Sound change and sustain pedal synthesia

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Firewalker1980
Posts: 5

Post by Firewalker1980 »

Hi all,

I've been experiencing 2 issues with Synthesia and my digital piano (Kawai MP11).
1. While Synthesia is running, the sound of my digital piano is different. More echo and not as rich sounding.
2. The sustain pedal does not work for the background parts (which are played by Synthesia).

I found this thread (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6989&p=49019#p49019) discussing the sound change issue, which
helped me fix it, and found another thread talking about the sustain pedal issue fixing it by changing the midi channel from all to 1, but I cannot have both issues fixed at the same time. It seems one fix cancels the other.

Anyone experience the same thing and knows how to solve this? Thnx for the help.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Setting "Local" to off is the usual way to solve the first problem, although there is another one: inside Synthesia, disable "My Notes" for your output device. That will also fix #1 and it shouldn't interfere with the #2 problem.

That said, I think this is the first time I've heard from someone that wanted their pedal to affect all of the other MIDI channels. I suppose that could work out well for piano-only pieces, although I'd hesitate to add an option for it because it may behave strangely in songs with many different instruments.
Firewalker1980
Posts: 5

Post by Firewalker1980 »

Hi Nicolas,

I followed your suggestions but the issue remains the same. Echoing is not present but the sustain pedal does not work on the part not being played by myself. To be clear, I only have the USBMidi (kawai piano) as input and output. I set the midi channel on USBmidi out to channel 1. If I set it to another channel or 'all channels', I don't hear the background parts playing, only my notes.

I only play piano pieces, so normally does not have other instruments on the midi.
On piano, the sustain pedal works the same for all notes, so it's kinda necessary for correct play and hearing :)
When there are short notes on the background parts, it does not sound good without the sustain pedal as those cut off but my notes don't.
Maybe you can add an option for the sustain pedal so it only activates on 'piano' parts and/or channels?

Weird noone else has mentioned this indeed. Other piano players with a sustain pedal should have noticed this too I guess.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

How strange. If everything is being routed through the same channel (#1), the pedal should now be affecting everything being sent out to that device. (Really, the keyboard shouldn't have any way to tell the difference between "foreground" and "background" parts at that point anymore.)

Is this happening in a particular song or everywhere (including the built-in songs)? There may be some pedal messages built into the MIDI file itself, at which point your own pedal messages and the song's might be fighting against each other. If you depress the pedal just as a "release the pedal" message from the song is sent, the last message sent wins.
Firewalker1980
Posts: 5

Post by Firewalker1980 »

Hi Nicholas,

I tried it with the built-in song 'moonlight sonata (hard)' and I noticed the following when playing only the right hand part:
the last note on the left hand part keeps playing when I don't continue playing the right hand part which gives the illusion of sustained notes, but on short notes you definitely notice that the sustain pedal does not work on those notes, so the issue is the same on the built-in songs.
When I enable 'my notes' on the USBMidi output, it sustains them properly when I use the pedal.
I tried all kinds of things but only having that option on seems to do it properly, having the kind off echo too of course.
I'll look into the midi songs for pedal messages and try experimenting with that, but I find it weird that the behaviour is 100% correct only when I keep 'my notes' on.
Logic would be that when I play the left/right part or both parts, I control the sustain pedal for all notes right? :)
Firewalker1980
Posts: 5

Post by Firewalker1980 »

I tried this on both a Windows and a Mac laptop. Result is the same for both. Thought I could best rule that one out :-)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Firewalker1980 wrote: 06-05-21 1:47 pmLogic would be that when I play the left/right part or both parts, I control the sustain pedal for all notes right? :)
Yes, I actually have it sending a copy of your single pedal message to each of the MIDI channels you've elected to play. So it should work in the both hands case (or in the more general case of any combination of parts that have been assigned to any "set" of hands).
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