Nord Stage How to use the Virtual Analog Synth

If you have not yet worked with an analog or VA Synth, you might check out the basics,
e.g., here:
http://www.soundonsound.com/search?url=%2Fsearch&Keyword=%22synth+secrets%22&Words=All&Su
mmary=Yes
And you should have read the Nord Manual, in particular the Synth section.
In this little tutorial, I want to describe the basic workflow when using the Nord Stage
as an Virtual Analog Synth. That is, it applies only to the Analog Part of the Synth,
Envelopes, and Filters.
The basic things you need for creating some nice Patches with an Analog Style synthesizer
are two oscillators, Filter, Envelopes, LFOs and some additional small tools. Given that
the Nord Stage Synth engine is kind of stripped down compared e.g. to the Nord Lead, I
had to figure out how to overcome some shortcomings. Moreover, the Documentation in the
Manual is not perfect as in particular the settings for the Timbre control are not well
documented so I had to measure them myself.
In the following I report my findings which I am currently using to build some patches of
natural instruments as well as recreating some classical Analog synths.
1) Oscillators:
One or two oscillators will suffice for most jobs, at least to start with.
(a) non-synched (=Standard)
The basic ones used are the Sawtooth(S), Pulsewidth(P), and triangle(T) forms along with
noise(n) and SINE(C/ turning Timbre to zero).

The Pulsewidth Waveform is important and the pulsewidth can be adjusted by the timbre
knob where 0.0=50% and 10.0=1%, i.e. increasing the value by 1.0 decreases the width
by 5% (e.g., 10% width would be timbre=8.0).
A Sine wave is not directly integrated. You can use the "C/" waveform but i found that
it has a very strong second harmonics and weak 3th and 4th, no idea why. Another
option is the FM program 1 with TIMBRE set to zero which looks/sounds more like a true
sine wave, or lastly:
Sine wave using the Noise generator: Use the NOISE generator, Resonance at 10.0, 24db
Filters and adjust the frequency to the desired tone (Set the Cutoff to 330 Hz (with
full keyboard track, the cutoff frequency shown in the display is the one applied if
one plays the note E4) if you want to play the notes as if it where a Piano (A4=A4).
While not being a perfect sine, this allows on top using the keyboard track buttons to
create an oscillator which is independent of the key you play (which on a
traditional synth you can select using the KeyTrack switch and is useful for some
sounds).
(b) 2 Oscillators
Many Synth sounds are based on two Oscillators, typically detuned at a specific interval
to create a greater variety of sounds. The Nord Stage does provide a built-in detunable
Sawtooth Wave with the Sd waveform. Here, the Timbre know detunes the second oscillator
up to two octaves where 0=-1 Octave, 5.0=equal, 10.0=+1 Octave, i.e., one semitone equals
0.42 on the scale.
The triangle and pulsewidth oscillator don't allow two different oscillators at a time.
One method of overcoming this limitation is using both Synth sections of Panel A & B at
the same time which allows at least to detune the oscillators by +/- 1 octave (e.g. for a
Marimba sound).
If you need different waveforms detunable in any interval, there is another possibility:
basically, take, e.g., a square waveform for one Synth Panel and select the Noise
generator for the other panel. As stated above, use resonance to make the Noise generator
selfresonate and create a sine wave this way. But how to calculate the Cutoff frequency
if you want the Sine, say, dx=7 semitones (=a fifth) above the other, fundamental pitch?
Given the characteristics of the Nord Filter, = 330 (2!/!" )!" 330 1.06!" Hertz gives you
the appropriate cutoff frequency, so for our the example you just set the Cutoff 494Hz
(full keyboard tracking).
Finally, if you need the oscs only slightly out of tune using the UNISON knob in its
first half of the range which allows adding a second oscillator up to 10cents out of
tune.
(c)synched
The Stage features a second oscillator for creating hard-synched sounds which can be
created on any analogue 2 Oscillator Synth by swithinc Sync ON, so in this case we are

fine with the stage. The timbre know in this case controls the pitch of the synchronized
osc (thus changing only the color of the tone, as the main pitch is controlled by the
Master osc). Using the timbre knob you can set the pitch of the slave osc (which must be
higher than the Master's pitch). At 0.0, the pitchs are equal, at 3.8 the slave's pitch
is one octave higher, at 7.6 it is two octaves higher, i.e., one semitone equals
approximately 0.3 on the scale.
Filters
Obviously there are a wide range of filters used in analog synths, still, the LP is by
far the most common so the NS does a good job in this section. As mentioned before, with
full keyboard track, the cutoff frequency is the one when playing the note E4.
Envelope Generators
You get basic stuff with the Nord Stage, but it suffices for most what I am currently
looking at: an AEG and FEG with two adjustable parameters each. Obviously, the classical
4 Parameter ADSR envelope would be nice to have but I can mostly live with it.
The only "real" shortcoming for me is if you want an LFO you cannot use the FEG at the
same time.
LFOs
At the beginning I did not quite use it a lot but after working a lot with
the Synth section, I now consider it really well done by CLAVIA to squeeze it in the
Stage.
Altogether, you have three LFO options on the Nord Stage
1. Vibrato/Pitch-LFO: The vibrato Switch allows to set some basic vibrato which can be
set to 4-8Hz in ths SYSTEM menu and is triggered differently. If you want it always,
assign it to the Wheel and always have it up.
2. Tremolo/Amplitude-LFO: Using the Tremolo effect gives you this effect when set to
the Synth section
3. But the most important LFO (and the one most likely to resemble a "real" one) is the
repeat mode of the Filter Envelope Generator.
By adjusting the Attack and Decay Value you can create basically anything between a
triangle and Sawtooth waveform. If you want to set it to a particular frequency,
!
knowing that frequency is just the inverse of time, compute =
. So if
(!_!""#$%!!_!"#$%)

you need an LFO of triangle waveform with 10Hz, you need a cycle length of 1/10=0.1
Seconds or 200ms implying 50ms for both Attack and Decay. If you wanted a Sawtooth
form, you should choose 0ms for Attack and 100ms for Decay.
This LFO can than be either used to control the Cutoff frequency (WahWah, for this,
you could also use one of the WahWah FXs) or the Timbre Parameter of the oscillator.
In particular, when applied using a Pulsewidth Oscillator, you have
PulseWidthModulation(PWM).
The rest
What do classical Analog Synths have on top of these basic tools? You might find the
UNISON feature which enriches the sounds by adding slightly detuned oscs, which the NS
has integrated, a Sample&Hold Waveform which creates computer-type sounds (NS doesn't
have one), Glide/Portamento (NS does), Legato/Mono/Poly modes (as well), Ring
Modulation(see the FX section) and switching Keyboard tracking on/off (can be somehow
replicated using the Noise generator with fullResonance).
Bottom line, the NS is for sure not the most tweakable VA on the market and has certain
limitations (Most importantly, not all osc combinations/tunings are possible, only LP
filter and only two parameters per Envelope Generator). However, after working hard on
replicating several sounds I heard from classical Moog etc. Synths I must say that you
can do still quite lot.