Topic: a few tiny questions

Hi guys!

Sorry for the long delay, and dissappearance, but I'm here in need of a bit of info. (regarding pianoteq of course).

1. The soft pedal (una corda), how is it used in Cubase? Which CC is it pretty please?
2. The other two (sostenuto and harmonic pedals), what are they exactly? As far as I know grand pianos have 3 pedals: the una corda, the sustain (the normal pedal), and the sostenuto, which holds the notes that are already lifted (the hammers), and none other. The harmonic pedal, I have no idea.

Is there any way of someone confirming that the sostenuto pedal, is indeed what I "claim it" to be, and not some misunderstanding on my behalf? also explain what the harmonic pedal is, which I've never heard of? :S
3. Is pianoteq able to do half pedaling, or progressive pedaling? If so, which CC (in Cubase)? EDIT: It is able to do that, but how inside Cubase? EDIT2: The CC 67/68 (named inside Cubase as sostenuto and soft pedal) don't seem to be working any way, unless the change from tre to una corda is too subtle for me to pick up right now... :S

Note that I'm not using my midi keyboard, and the pedal I have is an on/off pedal.

Thank you very very much for your replies and help to come.:)

Nikolas

Re: a few tiny questions

I would suggest you purchase a progressive pedal, (on/off is just that), progressive allows you to fade , dampen etc.. its worth the investment. Once you have the pedal I'm sure most of your questions will be answered

Re: a few tiny questions

Usually pianos have only two or three pedals (although older pianoforte could have sometimes more, including effects), and the fourth pedal in its acoustic version is a recent patent (1987):
http://www.harmonicpianopedal.com/index_en.php
The fact is that it does not work 100% in the real world: once a key has been released, the damper stays down unless you reactivate the fourth pedal. In the virtual world, it can work 100% because there is no mechanical constraint: after key release, the damper goes down to damper the note but rises again immediately after, which is almost impossible to achieve in the real world.

Sostenuto pedal is exactly what you describe, and sustain pedal in Pianoteq is progressive. The CC number shows up if you right click on the pedal, and the effect of the soft pedal can be increased by pushing the "soft pedal" (voicing section) slider to the left.

Re: a few tiny questions

Lovely, thank you both!

I got a thread in Cubase.net, because I use Cubase SL3, about how to use these pedals inside Cubase, but still haven't found a solution, although one was given (still trying to make it work).

I don't have a progrssive pedal, atm, although thinking of buying one, and I'm inputing the piano piece, by a midi file, not by playing.

Does anybody in here know how to edit half pedaling inside Cubase please? Because the sustain is at CC64 which by default in Cubase is on/off (127/0), so I can't vary it...

Sorry for the continuous questions!

Re: a few tiny questions

nikolas wrote:

Does anybody in here know how to edit half pedaling inside Cubase please? Because the sustain is at CC64 which by default in Cubase is on/off (127/0), so I can't vary it...

I don't have Cubase, but the method of editing controllers is quite generic in sequencers. Typically the piano-roll window has a sub-pane, and you can choose to select various note attributes and/or MIDI data in this window, e.g. note velocities. You should select to display Controller (aka Control Change) data, selecting subtype 64, which is by convention the sustain pedal. You can then "draw" pedalling data using the insertion (pencil?) tool.

guillaume wrote:

Usually pianos have only two or three pedals (although older pianoforte could have sometimes more, including effects)

Now I understand what it is about electric guitarists with their gadgets and stomp-boxes - they simply have pedal envy!

Re: a few tiny questions

hyper real, thanks for the reply.

Problem with Cubase is that it has by default CC64 (the sustain pedal) on 2 positions only: on and off: 127 and 0. So there's no way to actually take the pencil and draw mid values, or half pedalling, etc. That's the problem here...