Topic by feline1

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Topic: Note Off Velocity curve

I have a feeling this has been discussed before,
but I got confused with it again tonight:

the Note-Off velocity curve editors in each preset always seem to ship with a flat curve (127 for all Note Off velocities).

This means that Note Off Velocity response is basically disabled by default? (Is that not a bit of a nuisance for those of us with keyboards that transmit Note Off Velocity?)

Anyways, my query is: what do the 0 to 127 value on the vertical axis represent?
If I change the curve to be just a y = x  line (the same as the default curve for Note On), I seem to be getting too much sustain on most of the instruments.

What's the thinking here?

Reply by julien

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Re: Note Off Velocity curve

Yes it disabled by default because the keyboards that do send note off are really not calibrated enough. Some of them send only low values (between 1 and 20), others (disklavier for example) send values between 40 and 70, .. So the flat curve is the safest choice. When you right-click on the curve you have access to two other presets: "keyboard sending high note-off velocities" and "keyboard sending low note-off velocities".

in Pianoteq (the y axis) 0 is the longest release time, 127 is the "normal" release time. In midi, it seems that the "de-facto" standard is to consider 64 as the "normal" release time, and values above 64 as "faster-than-normal" release . Have a look at the two note-off velocity presets, you'll see what I mean.

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Reply by Jope

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Re: Note Off Velocity curve

Here's what I found: The y-axis is the speed the virtual damper releases the virtual string. But since keys are released much slower than they are being hit, this is quite problematic because you don't have the control over releasing a key as you would have on a real piano. No key position is transmitted like "still halfway pressed" but there is a certain point where your keyboard transmits "key has been released with speed xy" - and that's it. The exact time when your keyboard knows about how fast you released the key would be when the key has reached its rest position - but that's too late for transmitting the information because PTQ can start damping the string only after receiving this information. So the keyboard has to transmit it earlier and take what happened to this point. And you don't exactly know where this point is.
The same is true for Note On, but as I wrote, hitting a key usually is done faster, and additionally you get a better feeling where the "make" point is than you get it for the "break" point.
Conclusion: Better you leave the curve all up at 127 or as a compromise near this value.

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Reply by feline1

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Re: Note Off Velocity curve

Ah I see - I didn't notice there was a right-click option for preset curves

That's a good starting point


(PS I also found the clavinet EQ presets now!

Last edited by feline1 (25-02-2010 12:31)

Reply by doug

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Re: Note Off Velocity curve

For what it's worth, the MIDIBOARD sends across the map (10 to 128) but it's very hard to consciously control and it's certainly not like a piano release but I understand that the model makes that impossible.

This curve works fairly well for me with the release velocity slider at the top:
Note-Off Velocity = [0, 15, 32, 66, 127; 98, 112, 121, 127, 127]