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Conference napalm::commusic_v1

Title:* * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * *
Notice:Conference has been write-locked. Use new version.
Moderator:DYPSS1::SCHAFER
Created:Thu Feb 20 1986
Last Modified:Mon Aug 29 1994
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2852
Total number of notes:33157

608.0. "MIDI Sustain Related to MIDI Note ON Command?" by AKOV68::EATON (Impressionable Youth) Tue Dec 16 1986 13:21

	I think this question may have been posed before, but I never remember
getting a clear idea.

	Is sustain (as in sustain or hold pedal) a function of note-on?  Or is
it a separate control?  I say this because I know of at least two keyboards that
will not transmit sustain pedal info.  Yet I was looking at my CZ101 MIDI
implementation chart and didn't see any option for sustain reception.  (This may
have been because it doesn't have a hold pedal jack).  Will all MIDI keyboards 
recieve sustain pedal data, but only some will transmit it?

	My purpose in asking is that I'm looking at an additional keyboard to
drive the CZ, but I want to know whether sustain pedal will be recieved by it.

	Dan

T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
608.1not in note on.GNERIC::ROSSuntitledTue Dec 16 1986 15:3814
    sustain pedal transmitted in 'controller change' message
    packet.
	Status
    	controller #
    	controller value
        
    Looks like de-facto controller number is 40 hex and values
    0,127 (off, on) have been accepted for sustain.
    
    My CZ drives yamaha and roland boxes....thats one direction...
    
    rr
    
    
608.2Yeah, well, um, what does that mean... ?AKOV68::EATONImpressionable YouthTue Dec 16 1986 16:050
608.3Hey, hold that note!BARNUM::RHODESTue Dec 16 1986 16:458
I thought that in MIDI, sustain is the lack of note-off generation/transmission
when a finger is removed from a key.  When the sustain pedal is lifted, an
'all notes off' message is generated/sent.

Am I all wet?

Todd.

608.5two waysSAUTER::SAUTERJohn SauterTue Dec 16 1986 17:5220
    There are two ways to do sustain in MIDI: either defer transmitting
    note-offs or use a separate controller.  The sustain controller was not
    defined in the original MIDI spec, so old keyboards and sound modules
    won't implement it.  (Lots of new devices won't implement it either, of
    course, particularly if they don't have a sustain pedal.) 
    
    If it is implemented in the keyboard by deferring the transmission of
    note-offs, then all MIDI sound modules will support it.  However, with
    this implementation using the sustain pedal cannot be distinguished
    from holding down the keys.  If your sound module also doesn't
    distinguish then there is no problem; I think the sustain control was
    added in anticipation that some sound modules may wish to treat these
    cases differently. 
    
    You can't ever "just send all-notes-off", because sound modules
    aren't obligated to pay any attention to this message.  Instead
    you must send specific note-off messages for every note that is
    being sustained when the pedal is released (and which is not still
    being depressed, of course).
        John Sauter