I must let you know how impressed I am with your videos from an educator's perspective. I know how much work goes into learning a subject well enough to teach it in an organized & thorough fashion, and I am well-aware of just how much time it takes to prep for a lesson. So, I certainly admire your effort & commitment towards helping others get well on their way towards mastering a very complex keyboard & getting the most out of this musical instrument. Not only that, but (FWIW), your instructional videos are inviting, engaging, perfectly paced, clearly voiced, and have just the right amount of detail. The sequence (no pun intended) you chose for the topics works well, and the visuals you have included are helpful & never superfluous, e.g. I found your use of the Garage Band spectrum analyzer most helpful when you explained the different kinds of filters & modulation of the filter settings. In my humble opinion, your series of videos on Nord keyboards outclasses all other instructional videos I have seen on YT about any musical instrument...not just videos about Nord keyboards...I mean all how-to videos about any instrument. Kudos! One more topic...I did want to share a bit of info regarding the use of white or pink noise in synth sound design, which you discussed in a previous instructional video. (BTW, my sincere apologies if the followimg is redundant in any way, e.g you are already aware of what follows, and/or I missed you making the following points previously.) There are some very good reasons why a source of white and/or pink noise is found in some synthizers. The addition of a low but audible amount of noise to a signal from one or more oscillators will not do much for the sound if there is no ADSR envelope applied or there is no modulation of the filter settings, however as soon as either or both of those are employed, the noise can add a breath-like sound on top of the tone(s) created by the oscillator(s). As anyone who has tried to close-mic a brass/woodwind instrument or human voice quickly learns, the sound we hear from a brass/woodwind instrument or human voice is not the just the instrument's fundamental & harmonics, but also 'noise' from moving air. So, if the patch being created is intended to be similar to a brass or wind instrument, or has to mimic a vocal sound, then the noise component can give the listener a sense of air being moved prior to, during, and just after the instrument's/voice's fundamental & harmonics are produced. So, adding noise can enhance realism & even augment the emotional content of the sound we hear. A great example of this is the Japanese "Shakuhachi", which IMHO projects an atmosphere of mystery & perhaps tension, or even suggests spiritual reflection. A synth patch based on a sampled Shakuhachi that many people will remember well is the unique sound that opens the unedited album version of the Peter Gabriel hit, "Sledgehammer", then is reprised during the outro of the song. IMHO, the sound of the Shakuhachi invokes (or reinforces) an emotional undercurrent in the song that is more easily missed if the intro is edited out (as it was in some 'single' versions) Finally, noise on its own, or in conjuction with another brief tone, can be shaped by an ADSR envelope and/or a modulated filter to create very useful percussive sounds, e.g. the sound of a snare drum, open hi-hat, or cymbal produced by some drum machines. So, like beauty. the value of noise is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. :)

Wow! Beginning a tutorial with the Cinema Show is a plus!!! I'm playing in a band covering Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Camel... And NOW I'm able for the fisrt time to build my own lead sounds from scratch!!! Thanks a lot for your videos. Very helpful and instructive! 👍🎹🍺

Love the Tony Banks example!

A great instructor. Remarkable. Thanks

Thanks for the videos. Really enjoying them and learning a lot about my Nord. Just to clear something up though; the solo you're playing whilst part of the In The Cage live medley is originally actually from The Cinema Show. Love the fact you are playing it and demoing it all the same though. Thanks again.

My first Nord Stage was 2005, and I’ve worked my way all the way through to the 3. I have however been lazy about the synthesizer section. I know enough about synthesis from the 70s with my ARP Odyssey, but not nearly enough to be honest. So I simply want to thank you for allowing me the chance to learn things correctly from the beginning. This is truly opened up so many windows and opportunities for sound creation. I recommend this series to even very experienced synthesizer players. It forces you out of your comfort zone by incrementally re-learning the basics. Thank you thank you thank you

Very comprehensive and clear Marc .... Nice production values.

Full Tony Banks sound tutorials would be a great direction for the channel 😉 Great lesson as always!

Thanks for your last reply , Marc - after mentioning "In The Cage" in your last reply, you've provided a taster of it here. I have Genesis's studio albums, but not any of their live releases; I must investigate this further. Best wishes, Mark

Marc, apologies for misspelling your name with a K instead of a C in a previous question!! I just wanted to mention that if you wanted to get even more Tony Banks effect on the organ, add some C3 (chorus) to it, turn Leslie rotor on but slow (rather than fast) and drive at 1. Percussion off. Best wishes!

Fantastic smart to separate voice and arpeggiator

Hi, Mark. I have a question for you. Why glide on NS3 has no always-on/always-off mode? In mono/legato mode I want to have flexibility when I use glide. For example, in mono mode i want always-off glide (when I'm playing staccato there is no glide). But in NS3 in mono mode is always-on glide, in legato mode is always-off glide. I have no flexibility in glide mode.

Hi and thanks again Marc! I have a request about the piano. I bought a Yamaha mm8 eight years ago and no piano sound on the nord stage 3 isn't nearly as thick and clear as the ones on the mm8. So my question as a stage 3 owner, can you make the sound in the piano section thicker, more bottom, clearer and punch. I tried the soft, mid and bright filter but the sound is still pretty thin and I haven't had any luck with the eq section either.. Please please please make a video about this if you know anything about it.. All the best / Seb

Hi Marc! First of all: big fan of your work here. Well, a few years ago I bought Nord Stage 3, but Revision B and since then, I've never been able to activate any glide, either mono or legato. When I press the button for that mode, it does not turn on. I've watched all your videos, but since mine is Rev B, I never found the answer to this question. Could you help me? Regards, Dan.

Marc, what exactly are the Attack, Decay & Envelope levels for the Amplitude and Modulation envelopes for the Genesis Cinema Show sound?? Any velocity on either?? Thanks as always!

Awesome tutorials! One question: do you know how to (if it's possible) to have PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) in the Stage 3, somehow?

Mark, great you did this one which seemed to slip by me. A huge Genesis and TB fan, I bought the Stage 3 Compact for the sole reason that I could do Tony Banks’ keyboards or 2 different ones on one board. Very helpful. I have a question regarding a few tracks prior on that same album - Follow You, Follow Me. I take it you must be familiar with that track? If you notice after his ARP solo which for the duration of the song up to that point is monophonic (mono or Legato)with the right hand the song suddenly at the 3rd chorus switches to polyphonic. My question is two fold, can you still have glide when it is in polyphonic mode (legato/mono turned off)? It seems that the glide disappears if it isn’t in mono or Legato modes. 2nd - can a program foot switch change that parameter from mono/legato to polyphony because that change in the song occurs so quick that the hand would not be able to make the change in ample time? Thanks. PS - can the sample library be edited? I’m trying to organize my sample library with all the deletions and additions I’ve done and the rename button is grayed out. Thanks again Mark, Scott

Hi Marc, another great video, thanks! Quick question - if someone sends you a Dropbox file with a sample in it, how do we get it on the keyboard? Do I drag to my comp, and upload to the keyboard through the USB? Or do I have to use the Nord library first?