The dreaded sustain pedal

[cabdriver]

Well hello!

I've already read through a lot of posts here and elsewhere about sustain pedal problems, although it sounds like what's being described is different from what I'm experiencing. My sustain pedal works fine for the keyboard and PT, except it randomly records the pedal. The thing is, the pedal will play through PT every time, but only occasionally will it playback the pedal (and the pedal information will vanish). I figured I'd record with the sustain lane view to check, but insofar have not experienced the dropping of the pedal.

I have a casio privia px-330 with the included pedal plug into the MBox 3 Pro using PT 8 LE. I've triple checked all of the device settings. If anyone can help, that'd be cool.

[aka21stCentury]

MIDI options give you the ability to record controller events or just note on events or sys ex events, or a combination of the above. Double check to see that you've selected controller # (for sustain pedal) information as well as note on/off velocity. If you also use a volume pedal, include this controller #. You should have a list printed out handy at all times of controller # for MIDI. There is a command: thin MIDI. It helps when using volume pedals to ease the MIDI pipeline throughput.

For example: You can play a part with no pedal, just note value - on/off/ velocity info.

Then later overdub only the sustain pedal. You might have to do a few passes to get it right. As you know, if you view MIDI events in a list editor, make certain the sustain off command does not fall on the one of the next section (i.e. chorus). Or it will suck voices from your VI or synth, bass goes first, higher notes still play. How can this happen?

For example: You copy and paste the chorus to a new location after the second verse. It begins with the sustain pedal value 'on' until new sustain controller 'off' value is received. It can be a pain. Dig into the manual. Also what OS are you on? PC or Core-MIDI (Macintosh)? That might help getting a quicker response.

p.s. make certain you are not overtaxing the MIDI i/o by sending MTC or beat clock unless absolutely required. MTC, volume/sys ex and pitch bend are the most taxing on a single MIDI i/o DIN connection. Avoid them unless you are willing to invest in a professional USB-2 MIDI interface. Steinberg's new Midi8 is USB-2. If using volume, view the volume in the track and then use the command: thin MIDI. Notice what this does. It will attempt to smooth out the points that are duplicitous. If you don't like what it does, command 'Z' on the Mac. Control Z on a PC.