Nord User Forum

Hi,

I bought an Electro 5D 61 last week and I love the sounds but I'm
having a frustrating sustain problem where the sustain sometimes drops out when i play
the sounds from external midi keyboards. This doesn't happen when playing the
Nord keybed, but it does with either my Kawai VPC1 (using the factory Kawai 3 pedal
unit) or my Casio Px5s (using the same M audio SP2 which works perfectly
on the Nord keybed and fine with the Casio sounds)

It's like i have to stamp on the sustain pedals to make sure it doesn't drop
the sustained notes at anytime. Both pedals work fine otherwise. Please can you advise
on a solution as its important to me to play the gorgeous Nord pianos on my 88
note midi keybeds.

Thanks,

Toby

Just to esclude the maybe obvious, do you have the latest NE5 OS version?

hi, yes its on 1.42

Could you be hitting the max polyphony and so you hear voice stealing?

Toblerone44 wrote:I'm having a frustrating sustain problem where the sustain sometimes drops out when i play
the sounds from external midi keyboards. This doesn't happen when playing the
Nord keybed, but it does with either my Kawai VPC1 (using the factory Kawai 3 pedal
unit) or my Casio Px5s (using the same M audio SP2 which works perfectly
on the Nord keybed and fine with the Casio sounds)

When comparing the results of using the internal vs. and external keyboard, are you triggering the same sounds? Specifically, if your test on the Nord's own keyboard was with piano sounds, but your test from the external keyboard was triggering synth/sample sounds, that could cause that kind of difference, as the former has a lot more available polyphony than the latter.

I appreciate the replies guys.

I wondered if it was note stealing, but it doesn't happen when playing on the Nord keybed. Just to clarify I'm using the same piano section on upper, when playing on the Nord and external midi keyboards.

Toblerone44 wrote:I appreciate the replies guys.

I wondered if it was note stealing, but it doesn't happen when playing on the Nord keybed. Just to clarify I'm using the same piano section on upper, when playing on the Nord and external midi keyboards.

Additional ideas, hints:

1) When you do that, do you have the sustain pedal only on the master or do you have another one also attached directly to the NE5?

2) Which MIDI configuration do you exactly have on the NE5?

3) Have you tried to use it in MIDI Upper mode so that yoy fully dedicate a NE5 section to the external keyboard only?

Ok so tested it more earlier. The problem seems related to how much force I apply to the pedal when it's depressed. When I really lean on the pedal it works fine when playing midi on the Casio and Kawai, but I have to make sure I do so otherwise it doesn't always trigger the sustain

It doesn't feel the same when I use the M audio sp1 directly on the Nord or directly on the Casio with its internal sounds. I'll borrow another pedal and test it. Nor does it do this when I midi other sound sources to either the Kawai or the Casio.

It's a bit bizarre this one, I've been a pro player for many years and had lots of gear, but this is weird. Otherwise, I love the Electro 5 it sounds fantastic.

Try using a completely different MIDI cable.

I want to revive this issue, because I have an Electro 4 and I have a similar question. Here's what I think is happening: my sustain pedal is strictly an on/off switch. Most keyboards will translate it to values 0 and 127. However, the Electro 4 somehow seems to send 3 values from the pedal: 0, 64, and 127. It's the handling of the 64 from other midi instruments that can be unpredictable.