Ultimate NORD Stage MIDI Pedal Board

[Merlimau]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

When you connect both MIDI plugs (MIDI-IN / MIDI-OUT) into the Stage, can you still use the USB MIDI as well to send data? For instance to use Setlistmaker in parallel.
Do you have some rubber under the carbon plate to avoid slide away?

Does the Arduino can receive MIDI data from the Stage? If yes you can send a program change by turning on the Stage program knob and then you know on which program you are. From there the Arduino program can generate a MIDI signal for program up/down.

[guentergunter]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

You're

When you connect both MIDI plugs (MIDI-IN / MIDI-OUT) into the Stage, can you still use the USB MIDI as well to send data? For instance to use Setlistmaker in parallel.

I do not use USB-MIDI at all (although the Arduino has native USB-MIDI support). That’s since the Stage doesn’t have a MIDI-USB-IN functionality (and honestly I don’t know any keyboard with such a feature at all).

Anyway: Expanding an USB-Socket to the case (example), you can easily add that feature at least to the pedal board.

Do you have some rubber under the carbon plate to avoid slide away?

No, since I want it to be as flat as possible (the carbon plate is just 3mm, but still indestructible ).
I will add two metal cords to the holes in the lower edges with clamps for my Spider Stand.

Does the Arduino can receive MIDI data from the Stage? If yes you can send a program change by turning on the Stage program knob and then you know on which program you are. From there the Arduino program can generate a MIDI signal for program up/down.

First: The Arduino can receive any MIDI data and do whatever programmable as a reaction.

Your is idea is great , but with one drawback.
The problem is with the stage. It doesn’t count program numbers consecutively when in Song/Live Mode.
(but I might be wrong on that, since I didn’t have the time to dig totally into sound programming)

If I’m wrong, I will add your suggested feature shortly

[guentergunter]

I just encountered a problem with the "pedal noise" feature sounding much to loud.
This was due to a non-linear interpretation of the damper pedal position within the original Nord Triple pedal.

The non-linearity is given by the electric resistance found out by user maxpiano (THREAD) and is as follows:

[not_pushed -> ... -> pushed]
(infinite) -> 10 kΩ -> ( 10 kΩ || 4700 Ω ) -> ( 10 kΩ || 4700 Ω || 2200 Ω ) -> ( 10 kΩ || 4700 Ω || 2200 Ω || 820 Ω )

So, the overall resistance steps of the original NORD pedal are:

[not_pushed -> ... -> pushed]
(infinite) -> 10 kΩ -> 3197 Ω -> 1303 Ω -> 503 Ω


Honestly, all that ain't necessary to be calculated...
After two days of experimenting, I found out how to reproduce the pedal noise via MIDI and it's working like a charm.
See program code in the first post

[fjzingo]

Really cool project, congrats to the pedal board and thanks for pointing out Arduino!

[ericL]

This is super awesome!!! You really put in a lot of time and effort on this!
I have a related project that is not nearly as complex, but has a similar end result. Posting in a separate thread.

[Merlimau]

The problem is with the stage. It doesn’t count program numbers consecutively when in Song/Live Mode.

Try what MIDI date you get in Song/Live Mode.

I meant that you get the program number back from Stage like:
Bank MSB: 0
Bank LSB: 1 (Bank B)
Program: 2 (Program 3)

And then you just count up the program to 3 (new: Bank B, program 4) or down.

When you reach Bank LSB 1, program 99 you go to the next Bank LSB (Bank C)

Attached the MIDI program conversion table for Setlismaker.

[anotherscott]

the Stage doesn’t have a MIDI-USB-IN functionality (and honestly I don’t know any keyboard with such a feature at all).

Korg Kronos.

[guentergunter]

This is super awesome!!! You really put in a lot of time and effort on this!
I have a related project that is not nearly as complex, but has a similar end result. Posting in a separate thread.

Maybe you wanna share the link? Couldn't find it acually...

[guentergunter]

the Stage doesn’t have a MIDI-USB-IN functionality (and honestly I don’t know any keyboard with such a feature at all).

Korg Kronos.

Thanks for clearing that out
If ever I buy me a Kronos and continue using my pedal board, then it's 3 lines of code and an additional USB connector for USB-MIDI-Support.
I once built a first version of such a pedal board (with less pedals) for the usage with MainStage. Here I already used USB-MIDI - quite easy to handle...

[guentergunter]

The problem is with the stage. It doesn’t count program numbers consecutively when in Song/Live Mode.

Try what MIDI date you get in Song/Live Mode.

I meant that you get the program number back from Stage like:
Bank MSB: 0
Bank LSB: 1 (Bank B)
Program: 2 (Program 3)

And then you just count up the program to 3 (new: Bank B, program 4) or down.

When you reach Bank LSB 1, program 99 you go to the next Bank LSB (Bank C)

Attached the MIDI program conversion table for Setlismaker.

That's easily implementable, but then I would need an additional MIDI-Cable, replacing the TRS-cable
So, in the end I'm still stuck with two cables due to the lack of program up/down via MIDI CC support from Nord...