Using the Nord Stage with a Sequencer

[Johannes]

After messing around a week with my new gadget, a portable Sequencer QY-70 from Yamaha, I found it not too streightforward to get the best out of the 6-fold multitimbrality of the Stage so I wanted at least to put my results here or see how people approach the songmaking process with the Nord Stage.
While I am familiar with standard Workstation kind of setups, the Stage is a bit special due to its very nature with the two Panels, 3 different sound engines etc.
But now after having found a, I guess, not too bad solution I got -again, even though I own the NS for a year now, excited about the endless opportunities the two Panels, which I did not use too much on stage other than smooth morphing between two sounds. Now with a combination of loop based and linear recording, the multitimbrality becomes really handy.

What I described below is tailored towards the Yamaha QY sequencers, but I used to work in a similar fashion with a software sequencer (Ableton) so the basics are rather similar. My main goal was avoiding having to trackbounce/freeze a midi track before playing others!

1)Song Mode / Linear sequencing
NS:
So the best way I've come up with was to assign all instruments on Panel A to 1
and on Panel B to 2 (default is OFF but with off you cannot make each instrument seperately respond to MIDI while not being played from the Keys) Moreover, I assigned Panel A to 1 as well and Panel B to 2 as it is by default.
Regarding the External Section, I set the Channels as follows: Extern A to 3 and Extern B to 4.

QY-70:
On the QY-70, selecting Ch1, Volume=0, Stage: Select Panel A and use instruments
I like, record. Same with selecting Ch2 and Panel B.

For track 3 and 4, say, I want to use QY's internal instruments:
In order to use the keybed of the Stage, I "mute" all instruments used by
pressing shift+the ON/OFF button of the instrument so that the three LEDs are
off but it still responds to MIDI.
So I select Ch3 on the QY, choose the sound, go to Panel A on the Stage and
select the EXTERNAL Section. Record and done. Repeat with Ch4 and Panel B.

Result:
I have two Piano/Organ/Synth tracks plus two internal sounds which should suffice for many applications plus the patterns/drums.
From the NORD STAGE, I get two MIDI tracks using each one Panel, i.e., threefold multitimbrality or one Piano, Organ, Synth each.


2) Pattern Mode / loop based recording
Using the Pattern mode I record several loops up to eight bars each and can afterwards combine them to a song. This is more suitable if you want to jam along a chord line, create songs based on chord patterns, make more electronic type of music etc.

NS:
Here I use Panel A for „serial“ stuff in the Song mode while the pattern is recorded through Panel B. I set in the MIDI menu
Panel A: Organ:1, Piano:2, Synth:3, Panel:Off Extern: Ch4
Panel B: Organ:13, Piano:14, Synth:15, Panel: Off Extern:Ch16

QY-70:
Here I use Midi Channels 9-16 for the pattern /loop part oft he track (setting in the MIDI menu) and put Echo on RecMonitor.
To create some basic loops, I select channels 9-11 for recording percussions (I can use the Keyboard oft he NS only if I activate the External Section on either Panel ), then Bass on Channel 12 (again using the Stage as Controller Keyboard.
Now on channels 13-15 I can control the three Instruments of the Stage on Panel B: Say I start with the Organ, I select the organ on Panel B, select Channel 13 on the QY and record. Then SHIFT+ON/OFF at the Organ section in order to record the next (Piano) track on channel 14 so that the Organ playes back but does not respond to the keyboard.

After I have some basic loops as the basis for a song, I switch to Song mode and put the different Parts (Intro/A/B/Fills/Chorus/Ending…) together and can record some new tracks over the whole song. ON the Nord Stage, I can leave Panel B as it is, switch to Panel A and proceed as before.

Result:
I can actually easily create a song containing some looped patterns using up to three songs of the Nord Stage while playing the three remaining voices over the whole track.
After having created some songs like that in less than one hour each, I REALLY got a new idea oft he powerful multitimbrality oft he Nord Stage!! Even though I like the soundso f the QY and other sound sources I use, it is just great to sequence a song with two organ parts, a Rhodes, Grand and 2 Synths without having to freeze of trackbounce so I can edit afterwards as I like the midi data.

Sorry for this long Post, , but feel free to comment your experiences or other work flows as at least I would be interested to learn how to optimize the process of ideas in the head into a final song!!
Tschüsss
Johannes