Clavia NL2xR Chapter 3 – Make The Connection

Model and Global MIDI Channel

Before we kick off with MIDI setup, choose your Model [1] from the plug-in display and set Global MIDI Channel [2] to 5 (if using Nord 1 / 2) or 16 (if using Nord 2X).

Nord Lead / Nord Lead 2

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Nord 1 or Nord 2 specific MIDI setting

Nord Lead 2X

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Nord 2X specific MIDI setting

Selecting MIDI In and MIDI Out

First choose MIDI IN [1], where your NORD MIDI Out is connected in at. Then choose MIDI OUT [2] which will send data to your NORD MIDI Input.

NL2xR Editor User Manual – MIDI In and Out Options

After setting MIDI OUT, plug-in will scan for the hardware and plug-in Control Display will say “Plug-in is ready to go!” if everything is set accordingly.

If something in your settings is wrong, Plug-in Control Display [1] will inform you that the process has timed out or no response from hardware!

NL2xR Editor User Manual – No Response

Synchronize DATA from your synthesizer to plug-in

Open LIBRARIAN [1] window and click SYNC DATA FROM HW [2] button to request current current data from the NORD to the plug-in user interface.

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Initial Data Sync to User Interface

Plug-in will now request the currently active hardware data to the plug-in user interface. This is quite important in order to make program changes and / or send data to your synthesizer from the librarian.

Click LIBRARIAN button again after data is synchronized to start tweaking your sounds!

TIP #1: Be patient and do not disturb the data flow with any knob movements or so. This will ensure the data packages are being sent and received as expected and you are not going to receive any SysEx error messages!

Playing each Slot individually (4 NORDs in 1 huh!?)

In case you did not know, Nord Lead / Rack have four individual slots (also referred to as “layers”), which can be triggered separately. This is quite easy thing to setup, and we’ve got this covered in the manual too.

Playing it multitimbral

• Set each of the slots [1] MIDI channel [2] to different value as instructed in previous chapter;

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Slot MIDI Channel

See further instructions below for each OS…

[mac]: … Add four empty MIDI tracks to your DAW and point the MIDI output directly to your NORD MIDI port, each with corresponding channel mentioned above (channel 1 to 4)!
NOTE: If you play notes / sequence blocks directly through the plug-in, there is no delay compensation applied.

[pc]: … Add four empty MIDI tracks to your DAW and point them to virtual out port i.e. NR2 vMIDI Out, each with corresponding channel mentioned above (channel 1 to 4)!

Now if you choose MIDI track 1 (NORD channel 1) from your DAW and play some notes, you will hear the patch from Slot 1 being played.
Now choose MIDI track 2 (NORD channel 2) from your DAW and when you play it, you will hear the patch from Slot 2 being played!

If Slot LINK [1] toggled ON, then you will hear both layers at the same time, but only when MIDI is triggered from the Global MIDI Channel (also used for Link channel). Toggle OFF the slot Link in order to play parts individually if that is your thing!

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Slot Link Toggle

We will be covering Slot Link function more in the Functions of custom added controls.

DAW Config Scenario

Below you can see how NL2xR Plug-in is on Instrument Track [1] and how NR2 MIDI 1 -> 4 [2] are routed in Studio One to play each part separately directly to hardware MIDI out ports. MIDI track 1 points to NORD channel 1 whereas MIDI track 2 points to NORD channel 2 etc.

Audio from NORD is routed to my Apollo Quad inputs [3] and monitoring should be activated on Studio One to hear the synth when played!

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Studio One with NL2xR Editor

Taking things even further

Most synths with Multitimbral functions come with individual outputs. Well, NORD can do MONO output for each slot from the main edit interface. Select appropriate Output Mode [1] from the dropdown menus.

NL2xR Editor User Manual -Output options

Read more about the Output Modes from the NORD User Manual.

ADVANCED MIDI SETTINGS

You can control which messages gets processed and which do not. Open PERFORMANCE SETTINGS [1] window and click ADV. MIDI SETTINGS [2] button in the plug-in user interface.

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Advanced MIDI Settings Switch

You can block messages being processed from DAW or from the Synthesizer itself. Settings seen in the image below are default values.

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Advanced MIDI Settings

Advanced Incoming MIDI settings

Allow certain MIDI messages to pass into plug-in processor within Incoming MIDI setting section. Green check mark means it will be processed and when there is no check mark, it will be bypassed. Process DAW messages [1] and Process Hardware messages [2] has their own set of data “filters” [3-9] available as follows:

• [10] Part LEDs tracks incoming MIDI and SysEx messages
  When green check mark is on, incoming data from DAW and Hardware ports is monitored and LED indicator will flash when data is coming in. When check mark is off, outgoing data is being monitored.
  Check LEDs Off function to disable.

Note #1: If you disable Control Changes and System Exclusive messages from Hardware port, your plug-in might stop responding to hardware knob movements completely.

Advanced Outgoing MIDI settings

In Outgoing MIDI settings section, you can adjust few options to fine tune the plug-in behavior.

Send all MIDI data from Plug-in:

• Directly to Hardware [1] = Send all MIDI related command directly to hardware from the MIDI output port.
• With attempt to match DAW buffer setting [2] = experimental attempt to sync with DAW time.
  • Manual Buffer [3] = Displays the DAW buffer size – Use the -/+ knob [4] to fine tune.

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Advanced MIDI Out Options

MIDI Clock (experimental)

We are experimenting to add general MIDI clock to the plug-in by standard feature. This might crash on some systems on a specific setups, so be cautious when using it.

Check Send Sequencer Start / Stop Commands [1] if you want to send MTC start and stop commands.
Check Send Continuous MIDI Clock information [2] if you want to sync MIDI clocked Effects and Arpeggiator to plug-in tempo information.

NL2xR Editor User Manual – Advanced MIDI Clock Settings

Note #1: The clock with the plug-in might be inaccurate, so if you have another solution to sync clock information from your DAW to the hardware, use that instead.