Part No.

2700,2000

Owner’s Manual
Sof tware V
Software ersion 2.0x
Version

b y C l a v i a D M I A B
 The lightning flash with the arrowhead symbol within an
CAUTION AVIS equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the
presence of uninsulated voltage within the products
RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute
DO NOT OPEN a risk of electric shock to persons.
RISQUE DE SHOCK ELECTRIQUE
Le symbole éclair avec le point de flèche à l´intérieur d´un triangle
NE PAS OUVRIR équilatéral est utilisé pour alerter l´utilisateur de la presence à
l´intérieur du coffret de ”voltage dangereux” non isolé d´ampleur
suffisante pour constituer un risque d`éléctrocution.
CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRIC
SHOCK DO NOT REMOVE COVER (OR BACK).
The exclamation mark within an equilateral triangle is
NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE. intended to alert the user to the presence of important
REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED PERSONNEL. operating and maintenance (servicing) instructions in the
ATTENTION:POUR EVITER LES RISQUES DE CHOC literature accompanying the product.
ELECTRIQUE, NE PAS ENLEVER LE COUVERCLE.
Le point d´exclamation à l´intérieur d´un triangle équilatéral est
AUCUN ENTRETIEN DE PIECES INTERIEURES PAR L´USAGER. employé pour alerter l´utilisateur de la présence d´instructions
CONFIER L´ENTRETIEN AU PERSONNEL QUALIFE. importantes pour le fonctionnement et l´entretien (service) dans le
AVIS: POUR EVITER LES RISQUES D´INCIDENTE OU livret d´instructions accompagnant l´appareil.

D´ELECTROCUTION, N´EXPOSEZ PAS CET ARTICLE A LA PLUIE

OU L´HUMIDITET.

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 7. The product should be connected to a power supply only
should always be followed, including the following: of the type described in these operation instructions or as
marked on the product.
1. Read all the instructions and observe the graphic symbols
above before using the product. 8. The power supply cord of the product should be unplugged
from the outlet when the product is left unused for a long
2. Do not use this product near water - for example near a period of time.
bathtub, washbowl, kitchen sink, in a wet basement, near or
in a swimming pool, a swamp or the like. 9. Care should be taken so that objects do not fall, or liquids
are not spilled into the enclosure through openings.
3. This product should be used only with a cart or a stand that
is recommended by the manufacturer. 10. The product should be serviced by qualified service
personnel when:
4. This product, either alone or in combination with an
amplifier and headphones or speakers may be perfectly A. The power supply cord has been damaged; or
capable of producing sound levels that could cause permanent B. Objects have fallen or liquids have been spilled
hearing loss. Do not operate for a long period of time at a onto the product; or
high volume level or at a level that is uncomfortable. If you C. The product has been exposed to rain; or
experience any hearing loss or ringing in the ears, you should D. The product does not appear to operate normally or
consult an audiologist. exhibits a marked change in performance; or
E. The product has been dropped or the enclosure
5. The product should be located so that its location or has been damaged.
position does not interfere with or obstruct its normal flow of
ventilation. 11. Do not attempt to service the product beyond those
means described in this operating manual. All other
6. The product should be located away from heat sources such servicing should be referred to qualified service personnel.
as radiators, heat registers or other products that produce
heat.

Trademarks: The Nord Electro logo is trademark of Clavia DMI AB. All other
trademarks mentioned in this publication are the properties of their respective holders.

Specifications and appearances are subject to change without notice.

Copyright by Clavia DMI AB, 2001

NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x Table of contents

Table of contents

1. Introduction ......................................................... 5
Welcome ....................................................................................... 5
About the Owner’s Manual ......................................................................................................5
Reading the manual in Adobe Acrobat Reader..........................................................................5
Clavia on the Internet ............................................................... 6

2. Overview ................................................................ 7
The Nord Electro 2 front panel .............................................. 7
The left panel section................................................................................................................7
The Organ section ....................................................................................................................8
The Instrument Select button...................................................................................................8
The Piano section .....................................................................................................................8
The Effects section....................................................................................................................8
The Keyboard...........................................................................................................................8
Nord Electro 2 rear panel ....................................................... 9
Connections .............................................................................................................................9
Nord Electro 2 block diagram
diagram................................................
................................................ 11

3. Getting started ..................................................12

..................................................12
Selecting Programs ................................................................. 12
Octave Shift .............................................................................. 12
Transpose .................................................................................. 13
Using a sustain pedal .............................................................. 13
Setting up the sustain pedal polarity .......................................................................................13
Setting up the sustain pedal configuration ..............................................................................14
Using a Rotor Speed switch pedal ......................................... 14
Using a control (expression) pedal pedal........................................
........................................ 14
Basic MIDI settings .................................................................. 15
About the dynamic ranges of the Pianos Pianos...............................
............................... 15

I
Table of contents NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

4. Editing Programs ............................................... 16

What’s a Program? ....................................................................16
....................................................................16
Editing a Program .....................................................................16
.....................................................................16
The knobs.............................................................................................................................. 16
The buttons ........................................................................................................................... 16
Selecting instrument (Organ or Piano)................................................................................... 17
Reverting to the original Program .........................................17
.........................................17
Storing a Program ....................................................................17
....................................................................17
Copying Programs .....................................................................18
.....................................................................18
Deleting Programs ....................................................................18
....................................................................18
Downloading Programs via MIDI MIDI..............................................
..............................................18
..............................................18

5. Panel reference ................................................. 19

The Organ section.....................................................................
section .....................................................................19
.....................................................................19
The Drawbars ........................................................................................................................ 20
Drawbar presets ..................................................................................................................... 20
User Drawbar presets ............................................................................................................. 21
Percussion.............................................................................................................................. 21
Vibrato .................................................................................................................................. 22
Manual .................................................................................................................................. 22
Swell control (from expression pedal)..................................................................................... 23
Rotary Speaker....................................................................................................................... 23
Key click control .................................................................................................................... 24
Output routing (hard pan)..................................................................................................... 24
The Piano section ......................................................................25
......................................................................25
Type ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Presence ................................................................................................................................. 26
Presence with the Mega Clavinet sound ................................................................................. 26
Output routing (hard pan)..................................................................................................... 27
The Effects section ..................................................................28
..................................................................28
Modulations .......................................................................................................................... 29
Effects.................................................................................................................................... 30
Overdrive............................................................................................................................... 31
Rotary Speaker....................................................................................................................... 31
Output Level ......................................................................................................................... 31
Treble & Bass ........................................................................................................................ 32
The left panel section ..............................................................32
..............................................................32
Master Level .......................................................................................................................... 32
Navigator buttons .................................................................................................................. 32
Display .................................................................................................................................. 32
Store ...................................................................................................................................... 32
Program buttons .................................................................................................................... 32
Octave Shift........................................................................................................................... 33
The Shift button .................................................................................................................... 33

II
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x Table of contents

System functions ...................................................................... 33

MIDI Ch................................................................................................................................33
Lower Ch................................................................................................................................34
Local.......................................................................................................................................34
Tune.......................................................................................................................................35
Mem Lock ..............................................................................................................................35
Transpose ...............................................................................................................................35
Ped. Pol ..................................................................................................................................36
Config ....................................................................................................................................36
Key click control.....................................................................................................................37
Output routing (hard pan) .....................................................................................................37
Dump.....................................................................................................................................38
Panic.......................................................................................................................................38

6. Factory Presets and OS....................................

OS....................................39
....................................39
Internal memory........................................................................
memory ........................................................................ 39
Factory presets ........................................................................ 39
Restoring the factory presets ...................................................................................................39
Downloading Piano instruments via USB USB...............................
............................... 39
OS upgrades .............................................................................. 39

7. MIDI functions ....................................................40

....................................................40
About the MIDI implementation ............................................... 40
Note On/Off ..........................................................................................................................40
Pitch Bend..............................................................................................................................40
Controllers..............................................................................................................................40
Keyboard Velocity ..................................................................................................................40
Program Change.....................................................................................................................40
MIDI Sysex (System Exclusive) ..............................................................................................41
Using Nord Electro 2 with a sequencer ............................... 41
Connections ...........................................................................................................................41
Local On/Off..........................................................................................................................41
MIDI channel.........................................................................................................................41
Program Change.....................................................................................................................41
Controllers..............................................................................................................................41
Some notes about Controllers and “Chasing” .........................................................................41
Program and Controller dumps ............................................. 42
Receive MIDI Sysex Dumps ...................................................................................................43

8. MIDI implementation ...........................................44

...........................................44
MIDI Controller list ................................................................ 44
MIDI Implementation Chart ...................................................... 47

Index ........................................................................49
........................................................................49

III
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 1. Introduction: Welcome

1. INTRODUCTION
WELCOME
We’d first like to thank you for purchasing the Nord Electro 2 - Virtual Electromechanical stage key-
board. Clavia’s goal when developing the Nord Electro instrument was to create the best emulations of
traditional electromechanical keyboard instruments on the market, and to make the instrument compact
and lightweight. Nothing else. No brass banks, no orchestral sounds. No compromises. Just outstanding
electromechanical keyboard sounds with true feel, from natural keyboard response to authentic sound.
To make a great tool you have to put all the7 focus on a few things, and that’s what we did with the Elec-
tro. Think about it, the best tool isn’t a Swiss army knife.

The organ section in the Electro is based on a digital simulation of the mechanical tone wheels of the B-
3 organ. It offers innovative solutions to mimic the typical B-3 sound, for example:

• An extremely accurate digital model of the original chorus and vibrato scanner.

• Modeling of the individual random contact bounces for each partial.

• Modeling of the unique frequency characteristics of the built-in pre-amplifier which forms the ”body”
of the B-3 sound.

• Simulation of the energy stealth on the tone wheels that results in the typical ”compressed” sound.

The piano section in Nord Electro 2 OS V2.0 comprises five carefully multi-sampled electric piano in-
struments: Clavinet D6, Wurlitzer 200A, Rhodes Mk I Stage Piano, a Rhodes Mk I Suitcase Piano with
a brighter sound and the custom modified Clavia Electric Grand Model G. The Electro features a unique
multi-sample playback, catching every nuance from soft to hard key strokes. Nord Electro comes right
out of the box with these five electric piano sounds stored in Flash memory. As an extra bonus we also
included an acoustic grand piano (concert model) - in stereo! The big advantage with Flash memory is
that you can replace instruments with new ones and that no backup battery is required. The Electro also
sports a USB interface for quick and easy download of new piano sounds. On the CD-R that comes with
the Electro 2 there are currently three additional Piano sounds: Rhodes3 (Shallow), CP-80 Electric Grand
and the previous Acoustic Grand (in mono). More pianos will be available soon at http://www.clavia.se.

ABOUT THE OWNER’S MANUAL

The manual is arranged mainly as a reference manual. In many cases you’ll get tips on how to practically
use the functions, alone and also together with other functions. Every time the manual wants your atten-
tion to an object on the Electro, the name of that object will be printed LIKE THIS, e.g. ‘press the STORE
button’. The LED display on Nord Electro is always referred to as the DISPLAY. Whenever there is a ref-
erence to the ‘keyboard’, that reference also applies to any incoming MIDI note messages.

READING THE MANUAL IN ADOBE ACROBAT READER

This manual is also available in the digital PDF-file format. It can be downloaded, free of charge, from
Clavia’s web site at http://www.clavia.se. When reading the manual as PDF-file, you will need Adobe Ac-
robat Reader 4.0 or later. This program can be downloaded, free of charge, at http://www.adobe.com.

Page 5
1. Introduction: Clavia on the Internet NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

With Adobe Acrobat Reader it is possible to use special navigation features like hyperlinks. This means
that you can click with the mouse on a word or sentence and automatically get to the location indicated
by the word/sentence. To better show what words or sentences are hyperlinked in this manual, these
words are written in magenta.

CLAVIA ON THE INTERNET

If you have access to the Internet, you’re very welcome to visit http://www.clavia.se. There you will find
the latest information about Nord Electro 2 and other Clavia products. In the future you’ll also be able
to download new Nord Electro sounds and software upgrades, free of charge.

Page 6
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 2. Overview: The Nord Electro 2 front panel

2. OVERVIEW
THE NORD ELECTRO 2 FRONT PANEL

Left panel section The Organ section The Piano section The Effects section

THE LEFT PANEL SECTION

MASTER LEVEL
The MASTER LEVEL knob controls the output level from the two OUT jacks and the HEADPHONES out-
put. The MASTER LEVEL knob does not send or receive any MIDI CC# but is used to control the entire
instrument’s output level. (For info on how to control the level of an individual Program and via MIDI,
please refer to “Output Level” on page 31).

NAVIGATOR BUTTONS AND DISPLAY

To the right of the MASTER LEVEL knob are two buttons, the NAVIGATOR buttons. These are used to
select Program Banks (A-F) and various system functions. To the right of the NAVIGATOR buttons is the
DISPLAY. It’s used to display Program Banks and also various system parameters.

THE STORE BUTTON

To the right of the DISPLAY is the red STORE button. This is used when storing Programs (see “Storing
a Program” on page 17) and also when executing various system commands.

PROGRAM BUTTONS
Below the DISPLAY are the eight PROGRAM buttons (1 - 8). Use them to select Programs and to select
various system functions.

THE SHIFT BUTTON

Below the PROGRAM buttons is the SHIFT button. It’s used to access various kinds of system functions
etc.

OCTAVE SHIFT BUTTONS

These buttons are used to transpose the notes +/- 2 octaves (if the selected instrument supports this).

Page 7
2. Overview: The Nord Electro 2 front panel NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

THE ORGAN SECTION

The Organ section comprises four sub sections: the Percussion section, the Vibrato/Chorus section, the
Manual section and the Drawbar section. The nine drawbars of Nord Electro are represented by up/down
buttons and LED chain graphs instead of ordinary mechanical drawbars. This gives you a big advantage:
when you change presets, the correct drawbar settings are shown immediately by the LEDs. In other
words, no need for the regular ’trial and error’ method.

THE INSTRUMENT SELECT BUTTON

Inbetween the Organ and Piano sections is the INSTRUMENT SELECT button. Press this button to select
the Organ section or Piano section.

THE PIANO SECTION

The Piano sections consists of two sub sections: the instrument Type section and the Presence section.
With the TYPE button you select the Piano instrument to use and with the Presence parameters you can
add parametric equalization to your piano sound. With the V2.0 Mega Clavinet D6 sound the Presence
parameters act as filter and pick-up selectors (see “Presence with the Mega Clavinet sound” on page 26)

THE EFFECTS SECTION

Here you’ll find the numerous effects and modulations you could use to add that extra flavour to your
sounds. The Effects section also features a tube type Overdrive distortion, Rotary Speaker simulation and
a Treble & Bass EQ. Here you’ll also find the OUTPUT LEVEL control which is the volume control for
each individual Program.

THE KEYBOARD
The keyboard of Nord Electro is either 5 octaves (Nord Electro SixtyOne) or 6 octaves (Nord Electro
SeventyThree). Both versions feature the specially designed, semiweighted, velocity sensitive “waterfall”
(square front) keyboard for optimal feel and response. The semiweighted action is ideal for use with both
Organ and Piano sounds. The keyboard also sends Keyboard Velocity over MIDI.

Page 8
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 2. Overview: Nord Electro 2 rear panel

NORD ELECTRO 2 REAR PANEL

CONNECTIONS

• Make all connections before turning on your power amplifier!

• If you are using a Nord Electro 2 together with a MIDI keyboard, connect a MIDI cable from MIDI
Out on the keyboard to MIDI IN on the Nord Electro 2.

• All signal cables used with the Nord Electro must be shielded.

• The two audio outputs (LEFT OUT and RIGHT OUT) are line level and unbalanced. If you want the
sum of the signals on one separate output only, use RIGHT OUT.

• If you connect the Nord Electro 2 in stereo to your audio equipment, you should use LEFT OUT in
pair with RIGHT OUT.

• If you choose the option to route Organ sounds and Piano sounds to a separate output each (see “Out-
put routing (hard pan)” on page 37), the RIGHT OUT is for the Piano sound and the LEFT OUT for
the Organ sound.

CONNECTING PEDALS
The Nord Electro 2 has three pedal inputs, one CONTROL PEDAL input (for controlling Organ Swell or
Wah-Wah), one SUSTAIN PEDAL input (sustain) and one ROTOR SPEED input (for rotary speaker fast/
slow selection). Connect the pedals as shown in the figure below:

When connecting an expression-type pedal to the CONTROL PEDAL input, you should use a stereo cable
(Tip-Ring-Sleeve). Please note that the pedal must have a stereo output jack. The resistance range of the
Control Pedal should be 0 to between 10 kOhm and 50 kOhm. Pedals like the Roland EV-5 and control/
expression pedals from Proel works well with the Electro 2. Control/Expression pedals from Yamaha have
different characteristics and are not suitable for use with the Electro 2.

Page 9
2. Overview: Nord Electro 2 rear panel NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

It’s also possible to use only one single Sustain pedal connected to the SUSTAIN PEDAL input to control
sustain for Piano sounds and Rotary Speaker speed selection for organ sounds (see page 14 for details on
how to configure this).

(For more detailed information on how to set up Nord Electro 2 for use with sustain and expression ped-
als, see page 13).

Page 10
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 2. Overview: Nord Electro 2 block diagram

NORD ELECTRO 2 BLOCK DIAGRAM

Below is a schematic overview of the sound and modulation building blocks and the signal flows in Nord
Electro 2. The filled lines indicate audio signal routings and the dashed black lines control signal routings.
The ‘/2’ sign printed next to some filled lines indicates that the signal is/can be in stereo. The circles with
a ‘+’ sign inside indicates that any input stereo signals will be summarized into a mono signal before rout-
ed to the specific effect. For example, the V2.0 stereo Acoustic Grand will be in mono if you apply any
effect except for the Pan, Tremolo or EQ.

As you can see, the internal configuration of Nord Electro 2 is pretty straight-forward, yet very powerful
and flexible. Each of the building blocks also offers possibilities for internal configurations. This is de-
scribed in detail in Chapter "5. Panel reference” on page 19.

Page 11
3. Getting started: Selecting Programs NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

3. GETTING STARTED

SELECTING PROGRAMS
Programs are single sounds that are stored in the internal memory of Nord Electro 2. The Program mem-
ory in Nord Electro 2 consists of 6 Banks each holding 8 Programs for a total of 48 Programs. All Pro-
grams can be edited and replaced at any time. To select a Program for playing/editing, do like this:

1. Select Bank (A-F) by pressing

the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR Press the UP or DOWN
buttons if you want to change NAVIGATOR buttons to
select Program Bank A-F
Bank.

2. Select Program by pressing one

of the eight PROGRAM but- Press one of the eight
tons 1 to 8. PROGRAM buttons to
select a Program to
play. The correspond-
ing LED will light up.

OCTAVE SHIFT
The two OCTAVE SHIFT buttons to the bottom left on the front panel
can be used to transpose the notes two octaves up or down (if the se-
lected instrument supports this). A flashing OCTAVE SHIFT LED in-
dicates +/- 2 octaves note shift.

Note: Due to the actual key range of the original Piano instruments,
some sounds cannot be octave shifted up and/or down. For organ sounds, the Octave Shift will only
generate notes that are within the 73-key note range of Nord Electro 2 73. This means that using Oc-
tave Shift for Organ sounds in Nord Electro 2 73 won’t produce any sound in the lowest or highest
octave.

Page 12
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 3. Getting started: Transpose

TRANSPOSE
It’s also possible to transpose a sound up or down in
semitone steps. Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 6
(TRANSPOSE) buttons. The DISPLAY reads ‘0’.
Press the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons to trans-
pose the sound up or down in semitone steps. The
range is +/- 6 semitones in steps of 1 semitone. Press
any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/
DOWN buttons) to exit.

Note: Due to the actual key range of the original Pi-

ano instruments, the lowest keys may not produce
any sound when transposed down. The same goes
for the highest keys when the instrument is trans-
posed up. For organ sounds, the Transpose function
will only generate notes that are within the 73-key note range of Nord Electro 2 73. This means that
using the Transpose function for Organ sounds in Nord Electro 2 73 will cause the lowest or highest
notes of the keyboard to be silent.

USING A SUSTAIN PEDAL

A foot switch connected to the SUSTAIN PEDAL input can be set to act in two different ways:

• As a sustain pedal for both the Piano and Organ sounds (see Sustain Pedal Configuration below)

• As a sustain pedal for Piano sounds and as a Rotor Speed switch for the Organ sounds (see Sustain
Pedal Configuration below)

SETTING UP THE SUSTAIN PEDAL POLARITY

Set up the pedal polarity as follows:

1. Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 7 (PED.POL) but-

tons. The DISPLAY reads ‘CL’ or ‘OP’.

2. Change sustain pedal polarity between ‘OP’

(Open) (open when pressed) and ‘CL’ (Closed)
(closed when pressed) with the UP/DOWN NAVI-
GATOR buttons.

3. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or

UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

Page 13
3. Getting started: Using a Rotor Speed switch pedal NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

SETTING UP THE SUSTAIN PEDAL CONFIGURATION

1. Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 8 (CONFIG) but-

tons. The DISPLAY reads ‘P.S’ (Pedal Sustain) or
‘P.t’ (Pedal toggle).

1. Change sustain pedal functionality between ‘P.S’

(Sustain for both Piano and Organ sounds) and
‘P.t’ (sustain for Piano sounds and Rotor Speed
switch for Organ sounds) with the UP/DOWN
NAVIGATOR buttons.

2. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or

UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

Nord Electro 2 sends and receives Sustain Pedal mes-

sages as MIDI (CC# 64). Note! If you have selected ‘P.t’, Rotor Speed selection is sent from the sustain
pedal as MIDI CC#82 - not CC#64!

USING A ROTOR SPEED SWITCH PEDAL

A foot switch connected to the ROTOR SPEED input can be used to switch between Slow and Fast rotor
speed for the Rotary Speaker effect (see page 31). Nord Electro 2 will also send and receive Rotor Speed
switch messages via MIDI (CC# 82).

Note: The Pedal Polarity setting that you made for the SUSTAIN PEDAL input (see above) also affects
the ROTOR SPEED input.

USING A CONTROL (EXPRESSION) PEDAL

As indicated in the illustration on page 9, a regular resistive (range 10 kOhm to 50 kOhm) expression
pedal can be connected to the CONTROL PEDAL input, using a stereo (Tip-Ring-Sleeve) cable. The con-
nected pedal can be used to control either Organ Swell (the characteristic B3 volume control) or Wah-
Wah modulation. Pedals like the Roland EV-5 and control/expression pedals from Proel works well with
the Electro 2. Control pedals from Yamaha have different characteristics and are not suitable for use with
the Electro 2. Nord Electro 2 will also send and receive Expression pedal messages via MIDI (CC# 11).

Page 14
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 3. Getting started: Basic MIDI settings

BASIC MIDI SETTINGS

If you are controlling the Nord Electro 2 from an external MIDI keyboard, the Nord Electro 2 must be
set to receive on the same MIDI channel that the external keyboard transmits on. Nord Electro 2 is
monotimbral (or bitimbral when using the Organ section.See“Using an additional “Lower Manual”
MIDI keyboard” on page 22) which means it can only transmit and receive on one MIDI channel at a
time.

1. Set the MIDI keyboard to transmit and receive on MIDI Channel 1. (This is the default setting
when Nord Electro 2 is shipped from factory).

2. Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 1 (MIDI CH) but-

tons. The DISPLAY shows the currently selected
MIDI channel.

3. Scroll with the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons to

select MIDI Channel 1 (if it isn’t already selected).

4. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or

UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

For information on how to set up Nord Electro 2 for

use with an external sequencer, see “Using Nord
Electro 2 with a sequencer” on page 41.

ABOUT THE DYNAMIC RANGES OF THE PIANOS

Some of the piano instruments sampled for the Nord Electro 2 have very wide dynamic ranges by nature
and naturally we wanted to capture this as accurately as possible. Therefore, it could be perceived that it
is a little hard to reach the most extreme levels when playing the Nord Electro 2 piano sounds. However,
this is only normal since the dynamic response curves have been very carefully adjusted to match each
original instrument's response characteristics. In other words, Clavia's intention was that when you play
a Rhodes sound, for example, it should almost feel like you are playing a Rhodes piano.

Page 15
4. Editing Programs: What’s a Program? NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

4. EDITING PROGRAMS
WHAT’S A PROGRAM?
A Program in Nord Electro 2 consists of a selected Instrument (an Organ sound or a specific Piano
sound), the settings you have made for the instrument, e.g. Drawbar, Percussion and Chorus/Vibrato set-
tings for Organ sounds or Presence settings for a Piano sound, Octave Shift settings plus all the settings
of the Effects section. For Piano based sounds this means that a Program does not contain any samples -
only the parameter data that affects the selected Piano type. This is important to bear in mind when per-
forming a MIDI Sysex dump of a Piano based Program (see “Dump” on page 38).

EDITING A PROGRAM
Actually, how to change a programmed sound can be described in one
sentence: “tweak the knobs and press the buttons”. It is as simple as
that! Don’t be afraid to edit and overwrite the factory Programs. If
you want to restore any of the original factory programs later, you can
fetch them at http://www.clavia.se and download to your Nord Elec-
tro 2 as MIDI Sysex files. To indicate that a Program has been edited
(changed from the stored version), a dot is shown to the right of the Program number in the DISPLAY:.

T HE KNO BS
All KNOBS on the Nord Electro 2 are of potentiometer type. This means that
when you begin to edit a Program the values of the parameters can be totally dif-
ferent from the KNOBS physical positions. As soon as you begin turning a
KNOB, the parameter value will ‘snap’ to the KNOB’S physical position. This
could generate drastic changes to the sound but that’s normal.

THE BUTTONS
There are three types of buttons for editing sounds on the Nord Electro 2:

SELECTOR BUTTONS
Press the SELECTOR button repeatedly to select between functions printed next to the
corresponding triangular LED (see figure to the right).

ON/OFF BUTTONS
The ON/OFF buttons have a LED next to them to indicate the status.

DRAWBAR BUTTONS
The DRAWBAR buttons are special in the way that they auto-increment/decrement the corresponding pa-
rameter when held. I.e. if you hold a DRAWBAR button the corresponding drawbar parameter will con-
tinue to increment or decrement (within its range) until you release the button.

Page 16
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 4. Editing Programs: Reverting to the original Program

SELECTING INSTRUMENT (ORGAN OR PIANO)

No matter what Program you’re editing, you could always select a
different instrument type at any time. There are two main instru-
ment sections in Nord Electro 2: the Organ section and the Piano
section. You switch between these sections by pressing the INSTRU-
MENT SELECT button located between the Organ and Piano sections.
When you have selected an instrument section the other section, with
its sub groups, is automatically disabled (all its LEDs go blank).
However, all settings of the respective groups are memorized so when
you switch back, all parameter values of the instrument group are automatically recalled. The parameters
of the Effects section will always remain unaffected when you switch instrument group.

REVERTING TO THE ORIGINAL PROGRAM

If you have edited a Program and want to revert to the stored original, just press the corresponding PRO-
GRAM button again.

STORING A PROGRAM
Storing a Program will permanently overwrite the existing Program in the selected memory location. Be
careful so that you don’t accidentally erase a Program you’d like to keep!

Note! When Nord Electro 2 is shipped from factory, Memory Lock is set to ‘On’. To be able to store
Programs, first disable the Memory Lock function. See “Mem Lock” on page 35.

To store a Program do like this:

1. Press the STORE button once. The Bank and Program number
starts flashing in the DISPLAY

2. Select Bank (A-F) by pressing the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR but-

tons (if you want to change Bank) and then Program location by
pressing the corresponding PROGRAM button (1-8). As you scroll
through the memory locations, you can play and hear the Program currently shown in the DISPLAY.
This prevents you from overwriting a sound that you want to keep. (To cancel the operation, press
any button, except for the SHIFT, PROGRAM, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons.)

3. Press STORE again to store your Program. The DISPLAY shows the selected memory location and
stops flashing.

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4. Editing Programs: Copying Programs NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

COPYING PROGRAMS
Copying a Program from one memory location to another is just a variation of storing:

1. Select the Program you want to copy. Press the STORE button
once. The Bank and Program number starts flashing in the DIS-
PLAY

1. Select Bank (A-F) by pressing the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR but-

tons (if you want to change Bank) and then Program location by
pressing the corresponding PROGRAM button (1-8). As you scroll through the memory locations,
you can play and hear the Program currently shown in the DISPLAY. This prevents you from over-
writing a sound that you want to keep. (To cancel the operation, press any button, except for the
SHIFT, PROGRAM, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons.)

2. Press STORE again to store your Program. The DISPLAY shows the selected memory location and
stops flashing.

DELETING PROGRAMS
There is no command for deleting Programs from the internal memory. What you do to “delete” a Pro-
gram is simply saving a new Program (and thus replacing the old Program) in a specific memory location.

DOWNLOADING PROGRAMS VIA MIDI

You can receive MIDI Sysex data for one Program at a time into a selected Program location. For exam-
ple, if you use Nord Electro 2 together with a sequencer, it is often practical to record a Sysex Program
data dump in the beginning of your song to download sounds. It’s also possible to receive an entire Pro-
gram Bank and even all Program Banks as a bulk (see “Dump” on page 38 and “Receive MIDI Sysex
Dumps” on page 43).

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: The Organ section

5. PANEL REFERENCE

THE ORGAN SECTION

The Organ in the Nord Electro 2 is based on a digital simulation of the mechanical tone wheels of the
B-3 organ. It offers innovative solutions to mimic the typical B-3 sound, for example:

• Full polyphony

• An extremely accurate digital model of the original chorus and vibrato scanner

• Modeling of the individual random contact bounces for each partial

• Modeling of the unique frequency characteristics of the built-in pre-amplifier which forms the ”body”
of the B-3 sound

• Simulation of the energy stealth on the tone wheels that results in the typical ”compressed” sound

• Authentic tuning of the tone wheels according to the original B3 design

• Extremely fast keyboard response

The Organ section comprises a number of sub groups which include all the functions found on the orig-
inal B-3 organ, such as Percussion and Chorus/Vibrato.

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5. Panel reference: The Organ section NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

THE DRAWBARS
The drawbars of Nord Electro 2 are represented by buttons and LED chain graphs instead of ordinary
mechanical drawbars. This gives you a big advantage: when you change presets or Programs, the correct
drawbar settings are recalled immediately and shown by the LEDs. In other words, no need for the regular
’trial and error’ method. It’s very easy to get the hang of changing the drawbar settings in a natural way
with the buttons.

The drawbars of Nord Electro 2

behave similar to their mechani-
cal counterparts, i.e. you “pull
out” the drawbars by pressing the
LOWER DRAWBAR buttons and
“push them back in” by pressing
the UPPER DRAWBAR buttons.
The DRAWBAR buttons are spe-
cial in the way that they auto-in-
crement/decrement the drawbar
value when held. I.e. if you hold a
DRAWBAR button the corre-
sponding drawbar value will con-
tinue to increment or decrement
(within its range) until you release
the button. Each drawbar repre-
sents a partial. The numbers
printed below each DRAWBAR
LED CHAIN have a history. Orig- In the figure above we have chosen C3 as our reference note. The 8’ drawbar
inally, the B-3 was created to is considered the basic partial in the organ sound. The arrows point at the re-
mimic a church organ. The num- spective note that each drawbar represents when C3 is our reference note.
bers on the B-3’s drawbars re-
ferred to pipe sizes on a church organ. That’s why it, for example, says 16’, 5 1/3’ etc. It corresponds to
the church organ’s pipe length in foot. In the figure above you can see the pitch interval among the nine
drawbars. Note that the second drawbar from the left actually lies a 5th above the basic partial. However,
in most situations it’s perceived as sounding below the basic partial. When you play different notes on the
keyboard, the whole partial “package” is being transposed up or down with the fixed intervals.

DRAWBAR PRESETS
Below the UPPER
DRAWBAR but-
tons are printed 8
drawbar presets
plus RND (Ran-
dom). Press
SHIFT + the corresponding UPPER DRAWBAR button to select one of these presets. There are 8 different
drawbar presets plus the ‘Random drawbar settings’ function. The Random function generates a new ran-
dom preset every time you activate it.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: The Organ section

USER DRAWBAR PRESETS

There are 9 user
configurable
drawbar presets
in addition to the
9 fixed ones de-
scribed above.
These are located on the LOWER DRAWBAR button row. Press SHIFT + the corresponding LOWER
DRAWBAR button to select one of the nine user configurable presets.

STORE YOUR OWN DRAWBAR PRESETS

To store your own drawbar preset, do like this:

1. Press the UPPER DRAWBAR and LOWER DRAWBAR buttons to create the drawbar preset you want to
store.

2. Press SHIFT + STORE (USER STORE) + one of the LOWER DRAWBAR buttons to select a location
for your preset.

PERCUSSION
In the original B-3 the Percussion effect is generated by a single en-
velope generator that controls either the 2nd or 3rd partial. The en-
velope “opens up” for a short moment in the beginning of the sound
when you press the key(s). The Percussion effect can be set to control
either the 2nd or 3rd partial. The envelope decay time can be set to
Fast or Slow and the volume characteristics to Normal or Soft. You
activate and deactivate the Percussion effect by pressing the ON but-
ton.

(The horizontal dotted

lines represent the current
drawbar level without
Percussion)

The figure above shows the Percussion envelope The figure above shows the Percussion
in SOFT mode envelope in NORMAL mode

Like on the original B-3, the Percussion is a single-triggered non-legato effect. By “single-triggered” we
mean that the percussion is only present when you hit the keys when no other note is sounding. In other
words, if you play a note or a chord and then add on more notes without releasing the previously pressed
keys, there will be no percussion effect in the new notes. You have to release all keys to be able to play
new notes with the percussion effect. Also, like on the original B-3, in Normal Percussion mode the sus-
tain level is significantly lower than in Soft Percussion mode (or with the Percussion effect disabled).

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5. Panel reference: The Organ section NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

VIBRATO
The original B-3 chorus and vibrato scanner consists of a tapped delay line
in combination with a rotating scanner. For the Vibrato effect, phase shift
is applied to the signal. For the Chorus effect, the phase modulated signal
is added to the original signal. A lot of time and effort have been spent in
accurately recreating the chorus and vibrato scanner effect. Like on the
original, Nord Electro 2 offers three different types of choruses (C1-C3)
and three different types of vibratos (V1-V3). Select one of these types by
pressing the SELECTOR button. You activate and deactivate the Vibrato section by pressing the ON but-
ton.

M A NU A L
In the Manual section you can choose to split the Nord Electro 2 keyboard into
two sections, the Lower Manual and the Upper Manual. Each Manual can have
its own drawbar, percussion and chorus/vibrato settings. If you don’t use the
Split function you will only have access to the Upper Manual settings from the
internal keyboard.

KEYBOARD SPLIT
Press the SPLIT button to divide the Nord Electro 2 keyboard into two sections, the Lower Manual and
Upper Manual sections. The split point on the keyboard is between the keys E4 and F4 (Nord Electro 2
61) and between the keys B3 and C4 (Nord Electro 2 73). This is indicated on the front panel with a
gray triangle pointing between the keys.

UPPER AND LOWER

Press the corresponding button to “highlight” the settings for the respective Manual. Each Manual can
have its own drawbar, chorus/vibrato (on/off) and Octave Shift settings. If you don’t use the Split func-
tion, or use an additional MIDI keyboard (see below), you will only be able to play the Upper Manual
from the internal keyboard. Note that the Percussion effect can only be used for the Upper Manual in
any situation.

USING AN ADDITIONAL
“LOWER MANUAL” MIDI
KEYBOARD
As a special feature of Nord Electro
2 you can connect a second key-
board via MIDI In to use as a Low-
er Manual keyboard. This way you
can play the internal keyboard as
the Upper Manual and the addi-
tional MIDI keyboard as the Low-
er Manual. Since the organ has full
polyphony you’ll have this also
when using an additional Lower
Manual MIDI keyboard! Do like this to set up the Nord Electro 2 for use with a second keyboard:

1. Connect the additional MIDI keyboard’s MIDI Out to the Nord Electro 2’s MIDI IN.

2. Select a MIDI channel on the external keyboard.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: The Organ section

3. Select the same MIDI channel on the Nord Electro

2 by first pressing SHIFT + PROGRAM 2 (LOWER
CH) buttons and then scroll with the UP/DOWN
NAVIGATOR buttons.

Note: The MIDI channel set for reception of the addi-

tional MIDI keyboard should be different from the
“public” MIDI Channel (see “MIDI Ch” on page 33).
If the MIDI CH and LOWER CH are the same, play-
ing the additional keyboard would produce a layered
sound of the Upper Manual and Lower Manual sounds
together. This is normally not what you want.

4. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or

UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

SWELL CONTROL (FROM EXPRESSION PEDAL)

Swell is the characteristic B-3 volume function that you control from the B-3’s pedal. Swell is not only a
volume control - it also changes the character of the sound in a special way. To use Swell control on the
Nord Electro 2, simply plug in a standard resistive expression pedal to the CONTROL PEDAL input on
the rear panel (see “Connecting pedals” on page 9).
Note that the expression pedal will only control Swell on Organ sounds - not the volume on Piano
sounds. Also, if you use Wah-Wah as modulation effect (see “Wah-Wah 1&2” on page 29), the ex-
pression pedal will instead control the Wah-Wah effect and not Swell.

ROTARY SPEAKER
The Rotary Speaker simulation in Nord Electro 2 can be found in the Effects sec-
tion. The reason for this is that you can use it also for Piano sounds. The Rotary
Speaker simulation is really something above the ordinary. It’s not only simulating
the rotating speaker and drum but also the built-in amplifier of the original Leslie
122 speaker.

Activate or deactivate the Rotary Speaker simulation by pressing the ON button.

Switch between fast and slow rotor speeds by pressing the FAST button. To stop the
rotors (but not disabling the Rotary Speaker simulation), press the STOP button.
When you press the STOP button again the rotors will accelerate to the speed they
had when you first pressed STOP.

ROTOR SPEED CONTROL FROM PEDAL

By plugging in a sustain pedal in the ROTOR SPEED PEDAL input you can control the speed selection
from a pedal. It’s also possible to use a sustain pedal connected to the SUSTAIN PEDAL input to control
the speed selection. Please refer to “Config” on page 36 for information on how to set up Nord Electro
2 for operation with sustain/switch pedals.

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5. Panel reference: The Organ section NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

KEY CLICK CONTROL

On an original B-3 organ, the key click produced by the
random contact bounces is actually an artifact. This ar-
tifact later became quite desirable an effect amongst mu-
sicians. In the Nord Electro 2 you can select the amount
of key click that should be present in the organ sounds.
The key click level is global for all organ sounds in the
Nord Electro 2.

1. Hold down SHIFT and press the PROGRAM 8 but-

ton twice. The DISPLAY reads ‘C.8’ where ‘C’ stands
for ‘Click’ and ‘8’ for the current click level.

2. Select key click level by scrolling with the UP/

DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons. ‘C.0’ means mini-
mum key click level and ‘C.9’ maximum level.

3. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

OUTPUT ROUTING (HARD PAN)

If you want to process your sound using external effects,
it can be convenient to route Organ and Piano sounds
to separate outputs of the Nord Electro 2. Note that the
Output routing is not saved, so you will have to recon-
figure after power off.

1. Hold down SHIFT and press the PROGRAM 8 but-

ton three times. The DISPLAY reads ‘H.0’ where ‘H’
stands for ‘Hard pan’ and ‘0’ that both Organ and
Piano sounds are routed to LEFT OUT and RIGHT
OUT without separation.

2. Select ‘separate outputs’ by pressing the UP NAVI-

GATOR button so the DISPLAY reads ‘H.1’. ‘H.1’
means that Organ sounds will be output only
through the LEFT OUT and Piano sounds only
through the RIGHT OUT. Note that any stereo effect you apply to a sound internally will be in
mono in ‘H.1’ mode.

3. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: The Piano section

THE PIANO SECTION

The Piano section of Nord Electro 2 comprises a selection of electromechanical
pianos. Nord Electro 2 features a unique multi-sample playback, catching every
nuance from soft to hard key strokes. Each piano instrument was carefully multi-
sampled in a vast amount of velocity levels. That’s one of the reasons they all
sound and feel so authentic. As an extra bonus we also included an acoustic grand
piano (concert model) - in stereo! Nord Electro 2 comes from factory with the
following piano instruments:

• Mega Clavinet D6 (Clav) including all the possible filter and pick-up combi-
nations of the original Clavinet D6. 60 + 4 different Clavinet sounds out of a
single instrument!

• Wurlitzer 200A (Wur)

• Rhodes Mk I Stage Piano SeventyThree (Rhod1). It was built in May 1978

and was adjusted to “deep timbre adjustment”. The so called volume adjust-
ment is set to ‘Low’. These settings gives the piano a warm sound with a rich
fundamental

• Clavia Electric Grand Model G (El.Grand). The ‘Model G’ is a custom modified 1934 Gärbstedt
acoustic grand piano fitted with CP-80 pick-ups. The Model G produces a very rich and “punchy”
rock piano sound that sounds great across the entire note range

• A Malmsjö acoustic grand piano, sampled and played back in stereo (Ac.Grand)

• Rhodes Mk I SeventyThree Suitcase (Rhod2). It was built in January 1975. We have fine tuned the
mechanics and adjusted the tines according to the “ideal timbre adjustment”. The so called volume
adjustment is set to ‘Close’. These settings gives the piano a sound with a lot of “bite”

TYPE
Press the TYPE button to select a piano instrument. On the Nord Electro 2 front
panel are printed names of the piano instruments loaded from factory. Since all
piano samples are stored in Flash memory you can easily add and/or replace the
stored piano instruments with new ones (see “Downloading Piano instruments
via USB” on page 39). You can download any piano sound to any of the six loca-
tions, i.e. you are not restricted to the configuration printed on the panel. For ex-
ample, you could have six different Rhodes sounds (when available) in your
Electro 2 at the same time if you like.

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5. Panel reference: The Piano section NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

PRESENCE
The Presence section features a parametric EQ with frequency and amount con-
trols. Use it if you’d like to amplify or attenuate frequency bands of the piano in-
struments. Activate and deactivate the Presence function by pressing the ON
button and set the frequency to be amplified or attenuated with the FREQ knob.
With the AMOUNT knob you set the amplification/attenuation in dB.
Note that the Clavinet D6 instrument that comes with OS V2.0 makes use of
the Presence effect in a different way (se below).

PRESENCE WITH THE MEGA CLAVINET SOUND

The Mega Clavinet (Clav) sound in the V2.0 factory library makes use of the
Presence section in a different way than the other piano sounds. On an original
Clavinet D6 you can select different pick-up and filter combinations by pressing
a number of rocker switches. This functionality is very faithfully simulated in the
Nord Electro 2 V2.0. It means that from the Mega Clavinet instrument in the
Electro 2 you can get all the 60 different Clavinet D6 sounds plus an additional
4 by selecting different pick-up and filter combinations! This is how it works:

The FREQ knob works as a filter selector with which you can select one of the 15
(sounding) combinations of the ‘Brilliant’, ‘Treble’, ‘Medium’ and ‘Soft’ filters of
the original D6. The filter combinations are described in the figure below.

By turning the FREQ knob you select one of 15 Clavinet D6 filter combinations plus an additional Bypass variation.
The filter combination number is briefly shown in the DISPLAY as you turn the FREQ knob.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: The Piano section

A Clavinet D6 has two separate pick-ups, one on the “neck” and one on the “bridge”. By selecting either
one pick-up or both in different combinations you can alter the character of the sound quite drastically.
On the Mega Clavinet sound, the AMOUNT knob works as the pick-up selector according to the figure
below

By turning the AMOUNT knob you select one of the four Clavi-
net D6 pick-up configurations. The pick-up configuration
number is briefly shown in the DISPLAY as you turn the
AMOUNT knob.

The configurations are these:

C.b: Only the "bridge" pick-up; a bright sound.

C.A: Only the "neck" pick-up; a warm, less bright sound.
d.A: Both pick-ups on but 180 degrees out of phase; the funda-
mental is almost cancelled and the sound becomes pretty thin
d.b: Both pick-ups on and in phase; a very full sound

OUTPUT ROUTING (HARD PAN)

If you want to process your sound using external effects,
it can be convenient to route Organ and Piano sounds
to separate outputs of the Nord Electro 2. Note that the
Output routing is not saved, so you will have to recon-
figure after power off.

1. Hold down SHIFT and press the PROGRAM 8 but-

ton three times. The DISPLAY reads ‘H.0’ where ‘H’
stands for ‘Hard pan’ and ‘0’ that both Organ and
Piano sounds are routed to LEFT OUT and RIGHT
OUT without separation.

2. Select ‘separate outputs’ by pressing the UP NAVI-

GATOR button so the DISPLAY reads ‘H.1’. ‘H.1’
means that Organ sounds will be output only
through the LEFT OUT and Piano sounds only
through the RIGHT OUT. Note that any stereo effect you apply to a sound internally will be in
mono in ‘H.1’ mode.

3. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

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5. Panel reference: The Effects section NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

THE EFFECTS SECTION

The Effects section of Nord Electro 2 can be used for processing both Organ and Piano sounds. It’s fully
programmable and you can configure your effects separately for each Program. The Effects section con-
sists of five sub groups:

• Modulations. Offers six different types of modulations: Ring Modulation, Auto-Panning, Tremolo
Wah-Wah 1&2 and Auto-Wah.

• Effects. Offers three types of vintage style effects with two variations each: Phaser 1&2, Flanger 1&2
and Chorus 1&2.

• Overdrive. Simulates an overdriven tube amplifier.

• Rotary Speaker. Simulates a Leslie rotary speaker including its built-in amplifier

• Treble & Bass EQ. Offers treble and bass amplification/attenuation

In addition to the five sub groups there is also the OUTPUT LEVEL control for adjusting the output level
of each of the Programs separately.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: The Effects section

MODULATIONS
The Modulations section offers six different types of modulation. You activate and
deactivate the Modulations section by pressing the ON button.

RINGMOD
Stands for Ring Modulation and is a type of modulation where two signals are mul-
tiplied with each other. The result is an inharmonic “bell like” sound. Herbie Han-
cock used this effect a lot in the ‘70s. In the Nord Electro 2 the Piano or Organ signal
is multiplied with an additional sinewave.

With the RATE knob you set the basic

pitch of the additional sinewave.

With the AMOUNT knob you control

the level of ring modulation.

Set the sinewave pitch with the RATE knob and the amount of ring modulation with the AMOUNT knob.

PA N
The Pan is an auto panning modulation that smoothly pans the signal between the Left and Right out-
puts.

The filled curve indicates maximum AMOUNT value and the

dashed curves indicate lower AMOUNT values. The signal smoothly
pans between the Left and Right outputs as indicated in the figure.

You can control the rate and amount of panning with the RATE and AMOUNT knobs.

TREMOLO
Tremolo modulation is basically an automatic volume control that continuously varies the output signal
volume. Tremolo is a commonly used modulation, especially on the Wurlitzer electric pianos.

The filled curve indicates maximum AMOUNT value and the dashed
curves indicate lower AMOUNT values. At zero AMOUNT value the
output level is constantly at maximum level (the straight dashed line).

Use the RATE and AMOUNT knobs to control the Tremolo rate and depth. Note that the output volume
is at maximum level at zero AMOUNT setting.

WAH-WAH 1&2
The Wah-Wah modulation is often used for electric guitars to get that characteristic “talking guitar”
sound. Wah-Wah can also be extremely useful on electric piano sounds. Try out the Clavinet sound with

Page 29
5. Panel reference: The Effects section NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

Wah-Wah modulation and you’ll understand. Basically, the Wah-Wah modulation is a lowpass type of
filter that can be swept across the frequency range. During the sweep, the filter’s characteristics also
changes.

For the Wah-Wah1 modulation you control the “pedal position” with the RATE knob and the total fre-
quency sweep range with the AMOUNT knob. For the Wah-Wah2 modulation you control the LFO rate
with the RATE knob and the total frequency sweep range with the AMOUNT knob.

Note: If you use an expression pedal connected to the CONTROL PEDAL INPUT you can control the
filter sweep and thus the Wah-Wah1 effect from the pedal. Also note that if you’re already using an
expression pedal for Organ Swell control (see “Swell control (from expression pedal)” on page 23), the
Wah-Wah function takes precedence and automatically disables the Swell control.

AUTO-WAH
Auto-Wah is a variation of the Wah-Wah modulation described above. The difference is that here you
control the filter sweep range, and thus the Wah-Wah effect, from the signal’s amplitude envelope. For
the Auto-Wah modulation you control the attack time with the RATE knob and the sensitivity with the
AMOUNT knob.

EFFECTS
Nord Electro 2 offers six types of vintage style effects to add that extra flavour to
your sounds. Activate or deactivate the Effects section by pressing the ON button.

PHASER 1&2
The phaser effect is a very characteristic “sweep” effect and is frequently used in all
sorts of music. You control the rate of the phase shift with the RATE knob and the
phase shift amount with the AMOUNT knob.

FLANGER 1&2
The flanger effect is another type of very characteristic “sweep” effect. It’s quite sim-
ilar to the phaser effect but has a little different characteristics. You set the flanging
rate 7with the RATE knob and the amount with the AMOUNT knob.

CHORUS 1&2
The Chorus effect simulates the appearance of several slightly detuned signals. You
set the rate for the chorus effect with the RATE knob and the amount with the
AMOUNT knob. Note that the Chorus2 effect is in stereo.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: The Effects section

OVERDRIVE
The Overdrive effect is a simulation of an overdriven tube amplifier. It’s very useful
both on Organ and Piano sounds. Activate or deactivate the Overdrive effect with
the ON button and set the overdrive amount with the AMOUNT knob.

ROTARY SPEAKER
The Rotary Speaker simulation in Nord Electro 2 is really something above the or-
dinary. It’s not only simulating the rotating speaker and drum but also the built-in
amplifier of the original Leslie speaker.

Activate or deactivate the Rotary Speaker simulation by pressing the ON button.

Switch between fast and slow rotor speeds by pressing the FAST button. To stop the
rotors, press the STOP button (this does not deactivate the Rotary Speaker simula-
tion - it only stops the rotors). When you press the STOP button again the rotors
will accelerate to the speed they had when you first pressed STOP.

ROTOR SPEED CONTROL FROM PEDAL

By plugging in a sustain pedal in the ROTOR SPEED PEDAL input you can control the speed selection
from a pedal. It’s also possible to use a sustain pedal connected to the SUSTAIN PEDAL input to control
the speed selection. Please refer to “Config” on page 36 for information on how to set up Nord Electro
2 for operation with sustain/switch pedals.

OUTPUT LEVEL
The OUTPUT LEVEL knob controls the individual output volume for each Program.
It’s fully programmable for each Program and sends/receives MIDI CC# 7 (Main
Volume).

Note: The Output Level is always active even if no other sub groups of the Effects
section are active.

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5. Panel reference: The left panel section NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

TREBLE & BASS

The last group of the effects section is a 2-band equalizer which features controls for
bass and treble. Activate or deactivate the equalizer by pressing the ON button. Ad-
just the treble and bass with the corresponding KNOBS. The bass and treble settings
are fully programmable for each Program.

THE LEFT PANEL SECTION

The left panel section features controls for Program
handling, system functions, MIDI functions etc.
There, you’ll also find the Octave Shift and Trans-
pose functions.

MASTER LEVEL
The MASTER LEVEL knob controls the output level
from the two OUT jacks and the HEADPHONES out-
put. The MASTER LEVEL knob does not send or re-
ceive any MIDI CC# but is used to control the
entire instrument’s output level. (For info on how
to control the level(s) of the individual sounds and
via MIDI, please refer to “Output Level” on
page 31).

NAVIGATOR BUTTONS
The UP and DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons are used
for selecting Program Banks (A-F) and also for se-
lecting system related functions (see “System func-
tions” on page 33).

DISPLAY
The DISPLAY is mainly used for displaying Program Banks and Program numbers. It also displays system
related functions described in the ‘System functions’ paragraph below.

ST O R E
The red STORE button is used for storing Programs and Drawbar presets and also for executing various
system related operations.

PROGRAM BUTTONS
The PROGRAM buttons 1-8 are used for selecting Programs from the internal memory and also for ac-
cessing the different system functions described below.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: System functions

OCTAVE SHIFT
The two OCTAVE SHIFT buttons to the bottom left on the front panel
can be used to transpose the notes two octaves up or down (if the selected
instrument supports this). A flashing OCTAVE SHIFT LED indicates +/-
2 octaves note shift.

Note: Due to the actual key range of the original Piano instruments,
some sounds cannot be octave shifted up and/or down. For organ sounds, the Octave Shift will only
generate notes that are within the 73-key note range of Nord Electro 2 73. This means that using Oc-
tave Shift for Organ sounds in Nord Electro 2 73 won’t produce any sound in the lowest or highest
octave.

THE SHIFT BUTTON

To the right of the OCTAVE SHIFT buttons is the SHIFT button. It’s used to access various
kinds of system functions etc.

SYSTEM FUNCTIONS
To access the system functions, press and hold SHIFT and
press the corresponding PROGRAM button. All changes you
make in the system parameters are automatically stored in
Nord Electro 2, with some exceptions: ‘MIDI Local Off’,
‘Master Tune’, ‘Transpose’ and ‘Output routing (Hard
pan)’ are not stored.

MIDI CH
Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 1 (MIDI CH) buttons to enter
the MIDI Channel function. Here you set the MIDI Chan-
nel for the Nord Electro 2 to send and respond to. Select
MIDI Channel with the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons.
Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/
DOWN buttons) to exit.
Range: 1-16, -- (off)

Note: If the MIDI CH and LOWER CH (see below) are

set to the same number, incoming MIDI notes will pro-
duce a layered sound of the Upper Manual and Lower
Manual sounds together. This is normally not what you
want, so keep the channels separated from each other.

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5. Panel reference: System functions NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

LOWER CH
Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 2 (LOWER CH) buttons to
enter the Lower MIDI Channel function. Here you set the
MIDI channel for the Lower Manual of Nord Electro 2 Or-
gan section to respond to. Select Lower MIDI Channel with
the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons. Press any button (ex-
cept for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.
See “Using an additional “Lower Manual” MIDI keyboard”
on page 22 for more details on how to use an external “Low-
er Manual” MIDI keyboard.
Range: 1-16, -- (off)

Note: If the LOWER CH and MIDI CH (see above) are

set to the same number, incoming MIDI notes will pro-
duce a layered sound of the Upper Manual and Lower
Manual sounds together. This is normally not what you want, so keep the channels separated from
each other.

LOCAL
Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 3 (LOCAL) buttons to enter
the MIDI Local on/off function. Here you set whether the
Nord Electro 2 keyboard and front panel controls should
control internal Programs or only send MIDI. Local On is
the normal “play mode”. In Local Off mode, the front panel
and keyboard actions are transmitted via MIDI only and
does not control the internal sound(s) at all. (The MIDI In
works as usual, though.)

Local Off should be used when you use a sequencer to

record and play back from Nord Electro 2. When using a se-
quencer, you connect the MIDI Out of Nord Electro 2 to
the sequencer’s MIDI In. Then, from the sequencer’s MIDI
Out back to the Nord Electro 2’s MIDI In. Since the se-
quencer echoes back incoming MIDI data, Nord Electro 2 will respond normally to your playing and
knob tweaking via the MIDI “loop”. If you use Local On in the sequencer setup described above, you
will get double-notes when you play: from the keyboard internally and via the MIDI “loop”. This is not
what you want. Therefore, always use Local Off together with sequencers.

Select Local On or Local Off with the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons. Press any button (except for the
SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit. Note that ‘Local Off’ is not saved, so you will have to
reconfigure after power off.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: System functions

T U NE
The Master Tune function is global for all sounds in Nord
Electro 2, i.e. changing it will affect all Programs. Press the
SHIFT + PROGRAM 4 (TUNE) buttons to enter the Master
Tune function.

1. Change the master tune, in cents, with the UP/DOWN

NAVIGATOR buttons. ‘0’ is normal 440Hz tuning. The
range is +/- 1 semitone in steps of 1 cent (hundreds of a
semitone).

2. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/

DOWN buttons) to exit.

MEM LOCK
Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 5 (MEM LOCK) buttons to
enter the Memory Lock function. Here you can choose to
memory protect all Programs of the internal memory. Select
Memory Protect ‘On’ or ‘OF’ with the UP/DOWN NAVIGA-
TOR buttons. Press any button (except for the SHIFT,
STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

Note! When Nord Electro 2 is shipped from factory,

Memory Lock is set to ‘On’. To be able to store Programs
(and receive MIDI Sysex dumps), set Memory Lock to
‘OF’.

TRANSPOSE
The Transpose function is global for all sounds in Nord
Electro 2, i.e. changing it will affect all Programs. Press
SHIFT + PROGRAM 6 (TRANSPOSE) buttons. The DIS-
PLAY reads ‘0’. Press the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons to
transpose the sounds up or down in semitone steps. The
range is +/- 6 semitones in steps of 1 semitone. Notes sent to
MIDI OUT are also transposed. Press any button (except for
the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit. Note that
the Transpose setting is not saved, so you will have to re-
configure after power off.

Note: Due to the actual key range of the original Piano in-
struments, the lowest keys may not produce any sound
when the instrument is transposed down. The same goes
for the highest keys when the instrument is transposed up. For organ sounds, the Transpose function
will only generate notes that are within the 73-key note range of Nord Electro 2 73, i.e. F1-F7. This
means that using the Transpose function for Organ sounds in Nord Electro 2 73 will cause the lowest
or highest notes of the keyboard to be silent.

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5. Panel reference: System functions NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

PED. POL
Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 7 (PED.POL) buttons to set
up the Sustain Pedal and Rotor Speed Pedal polarity.
Change pedal polarity between ‘OP’ (Open) (open when
pressed) and ‘CL’ (Closed) (closed when pressed) with the
UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons. Press any button (except
for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

Nord Electro 2 sends and receives Sustain Pedal messages as

MIDI CC# 64 and Rotor Speed Pedal messages as MIDI
CC#82.

CONFIG
Press the SHIFT + PROGRAM 8 (CONFIG) buttons once to
enter the Pedal Configuration function. Here you select
how you want to configure the SUSTAIN PEDAL input.
There are two options:

1. If you’re using a single sustain pedal in the SUSTAIN

PEDAL input you may want to use it for sustain with
Piano sounds and as a Rotor Speed switch with Organ
sounds. In this case, select ‘P.t’ (Pedal toggle) with the
UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons. Press any button
(except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to
exit.

2. If you’re using two separate sustain pedals: one in the Sustain Pedal Input and one in the Rotor
Speed Input you probably want to use the sustain pedal in the SUSTAIN PEDAL input for sustain also
with Organ sounds. In this case, select ‘P.S’ (Pedal Sustain) with the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR but-
tons. Exit by pressing any button (except for the SHIFT button).
Note: It’s possible to use this configuration also if you’re only using a single sustain pedal in the
Sustain Pedal input. In that case you’ll have to control the Rotor Speed from the front panel.

Nord Electro 2 sends and receives Sustain Pedal messages as MIDI (CC# 64). Note! If you have selected
‘P.t’, Rotor Speed selection is sent from the sustain pedal as MIDI CC#82 - not CC#64!

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 5. Panel reference: System functions

KEY CLICK CONTROL

On an original B-3 organ, the key click produced by the
random contact bounces is actually an artifact. This ar-
tifact later became quite desirable an effect amongst mu-
sicians. In the Nord Electro 2 you can select the amount
of key click that should be present in the organ sounds.
The key click level is global for all organ sounds in the
Nord Electro 2.

1. Hold down SHIFT and press the PROGRAM 8 but-

ton twice. The DISPLAY reads ‘C.8’ where ‘C’ stands
for ‘Click’ and ‘8’ for the current click level.

2. Select key click level by scrolling with the UP/

DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons. ‘C.0’ means mini-
mum key click level and ‘C.9’ maximum level.

3. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

OUTPUT ROUTING (HARD PAN)

If you want to process your sound using external effects,
it can be convenient to route Organ and Piano sounds
to separate outputs of the Nord Electro 2. Note that the
Output routing is not saved, so you will have to recon-
figure after power off.

1. Hold down SHIFT and press the PROGRAM 8 but-

ton three times. The DISPLAY reads ‘H.0’ where ‘H’
stands for ‘Hard pan’ and ‘0’ that both Organ and
Piano sounds are routed to LEFT OUT and RIGHT
OUT without separation.

2. Select ‘separate outputs’ by pressing the UP NAVI-

GATOR button so the DISPLAY reads ‘H.1’. ‘H.1’
means that Organ sounds will be output only
through the LEFT OUT and Piano sounds only
through the RIGHT OUT. Note that any stereo effect you apply to a sound internally will be in
mono in ‘H.1’ mode.

3. Press any button (except for the SHIFT, STORE or UP/DOWN buttons) to exit.

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5. Panel reference: System functions NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

DUMP
Press the SHIFT + LEFT OCTAVE SHIFT (DUMP) buttons
to enter the Dump menu. Here you can perform a MIDI
Sysex dump of the currently selected Program or of all Pro-
grams of the internal memory. You can also perform a dump
of all MIDI Controllers for the selected Program. Select the
type of dump to perform by pressing the UP/DOWN NAVI-
GATOR buttons. ‘Pr’ in the DISPLAY means a single Program
dump, ‘AL’ means All Programs dump and ‘Ct’ means
dump all MIDI Controllers of the currently selected Pro-
gram. The selected dump type will flash in the DISPLAY. If
you want to perform a MIDI Sysex dump of a single Pro-
gram or of the MIDI Controllers of a Program, select it by
choosing Program Bank with the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR
buttons and Program by pressing the corresponding PRO-
GRAM button. If you’re about to send all Programs (‘AL’) it
doesn’t matter which Program is selected. Press the STORE
button to send the dump to the MIDI OUT of Nord Electro
2. The Display will stop flashing once the dump has been
sent.

Note: For Organ Sysex, the complete settings for the sound will be dumped as MIDI Sysex. For Piano
sounds, all parameters will be sent but NOT the actual instrument samples. Therefore, when dumping
back a Piano sound, make sure the actual instrument samples are already loaded in the Nord Electro
2. Otherwise the parameters in the Sysex message will be applied to another available Piano instru-
ment.

A WORD ABOUT MIDI CONTROLLER DUMP

Consider a situation where you record a Controller message, e.g. a Drawbar opening, in the middle of
your sequencer song. Then you “rewind” the sequencer to a position before the recorded Drawbar open-
ing. The problem is that the Nord Electro 2’s Drawbar will remain opened, although it really should be
as it was before you recorded the opening. To solve such problems, several sequencers include a function
called “Controller Chasing”, which keeps track of Controller changes and tries to adjust the settings on
the instrument according to the current position in the sequencer song.

However, in our example this wouldn’t help much, because the Drawbar opening was the first Controller
message recorded in the song. The sequencer has no information about the Drawbar setting before the
recorded change, and therefore cannot “chase” the settings properly. To solve this, you could record a
“snapshot” of all Controller settings of the Nord Electro 2 Program(s) at the beginning of your sequencer
song. In these situations you can use the ‘dump all MIDI Controllers’ function.

P A NI C
If notes should hang or the Electro 2 should behave strange in a MIDI
setup, for example, all you need to do is hold down the SHIFT button and
press the RIGHT OCTAVE SHIFT (PANIC) buttons. This will execute an
internal All Notes Off, and reset certain parameters to their default val-
ues.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 6. Factory Presets and OS: Internal memory

6. FACTORY PRESETS AND OS

INTERNAL MEMORY
The Operating System, Programs and Piano samples in Nord Electro 2 are stored in a so-called Flash
memory. A Flash memory keeps the data also when the power is shut off. Another big advantage is that
you can replace data in the Flash memory at any time. This means that you will be able to download OS
upgrades and Programs to your Nord Electro 2 from a computer or sequencer without needing to replace
or add any new hardware. Nord Electro 2 also features a USB port for quick and easy download of new
Piano instrument samples.

The internal sound memory of Nord Electro 2 consists of 6 Banks (A-F) holding 8 Programs each for a
total of 48 Programs.

FACTORY PRESETS
All factory Programs of Nord Electro 2 can be replaced. To make sure you don’t accidentally overwrite
Programs you want to keep, it’s a good idea to back up your sounds regularly on a computer or on a hard-
ware sequencer that can record and play back MIDI Sysex. data. For information on how to back up Pro-
grams please refer to “Dump” on page 38.

RESTORING THE FACTORY PRESETS

The factory Programs will be available as a MIDI Sysex file for download at the Clavia web site at
http://www.clavia.se. Please refer to “Receive MIDI Sysex Dumps” on page 43 for information on how
to restore the factory presets.

DOWNLOADING PIANO INSTRUMENTS VIA USB

This function is supported in the V2.0 Nord Electro 2 operating system when you use the special Electro
Tool USB dump application. With the Electro Tool you will be able to download and add/replace/erase
piano sounds in the Flash memory of the Nord Electro 2. Please visit http://www.clavia.se/nordelectro/
software.htm to download the Electro Tool USB dump application for Mac and PC (Windows) - free of
charge!

OS UPGRADES
The latest OS version for Nord Electro 2 will be available for download at http://www.clavia.se.

Page 39
7. MIDI functions: About the MIDI implementation NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

7. MIDI FUNCTIONS

ABOUT THE MIDI IMPLEMENTATION

The following MIDI messages can be transmitted and received from Nord Electro 2:

NOTE ON/OFF

• Note On and Note Off messages are of course transmitted when you play the keyboard. If you use the
OCTAVE SHIFT function (see “Octave Shift” on page 33), you can transpose the Nord Electro 2 key-
board ± 2 octaves (if the selected instrument supports this).

• Notes can be received over the entire MIDI Note range. However, due to the actual note range of the
controlled instrument type, there will be silent notes when exceeding their ranges.

PITCH BEND

• Pitch Bend messages are neither transmitted nor recognized by the Nord Electro 2.

CONTROLLERS

• If you have an Control/Expression pedal connected to the CONTROL PEDAL INPUT, this is transmit-
ted and received as Controller 11 (Expression).

• If you have a sustain pedal connected to the SUSTAIN PEDAL INPUT, this is transmitted and received as
Controller 64 (Sustain Pedal).

• If you have a sustain pedal connected to the ROTOR SPEED INPUT, this is transmitted and received as
Controller 82.

• All other controls (knobs and buttons) on the front panel (except MASTER LEVEL), are also transmit-
ted and received as Control Change messages. This can be used to record your actions on the front
panel into a MIDI sequencer. For a full list of which parameters correspond to which Controller
number, see the MIDI implementation chapter on page 44.

KEYBOARD VELOCITY
Nord Electro 2 can transmit and receive Keyboard Velocity messages. Note that incoming Keyboard Ve-
locity data is ignored when in Organ mode. Organ sounds will always be played back at nominal level
regardless of incoming MIDI Velocity data.

PROGRAM CHANGE
When you select a Program, a Program Change message is transmitted via MIDI on the selected MIDI
Channel. If a Program Change message is received on the selected MIDI Channel, Nord Electro 2 will
change Program accordingly. The 48 Program locations send and respond to Program Change values 0-
47 where 0 is Program A1 and 47 is Program F8.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 7. MIDI functions: Using Nord Electro 2 with a sequencer

MIDI SYSEX (SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE)

Single Programs or all Programs can be transmitted and received as a System Exclusive dump (see
“Dump” on page 38.).

USING NORD ELECTRO 2 WITH A SEQUENCER

CONNECTIONS

1. Connect the MIDI Out on the Nord Electro 2 to the MIDI In on your sequencer.

2. Connect the MIDI Out from your sequencer to the MIDI In on the Nord Electro 2.

LOCAL ON/OFF
If your sequencer “echoes” all received MIDI signals via its MIDI output(s), the Nord Electro 2 should
be set to Local Off. This is important because otherwise you will get “double-notes”; from the internal
keyboard and via the MIDI loop. See “Local” on page 34.

MIDI CHANNEL

1. Set up Nord Electro 2 so that it transmits/receives on the desired MIDI channel. See “MIDI Ch” on
page 33 for details on how to set up the MIDI channel.

2. Select the desired Program.

3. If needed, set the sequencer up to record and play back on the desired MIDI Channel.

4. Activate recording and play the Nord Electro 2.

PROGRAM CHANGE
To record a Program Change message, activate recording in the sequencer and simply select a new Bank
(A-F) and Program (1-8) by using the UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons and the PROGRAM buttons. The
48 Program locations send and respond to Program Change values 0-47 where 0 is Program A1 and 47
is Program F8.

CONTROLLERS
When you record knob movements and button presses, make sure that the sequencer “echoes” the chang-
es back on the correct MIDI Channel, or your changes won’t have any effect.

SOME NOTES ABOUT CONTROLLERS AND “CHASING”

Consider a situation where you record a Controller message, e.g. a Drawbar opening, in the middle of
your sequencer song. Then you “rewind” the sequencer to a position before the recorded Drawbar open-
ing. The problem is that the Nord Electro 2’s Drawbar will remain opened, although it really should be
as it was before you recorded the opening. To solve such problems, several sequencers include a function
called “Controller Chasing”, which keeps track of Controller changes and tries to adjust the settings on
the instrument according to the current position in the sequencer song.

Page 41
7. MIDI functions: Program and Controller dumps NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

However, in our example this wouldn’t help much, because the Drawbar opening was the first Controller
message recorded in the song. The sequencer has no information about the Drawbar setting before the
recorded change, and therefore cannot “chase” the settings properly. To solve this, you could record a
“snapshot” of all Controller settings of the Nord Electro 2 Program(s) at the beginning of your sequencer
song. This can be done by using the ‘MIDI Controllers Dump’ function described below.

PROGRAM AND CONTROLLER DUMPS

To dump Program Sysex or MIDI Controllers via MIDI, to another Nord Electro 2 or for recording the
data into another MIDI device, do like this:

1. Connect a cable from MIDI OUT on the Nord Electro 2 to MIDI In on the receiving device.

2. Set up the receiving device so that it accepts MIDI Sysex and MIDI Controller data.

3. Press the SHIFT + LEFT OCTAVE SHIFT buttons to enter

the Dump menu. Select what to dump by pressing the
UP/DOWN NAVIGATOR buttons. ‘Pr’ flashing in the
DISPLAY means ‘single Program Dump’, ‘Al’ means ‘All
Programs Dump’ and ‘Ct’ means ‘MIDI Controllers
Dump’. If you’re about to dump a single Program or
MIDI Controllers for a Program, select the Program by
choosing Program Bank with the UP/DOWN NAVIGA-
TOR buttons and Program by pressing the corresponding
PROGRAM button.

4. If needed, set the receiving MIDI device to “recording

mode”.

5. Press the STORE button to send the dump to the MIDI

OUT of Nord Electro 2. The Display will stop flashing
once the dump has been sent.

Note: For Sysex dumps of Organ sounds, the complete settings for the sound will be dumped as MIDI
Sysex. For Piano sounds, all parameters will be sent but NOT the actual instrument samples. There-
fore, when dumping back a Piano Sysex, make sure the actual instrument sound is already loaded in
the Nord Electro 2. Otherwise the parameters in the Sysex message will be applied to another available
Piano instrument. However, the Nord Electro 2 works in an intelligent way regarding substituting Pi-
ano sounds.Let’s say you dumped a Program Sysex based on the Rhod1 sound and then erased the
Rhod1 sound. When you load the Program Sysex back to the Electro 2, it will apply another available
Rhodes sound, the Rhod2 or Rhod3, for example. If no Rhodes sound is available, another piano
sound will be applied.

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 7. MIDI functions: Program and Controller dumps

RECEIVE MIDI SYSEX DUMPS

To receive a MIDI Sysex Dump, do like this:

1. Connect a cable from the MIDI Out on the transmitting device to MIDI IN on the Nord Electro 2.

2. Initiate the transmission on the transmitting device.

If the dump contained all Programs (AL), it will replace all Programs currently stored in the Nord Electro
2. If the dump contained only a single Program (Pr), it will be temporarily placed in the currently selected
Program memory location. You will then have to store the Program manually to a memory location using
the Store function (see “Storing a Program” on page 17).

Note: For Organ sounds, the complete settings for the sound will be received with the MIDI Sysex file.
For Piano sounds, all parameters will be received but not the actual instrument samples. Therefore,
when receiving a Piano MIDI Sysex file, make sure the instrument samples are already present in the
Nord Electro 2. Otherwise the parameters of the Sysex file will be applied to another available Piano
instrument.

Page 43
8. MIDI implementation: MIDI Controller list NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

8. MIDI IMPLEMENTATION

MIDI CONTROLLER LIST

The following is a list of the MIDI Controller numbers used for all KNOBS and BUTTONS on the front
panel. All parameters use the entire control range 0-127. For BUTTONS and for some other parameters
the range is divided into equally big “sections” depending on the number of states of the parameter. For
example, the MODULATIONS selector can have 6 different “positions” and are therefore divided into 6
equally large sections between the values 0 and 127.

Nord Electro 2 Parameter MIDI Controller # MIDI Controller Name

“Play Control” parameters:

Octave Shift Upper Manual (Organ) 27

Octave Shift Lower Manual (Organ) 28

Octave Shift (Piano) 29

Organ section parameters:

16’ Upper Drawbar 16

5 1/3’ Upper Drawbar 17

8’ Upper Drawbar 18

4’ Upper Drawbar 19

2 2/3’ Upper Drawbar 20

2’ Upper Drawbar 21

1 3/5’ Upper Drawbar 22

1 1/3’ Upper Drawbar 23

1’ Upper Drawbar 24
16’ Lower Drawbar 70

5 1/3’ Lower Drawbar 71

8’ Lower Drawbar 72

4’ Lower Drawbar 73
2 2/3’ Lower Drawbar 74

2’ Lower Drawbar 75

1 3/5’ Lower Drawbar 76

1 1/3’ Lower Drawbar 77

1’ Lower Drawbar 78

Page 44
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 8. MIDI implementation: MIDI Controller list

Nord Electro 2 Parameter MIDI Controller # MIDI Controller Name

Percussion Upper On/Off 87

Percussion Upper Fast/Slow, Normal/Soft 88

Percussion Upper 2nd/3rd 95

Vibrato Upper On/Off 85

Vibrato Lower On/Off 86

Vibrato Type 84

Manual Split On/Off 25

Manual Lower/Upper 26

Instrument Select Organ/Piano 13

Piano section parameters:

Piano Type* 12

Piano Sub Type* 44

Presence On/Off 102

Presence Frequency 30

Presence Amount 31

Effects section parameters:

Modulations Type 103

Modulations Rate 104

Modulations Amount 105

Modulations On/Off 106

Effects Type 107

Effects Rate 108

Effects Amount 109

Effects On/Off 110

Overdrive On/Off 112

Overdrive Amount 111

Rotary Speaker On/Off 81

Rotary Speaker Fast/Slow 82

Rotary Speaker Run/Stop 83

Output Level 7 Main Volume

Treble & Bass EQ On/Off 115

Page 45
8. MIDI implementation: MIDI Controller list NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

Nord Electro 2 Parameter MIDI Controller # MIDI Controller Name

Treble 113

Bass 114

Future Expansion parameters

Future Expansion #1 116

Future Expansion #2 117

Future Expansion #3 118

Future Expansion #4 119

Future Expansion #5 89

Future Expansion #6 90

* The parameters ‘Piano Type’ and ‘Piano Sub Type’ are used to define the exact type of Piano instrument
used and not its position in the TYPE selector.

In addition to the above, following MIDI Controllers are used:

• If an expression pedal is used in the CONTROL PEDAL INPUT, it’s transmitted as Controller 11.

• If a sustain pedal is used in the SUSTAIN PEDAL INPUT (and configured to be used for ‘Sustain’), it’s
transmitted as Controller 64 (Damper Pedal)

• If a sustain pedal is used in the ROTOR SPEED INPUT, or in the SUSTAIN PEDAL INPUT (and config-
ured to be used for ‘Rotor Speed’), it’s transmitted as Controller 82.

Page 46
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x 8. MIDI implementation: MIDI Implementation Chart

MIDI IMPLEMENTATION CHART

Model: Clavia Nord Electro 2 OS V2.0x Date: 2002-06-11

Function Transmitted Recognized Remarks

Basic Default 1 – 16 1 – 16
Channel Channel 1 – 16 1 – 16

Default Mode 3 Mode 3

Mode Messages ✕ ✕
Altered ***********

Note 29 – 101 29 – 101

Number True Voice *********** 29 – 101

Velocity Note ON O v = 1 – 127 O v = 1 – 127 incoming Velocity data ignored

Note OFF O O in Organ mode

Aftertouch Key ✕ ✕
Channel ✕ ✕

Pitch Bend ✕ ✕

Control Change O O See “MIDI Controller list” on

page 44.

Program O 0 – 47 O 0 – 47
Change True #

System Exclusive O O See the MIDI Implementation

section.

System : Song Pos ✕ ✕

: Song Sel ✕ ✕
Common : Tune ✕ ✕

System : Clock ✕ ✕
Real Time : Commands ✕ ✕

Aux : Local ON/OFF ✕ ✕

Mes- : All Notes Off ✕ ✕
sages : Active Sense ✕ ✕
: Reset ✕ ✕

Notes

Mode 1: OMNI ON, POLY Mode 2: OMNI ON, MONO O: Yes

Mode 3: OMNI OFF, POLY Mode 4: OMNI OFF, MONO ✕: No

Page 47
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x Index

Index download
Programs via MIDI 18
Drawbar 20
presets 20
store your own... 21
user presets 21
Numerics Dump (Programs/Controllers) 38
2nd, 3rd (Organ Percussion) 21
E
A edit
Programs 16
Ac.Grand (Piano Type) 25
Effects section 28
Auto-Wah (modulation) 30
El.Grand (Piano Type) 25
eq (Treble & Bass) 32
B erase
Bank Programs 18
selecting 12 expression pedal
Bass (eq) 32 connecting 9
buttons technical requirements 9
using 16 using 14

C F
C1-C3 (Organ Chorus) 22 factory presets 39
Chorus (effect) 30 restoring 39
Chorus (organ) 22 Fast (Rotary Speaker) 31
Clav (Piano Type) 25 Flanger (effect) 30
pickup and filter variations 26 front panel 7
Config 36
connections H
audio 9
hard pan of outputs 24, 27, 37
MIDI 9, 41
pedals 9
control pedal I
connecting 9 Instrument Select button 17
technical requirements 9 internal memory 39
using 14 Internet 6
controllers
dump 42 K
list (MIDI) 44
MIDI transmission and reception 40 key click control (organ) 24, 37
copy keyboard 8
Programs 18 split (organ) 22
Keyboard Velocity
internal for Piano sounds 15
D
MIDI 40
delete knobs
Programs 18 using 16
Display 7, 32

Page 49
Index NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x

L O
level Octave Shift 12, 33
master 7, 32 buttons 7
output (individual per Program) 31 Organ section 19
Local (MIDI) 34 OS upgrades 39
Lower Ch 22, 34 output
Lower Manual (organ) 22 level
using external MIDI keyboard 22 master 7
physical 9
M routing 24, 27, 37
Output Level (individual per Program) 31
Manual (Upper/Lower) 22 Overdrive distortion 31
Master Level 7, 32
Master Tune
P
adjusting 35
Mem Lock 35 Pan (modulation) 29
memory (internal) 39 Panic 38
memory protect (Mem Lock) 35 partials (organ drawbar) 20
MIDI pdf file (reading the manual as...) 5
about the implementation 40 Ped. Cnfg 14
basic settings 15 Ped. Pol 13, 36
channel 33 pedals
Lower 34 connecting 9
channels control/expression 14
using with sequencer 41 Rotor Speed 14
connections 41 sustain 13
controllers swell 14
"chasing" when using a sequencer 41 Percussion (organ) 21
list 44 Phaser (effect) 30
recording in sequencer 41 Piano
implementation chart 47 downloading new instruments via USB 39
Keyboard Velocity 40 Type 25
local on/off 34, 41 Piano section 25
Program Change 40 pitch bend MIDI messages 40
recording in sequencer 41 Presence 26
send all MIDI controllers 38, 42 with the Mega Clavinet sound 26
Sysex dump of all Programs 42 Program
Sysex dump of single Programs 42 buttons 7, 32
Sysex reception of Program and Program Banks copying 18
43 deleting 18
using an external "lower manual" keyboard 22 downloading from MIDI 18
MIDI Ch 33 editing 16
Modulations 29 reverting to stored 17
selecting 12
N storing 17
What is it? 16
Navigator buttons 7, 32 Program Change (MIDI) 40
Note On/Off
MIDI transmission and reception 40

Page 50
NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.0x Index

R V
rear panel 9 V1-V3 (Organ Vibrato) 22
Rhod (Piano Type) 25 Vibrato (organ) 22
Rhod2 (Piano Type) 25 volume
RingMod (modulation) 29 individual per Program 31
Rotary Speaker 31 master 7, 32
controlling speed from pedal 31
Rotor Speed pedal W
connecting 9
Wah-Wah (modulation) 29
Wur (Piano Type) 25
S
save
Programs 17
sequencing with Nord Electro 41
Shift button 7, 33
signal routing (internal) 11
Slow (Organ Percussion) 21
Soft (Organ Percussion) 21
Split (Lower & Upper Manuals) 22
Stop (Rotary Speaker) 31
Store
button 7, 32
store
Programs 17
sustain pedal
connecting 9
settings 13
swell 23
pedal
using 14

T
Transpose 13, 35
Treble (eq) 32
Tremolo (modulation) 29
Tune (Master) 35

U
Upper Manual (organ) 22
USB (for downloading Piano instruments) 39
User Store 21

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