Sustain pedal via MIDI problem

[SteveW]

Hi Nord community,
I'm a Nord newbie and hoping someone can help me! I've just bought a NE6d 61 which I'm also connecting to my Roland RD-88 piano via MIDI. (MIDI out of Roland to MIDI in of NE.) I have separate damper pedals for both keyboards, which work fine. However when I play a sound from the NE from the Roland keyboard via MIDI, it does not respond properly to the Roland's damper pedal (Roland DP10) - notes stay sustained when the pedal is released. I don't want to have to remember to move to the NE's damper pedal in that situation (for instance, sometimes I will need to preserve the NE damper pedal to control its own keyboard separately.)

My new NE has replaced a Roland keyboard, which used to respond normally to the Roland RD-88 damper pedal. So the problem seems to be with the NE.

I'm guessing this problem has to do with the realm of MIDI control messages, which to me is mysterious and intimidating. However, can someone suggest what the problem might be and how I might try to resolve it? I'd be very grateful for some expert help as I've got gigs coming up and starting to panic!

Many thanks

Steve

[SteveW]

Hi SteveW and welcome to NUF!

first check is to know how you have configured the NE6d: I assume you are not using the Global channel but ExtKeybToLo function/Channel to assign Piano section to the RD88 as external master, correct? (this will ensure the NE6 Piano section will not be affected by a sustain pedal connected to the NE6 itself).

If already using ExtKeybToLo, second check is: try to set the DP10 in Switch mode (not Continuous) and see if anything changes.

[SteveW]

Hi Steve

and a very warm welcome to this great forum of nord enthusiasts.

Have you tried changing the sustain pedal’s menu setting, be it „open“ or „close“? Page 27 of your manual:
https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sites/def ... on%20H.pdf

Good luck and cheers from Germany

[maxpiano]

Hi Steve

and a very warm welcome to this great forum of nord enthusiasts.

Have you tried changing the sustain pedal’s menu setting, be it „open“ or „close“? Page 27 of your manual:
https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sites/def ... on%20H.pdf

Good luck and cheers from Germany

That setting is related only to a pedal connected to the NE6D sustain pedal input, but Steve has a problem when playing NE6 sounds from the RD88 with DP10 connected to RD88 sustain pedal input (not to the NE6)

[SteveW]

I was quickly scanning the RD88 manual and page 21 has some MIDI settings that might be worth checking to be sure the RD88 is sending what should be sent. I didn't see any detailed parameters for sustain polarity as it pertains to MIDI. If the RD88 and DP10 are locked together in a polarity that is not liked by the NE6, then it could be a problem. Hopefully there's a toggle somewhere that can make this work, as I can't remember in all my years playing keyboards that the master KB sustain doesn't translate properly, even between brands. It might be a matter of turning things off and back on again to reset or messing with those MIDI out parameters. Best of luck!

[SteveW]

Hi Eric,
Thanks for your help here. In fact (see earlier reply from maxpiano) the problem was far simpler - I'd overlooked the fact that there's a tiny switch on the DP10 sustain pedal - switching it to 'switch' not 'continuous' solved the problem.
All best wishes
Steve

[SteveW]

Hi Maxpiano (and all other responders),
I solved the problem, thanks to Max's excellent and speedy reply and suggestion. I had overlooked the tiny switch on the DP-10 damper pedal. When it switched it from 'continuous' to 'switch', the NE now responds properly to the damper. (Doh!)

Many apologies - I thought I had posted a reply to Max about this straight away but, being new to the Forum, I can't have hit the right buttons to send it!

Max (and al) - many thanks again for your superb help.

All the best,

Steve

[SteveW]

Hi Maxpiano (and all other responders),
I solved the problem, thanks to Max's excellent and speedy reply and suggestion. I had overlooked the tiny switch on the DP-10 damper pedal. When it switched it from 'continuous' to 'switch', the NE now responds properly to the damper. (Doh!)

Many apologies - I thought I had posted a reply to Max about this straight away but, being new to the Forum, I can't have hit the right buttons to send it!

Max (and al) - many thanks again for your superb help.

All the best,

Steve

Good, of course in this way you won't be able to use Half Pedaling on the RD88 (on NE6 it wouldn't be supported in any case, so probably for your setup this is not an issue)

Anyway I think it is better also to explain why I suggested that; basically the starting point is that RD88 was not sending the sustain MIDI CC64 = 0 when the pedal was not pressed and this can be due mainly to 2 typical reasons:

1) incorrect pedal type setup on RD88 (unless it has some auto-detect function, probably you have to set it explicitly in its Global menu or something like that)

2) DP10 pot not reaching 0 value when pedal not pressed (it can happen, you can check it with a multimeter or just a MIDI Monitor app; fixing is about adjusting it mechanically)

So, in case you want to go back and use DP10 in Continuous mode you should check both points above

[SteveW]

Hi Max
Thanks very much - that's useful to know. Thanks for explaining.
All the best
Steve

[changearound]

Hi Maxpiano (and all other responders),
I solved the problem, thanks to Max's excellent and speedy reply and suggestion. I had overlooked the tiny switch on the DP-10 damper pedal. When it switched it from 'continuous' to 'switch', the NE now responds properly to the damper. (Doh!)

Many apologies - I thought I had posted a reply to Max about this straight away but, being new to the Forum, I can't have hit the right buttons to send it!

Max (and al) - many thanks again for your superb help.

All the best,

Steve

Good, of course in this way you won't be able to use Half Pedaling on the RD88 (on NE6 it wouldn't be supported in any case, so probably for your setup this is not an issue)

Anyway I think it is better also to explain why I suggested that; basically the starting point is that RD88 was not sending the sustain MIDI CC64 = 0 when the pedal was not pressed and this can be due mainly to 2 typical reasons:

1) incorrect pedal type setup on RD88 (unless it has some auto-detect function, probably you have to set it explicitly in its Global menu or something like that)

2) DP10 pot not reaching 0 value when pedal not pressed (it can happen, you can check it with a multimeter or just a MIDI Monitor app; fixing is about adjusting it mechanically)

So, in case you want to go back and use DP10 in Continuous mode you should check both points above

It may not require a cc64 value of 0 to turn off sustain. I don't have an Electro 6 to check but on my Stage EX cc64 0-63 = sustain off and cc64-127 = sustain on.

What I think may be happening is that when the DP10 is in cc mode, the Electro is being bombarded with a continuous stream of midi data as the pedal is depressed and released when it is expecting a simple on off message. The Electro can't cope with the data overload and gets stuck with sustain on.