From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Wed Aug 22 05:45:01 2001
Subject:Re: My new Nord ELectro

Dave,

>I own a V5, not a V3, but my guess is that the V3 window is showing the upper
>manual patch and the lower one is being accessed via midi. So a lower manual
>change won't up on the screen. Am I wrong??

You're right about the V3: The Lower channel changes patches just like the
Upper channel does, only there's no readout available to track the
progress. When the V3 is turned on, it sets the Lower and Pedal patches to
the default settings (in the Global section). After that, any patch
changes seen on the Lower or Pedal MIDI channels will cause patch
changes. Unfortunately, there are no visuals to go with the audible
effects, due to the V3's small size.

To answer the original question in more detail:

If your second keyboard allows disabling the sending of MIDI Patch/Program
Change messages, then turn them off and you're all set. If not, and you
still don't want the V3's Lower channel to change with the other sounds you
use, you need to add a filtering box in the line between the second
keyboard's OUT and the V3's IN. I've used a MIDI Solutions Router to do
this kind of thing for several years, and I couldn't live without it. In
addition to removing or rerouting Patch Change messages, it can do a couple
of other neat "MIDI glue" tricks:

ex: I use the TX Channel switch on my AN1x -- very easy to find on a gig
-- as both a two-manual organ selector and an 'octave transpose' button for
my Alesis S4. I program one S4 sound on CH2, and the same sound an octave
lower on CH1. I set my CX-3 to receive CH3 for the lower manual and CH5
for the upper manual. When all of this is done, the AN1x now sends info
like this --

CH1 -- S4 octave down
CH2 -- S4 normal
CH3 -- CX-3 lower manual
CH4 -- AN1x only

I still want to be able to change sounds on the S4 at any time,
though. So, I program the Router to change CH1 and CH3-CH16 Patch messages
to CH2 Patch messages, leave everything else feeding through directly, and
send that to the S4. That way, the S4 responds to upcoming changes while
the keyboard is being used for organ or synth, or when it's transposed.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice
978.964.0547 fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com