Description

KEY FEATURES

+ TOTAL RECALL: When you open your Live Project, all saved values are automatically sent to your Nord Lead 2X hardware

+ RECEIVE and SEND patches from your Nord Lead 2X hardware

+ LOAD and SAVE presets in Ableton Live

+ As you EDIT any controller on the Nord Lead 2X hardware, you can FOLLOW this on the plug-in

+ VIEW and EDIT all MORPH/Velocity parameters

+ Quick access to the "SECRET" FILTER TYPE (Notch)

+ BI-DIRECTIONAL editing of all sound parameters

+ Precise AUTOMATION & MODULATION of all sound parameters

+ Use up to four layers for MULTI-SEQUENCING or STACKING: Load and route four instances on different MIDI tracks

+ Your saved patches and program banks will not be overwritten on the Nord Lead 2X Synthesizer until you decide and press the red store button

+ RANDOMIZE your patches to find inspiring sounds - just click on the small dots in the headers (LFO, OSCs, Amp & Filter)

+ Low CPU usage

WHAT IT CAN'T DO:

- It does not generate any sound by itself - you also need the Nord Lead 2X SYNTHESIZER

- No Performance Mode

SETUP ABLETON LIVE - Please read carefully!

1. Download "Nord Lead 2X.amxd" and copy it to Live's User Library: Ableton/User Library/Presets/MIDI Effects/Max MIDI Effect

2. Quit and restart Ableton Live

3. Drag & Drop "Nord Lead 2X.amxd" from Live's Browser (Max for Live -> Max MIDI Effect) onto a new MIDI track and arm it (click the red button below the solo button)

4. Drag & Drop an "External Instrument" onto the same MIDI track and set the MIDI and Audio routings according to your setup (MIDI Channel 1 for Layer A, MIDI Channel 2 for Layer B...)

5. Open Live's Preferences and go to the Link/MIDI Tab. Activate "Track" and "Remote" for both MIDI ports your Nord Lead 2X is connected to (Input & Output). Optionally, you can activate "Sync" on the MIDI port output to retrigger the LFOs in Sync with Live.

6. If you want to use the four layers (A,B,C,D) of the Nord Lead 2X, create up to four MIDI tracks and repeat instructions 3 and 4.

SETTINGS ON YOUR NORD LEAD 2X HARDWARE - Please read carefully!

7. Make backups of your programs and banks before you start

8. Connect two MIDI cables to the MIDI Input and MIDI Output from the Nord Lead 2X to your Audio/MIDI Interface

9. LOCAL CONTROL = OFF (press & hold SHIFT and tap once the LOCAL Button = off) -> this setting is not permanent after switching off - so please always check this setting after switching on the Nord Lead 2X

10. PROGRAM CHANGE: ON (press & hold SHIFT and tap once the PROG.CTRL Button = P.on)

11. CONTROL CHANGE: ON (press & hold SHIFT and tap two times the PROG.CTRL Button = C.on)

12. MIDI CHANNELS: LAYER A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, D = 4

13. GLOBAL MIDI CHANNEL = 16 (press & hold SHIFT and tap two times the MIDI CH button = G.16) - this is necessary for Program Change Messages and Perfomances only, don't use Channel 16 in Live's External Instrument instead (only use MIDI Channels 1,2,3 and 4)

USING PRESETS

There are 3 round buttons in the upper right corner of this device. To save a preset, please click the right button (click "Do not copy" in the following popup). Alternatively, you can also drag and drop the plugin into any folder in Live's Browser to save a preset.

To load a preset, you can drag a saved preset from Live's Browser directly onto the device or onto a new MIDI track. By clicking the middle button in the upper right corner of this device ("Hot Swap") you can quickly call up and load previously saved presets.

KNOWN BUGS

• When you open a very large project in Ableton Live patches are occasionally not transferred correctly. Solution/Workaround: Close the project without saving (but keep Ableton running: load a new project) and open it again.

• For accurate SysEx dumps (sending / receiving patches) it is recommended to stop the playback

• Version 1.5: The following buttons have changed their states (Off -> On / On -> Off): UNISON, AUTO (Portamento), KEY (OSC2), VEL (Filter) and DIST (Filter). This only affects old patches saved in Ableton (* .adv) and instances of older versions in your song projects!

VERSION HISTORY

2013-09-10 Version 1.0

Initial Release

2013-09-17 Version 1.1

New Nord Lead 2X GUI

2013-09-24 Version 1.2

Added Program/Bank Change incl. "Send" button to send all current controllers to the Nord Lead 2X

2013-10-29 Version 1.3

Major Update: Import/Export Patches (SysEx Dump), Layer, Velocity/Morph, Randomize, Mouse-over infos

2020-06-03 Version 1.4

Full SysEx support for Ableton Live 10 (no more SysEx bridge required!)

2020-07-29 Version 1.5

Ableton Push 2 support: Parameters are now sorted in banks to allow faster access

REQUIREMENTS

+ Clavia Nord Lead/Rack 2X

+ Ableton Live 10

+ Mac/PC

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Please read and follow the steps above before contacting me, thanks! Email: piet@protonica.de

Developed by Piet Kämpfer in Berlin