to long release or to not long release

[afroskully]

I guess this is geared more to the semi weighted acoustic piano playing nord user, but maybe those with weighted keys have similar things to say...

I have always had the long release function enabled as a default (NE5 SW), and I've recently taken it off with all grands and uprights and I think I'm liking this better.

So.. do people really use this for "legato playing styles", or do you just leave it on or off? Just curious to see what others do...

[Hlaalu]

Exact same as you here. I had long release on, then I now have it off for all my patches. To borrow from synth terminology, what long release does is to change the ADSR envelope of the piano so that the release part is a tad longer and softly fading away as opposed to more abruptly being stopped with a slight hammer noise quickly returning to its place and the dampers being shut onto the strings. Having it off is truer to the way a real piano works and sounds. The only reason I could see to have it on would be if you like a more "airy" sound.

[Spider]

Same here, I used to have it active as a standard feature on my piano sounds, without even thinking about it.
Then one day I did some critical listening and realized that it sounds like crap, on acoustic pianos and even more on EP sounds which have a more pronounced release noise. It totally changes the character of the pianos and not in a good way, eliminating the release noises and making the sound definitely "artificial".
I don't know why they invented that feature, pianos just don't work that way: when a key is released the sound cuts off, and that's it. Also, I never found that the slightly longer release made any difference in my playing, to my ears it's almost unnoticeable: it's just a few milliseconds and I don't really hear a longer note, just a worse release sound.

Now when I want some longer (and much more realistic) decay after releasing the keys, I just turn up the reverb!

[maxpiano]

I don't know why they invented that feature, pianos just don't work that way: when a key is released the sound cuts off, and that's it. Also, I never found that the slightly longer release made any difference in my playing, to my ears it's almost unnoticeable: it's just a few milliseconds and I don't really hear a longer note, just a worse release sound.

(from the manual)
activating SOFT RELEASE will add a slightly longer and less pronounced release to the piano sound. This
is equivalent to what happens when you adjust the damper tension in an acoustic or an electromechanical instrument. The added release is individual for every note and responds dynamically to the force with which you play

so it is intended to simulate a lower tension of the dampers, which may fit some type of pieces and/or playing styles or simulate the condition of an older piano (e.g. modeled pianos such as Pianoteq have a parameter to define the dampers tension); recently, browsing the factory programs on my NS3 (yes, eventually I got one too! ), I can see it is used just in a few cases (particularly on Rhodes) and for ambient/soft patches.