Nord User Forum

[garysch]

A few notes using piano or EPs, are significantly louder that the rest. These notes also appear to have crossed to the next higher layer. None are at or near full velocity. The degree of difference, of course, depends on the piano sample in use and how the various layers are configured. There is a group of 4 notes from C72 downward, and a couple of others.

Based on a conversation with Pablo, I ordered and replaced the entire key contact PC boards with a new set of contacts factory installed. The problem persists on the same notes. Since this issue appears on more than one sample set, which I have reloaded, the sound "engine" does not seem to be the culprit. It appears to me to be a mechanical keyboard issue. I'm going to check the key dip with some weights I have. I might even try to swap a key with another one. Before I plow into this, any suggestions would be appreciated. ( I studied piano in college (some light years ago) and have a lovely Baldwin 7' grand with the German Renner action. )

Gary

[baekgaard]

Have you tried to play the same notes with the keyboard transposed an octave? The same keys should then cause a problem but now sounding new tones.

... just to double check what you're hearing.

[garysch]

Excellent suggestion. Yes, the problem stays with the keys, not the sample. What makes this rather insidious is that at light key pressures, everything is fine. Somewhere in the medium range the affected notes change timbre, because the sent velocity triggers the higher velocity samples. Depending on the piano in use, the change can be quite dramatic rendering that particular instrument unusable. I did notice that there is some key depth variation. Even though it is slight, it may be just enough to cause this problem. I'm going to try to shim a note or two.

[Mr_-G-]

One other thing you could check: If you find e.g. a small piece of wood the width of 3 keys, you could place the wood on top of a key and it's two adjacent neighbours, and then "play" the 3 keys. If you use a MIDI monitor connected via USB or MIDI, you should be able to see what velocity is triggered when they are played at the same "speed".

If good and bad keys are similar in this situation, it could be different weights or a spring that is malfunctioning or something similar. If they are very different in this situation, it's probably related to the contacts; maybe one is triggered too early?

[Coker]

I had the same problem on mine last year. I found that some hairs had been sucked into the rubber pad that covers the contacts within the keybed. They were prevent one of the two contacts to “make”, implying full velocity when played. Easy fix, once you get the many screws out to take things apart. After that, I vacuumed the keybed regularly. (Is YOUR hair falling out, too?)