Nord User Forum

Dear all,
I just purchased an almost unplayed NE 5HP in brilliant shape with original Nord sustain pedal VFP 1-15.
First, I updated the OS and restored all original sounds using the kit from the Nord website.

Now I'm facing weird behaviour of the sustain pedal. Some sounds work with it, some don't. There is no recognisable pattern.

Of course I also tried out 2 other sustain pedals (Roland and Behringer). But with both, nothing changes - so the Nord pedal ist not the issue.

Any ideas for a solution?

Thank you in advance!

Hello and welcome to NUF

As explained on NE5 manual (page 16 - Parts paragraph), sustain pedal is a setting that you can enable (or not) on each Part by pressing Shift+OctaveDown button and its status (enabled/disabled, shown by the SustPed led under the button) is stored with each Program, so it is normal that some Programs may have it enabled and some not.

I think it would not be a bad idea to spend some time and take a complete look at the manual of your NE5, with instrument in front of you to try what you read while you do it and so learn all about it (NE5 manual is available in different languages at https://www.nordkeyboards.com/downloads/nord-electro-5)

Hi maxpiano,

thanks for your nice reply. But the thing is, the issue also appears with sounds when their SustPed LED is "ON". . .

znerual wrote:Hi maxpiano,

thanks for your nice reply. But the thing is, the issue also appears with sounds when their SustPed LED is "ON". . .

Uhm... Have you checked which Part is it on (when it seems not to work) or tried to toggle it on/off ? Have you also checked the sustain pedal type setting?

Of course. I checked the pedal settings, tried out different pedals, resetted the keyboard, updated the OS to the current 2.02 version...

The pedal behaviour is simply erratic. No matter if the lower or upper keyboard part is "SustPed on", no matter wether pedal is on or off... sometimes it works, sometimes not.

And - TA-DAH - here comes a super-crazy workaround, that I just figured out:

1. Scroll to any sound that actually HAS sustain, and press any chord on the keys with that sound.
2. Go back to the sound where sustain didn't work - as long as "SustPed" is on, now the sustain re-appears magically...!

That's so superweird! It's like the software "forgot" to use sustain, and by picking a different sound, it gets reminded to put sustain on...

Quite strange then, sorry if I suggested the "standard" things and you already had checked them, but you never know

It is unlikely the issue is software, I wonder then if the defect maybe HW, at the level of the SustPed jack on the keyboard, which may be slightly desoldered and so having an erratic behaviour (?); the fact that sometimes it works could be related to the fact tha when you switch Program the SustPed status is reset and so erratic readings are temporarily "cleaned".

Yes, I need to check that, too. Will keep you posted!