Nord User Forum

Hello, can someone please help me out with sustain pedal for Nord Piano 5. It doesn't act as same pedal for acoustic piano.

The trouble I have with pedal when playing nord 5 piano is that when I have pedal depressed to sustain sound and then when I play next chord with it depressed and lift the pedal up for a moment right after the chord and depress it back again, the sound is cut of hard upon lift and there's no sustain action after re-depressing. While it should be as in acoustic right up piano I also use. Put it into simple words, the Nord pedal acts as hard stop whenever depressed which is unexpected comparing to acoustic pianos I train on. Below a link to YT video showing what I do. Same pedal lift on Nord 5 cuts off sound completely.

https://youtube.com/shorts/YSe9P2zNyu4

Is this normal for Nord pedals or perhaps my pedal is defective? Oh, I am using single Nord pedal with my piano 5, not triple that came with it Thanks in advance for replies.

a) Did you check your pedal settings in the pedal menu? What type is set under "sustain pedal"?
b) I would also try if the Triple Pedal works as it should, just to be sure.

Suavek wrote:Is this normal for Nord pedals or perhaps my pedal is defective? Oh, I am using single Nord pedal with my piano 5, not triple that came with it Thanks in advance for replies.

To manage properly the half pedaling on the NP5 you have no alternative but to use the Triple Pedal, any other pedal plugged into the Sustain jack must be a momentary on/off type and will act as such (Nord Single Pedal 1 included, NSP2 can do half pedaling but it is only compatible with Nord Stage 4, at the moment).

When you use the on/off Sustain, you can maybe add a little Reverb, to provide some trail to the notes.

You may also activate the Soft Release (where available, depends on the .npno used) as it 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. but I am not 100% sure it affects also the sustain pedal release, anyway trying would not hurt.

Great answer, points awarded!

Suavek wrote:The trouble I have with pedal when playing nord 5 piano is that when I have pedal depressed to sustain sound and then when I play next chord with it depressed and lift the pedal up for a moment right after the chord and depress it back again, the sound is cut of hard upon lift and there's no sustain action after re-depressing.

If maxpiano's answer is the best available, this means Nord instruments don't allow release-and-catch functionality for sustain? I never checked that as I always play the NS3C sounds with a half damper pedal on my external 88-keys weighted controller. And keep pedal noise disabled instead.

In any case, my 200 € Casio CT-S1 has that release and catch functionality for sustain... I remarked that when playing out with it on a small gig I didn't want to carry my 2-KB setup for.

FZiegler wrote:

Suavek wrote:The trouble I have with pedal when playing nord 5 piano is that when I have pedal depressed to sustain sound and then when I play next chord with it depressed and lift the pedal up for a moment right after the chord and depress it back again, the sound is cut of hard upon lift and there's no sustain action after re-depressing.

If maxpiano's answer is the best available, this means Nord instruments don't allow release-and-catch functionality for sustain? I never checked that as I always play the NS3C sounds with a half damper pedal on my external 88-keys weighted controller. And keep pedal noise disabled instead.

In any case, my 200 € Casio CT-S1 has that release and catch functionality for sustain... I remarked that when playing out with it on a small gig I didn't want to carry my 2-KB setup for.

Actually I didn't mention release and catch as it doesn't seem the issue of the OP (or maybe I didn't get it, as in release and catch you press the sustain while or immediately after you release the keys) but if I remember well that works also with an on/off sustain (because it does not imply half-pedaling, or at least it also works without it). My NS3 is in the bag now so I cannot test...

Well, if catch and release action is not supported by Nord piano 5 that would be a real big bummer and disqualify the keyboard I have. I look forward to test this with triple pedal that comes with the Piano 5, something I am waiting to receive to replace single Nord pedal I currently have. Honestly I would be surprised if Nord would not support it in their piano. This is like a basic pedal function acoustic piano users train on daily basis.

Nord Tech Support just informed me the catch and release pedal function is only working with triple pedal that comes with the keyboard. Problem solved.