Topic by Pianojazzableton

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Topic: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Hello,

I have recently upgrade to Pianoteq 9 and successfully used Pianoteq 8 in Ableton live 11 lite. For some reason, the sustain pedal only intermittently registers full sustain and other times only goes to around 64 on the midi reading wtih Pianoteq 9. It is very frustrating because it appears to be random. The sustain pedal itself works perfectly fine and also works fine in the standalone app as far as I can tell. I am using a Yamaha YC88 with the FC3 sustain pedal for the keyboard. it seems to be a midi issue or software one though rather than a hardware one. Has anyone had a similar issue in when using the VST 3 plugin or knows how to resolve the issue?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by Pianojazzableton (19-10-2025 13:35)

Reply by brundlefly

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Pianojazzableton wrote:

Has anyone had a similar issue in when using the VST 3 plugin or knows how to resolve the issue?

I just installed 9 and have done some preliminary A/B listening to my existing MIDI recordings with Pteq 8 in Sonar, and am not hearing any sustain anomalies.

Reply by Pianojazzableton

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

brundlefly wrote:
Pianojazzableton wrote:

Has anyone had a similar issue in when using the VST 3 plugin or knows how to resolve the issue?

I just installed 9 and have done some preliminary A/B listening to my existing MIDI recordings with Pteq 8 in Sonar, and am not hearing any sustain anomalies.

I use Ableton live with the plugin (to then route through to OBS Studio for recording purposes), so I don't have midi recordings per say to compare against but there wasn't any issues with Pianoteq version 8 so I am not sure what is going on with it.

Reply by brundlefly

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Pianojazzableton wrote:

For some reason, the sustain pedal only intermittently registers full sustain and other times only goes to around 64 on the midi reading wtih Pianoteq 9.

So if you just slowly and steadily cycle the pedal down and up repeatedly with the Pedal Curve displayed in Pianoteq's UI, you don't see the level indcators move steadily up and down between 127 and 0?

I definitely can't repro that. I would think it was a hardware issue except that you report it continues to work as expected in the v8 VST3, and in the v9 standalone.

I can't imagine what would explain all of that. I can only suggest to try the VST3 in the free tier of Sonar (very few limitations vs. the paid version) or some other DAW to confirm it's not just some interoerability issue between v9 and Ableton, specifically.

Reply by Pianojazzableton

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

brundlefly wrote:
Pianojazzableton wrote:

For some reason, the sustain pedal only intermittently registers full sustain and other times only goes to around 64 on the midi reading wtih Pianoteq 9.

So if you just slowly and steadily cycle the pedal down and up repeatedly with the Pedal Curve displayed in Pianoteq's UI, you don't see the level indcators move steadily up and down between 127 and 0?

I definitely can't repro that. I would think it was a hardware issue except that you report it continues to work as expected in the v8 VST3, and in the v9 standalone.

I can't imagine what would explain all of that. I can only suggest to try the VST3 in the free tier of Sonar (very few limitations vs. the paid version) or some other DAW to confirm it's not just some interoerability issue between v9 and Ableton, specifically.

Thanks for the reply. No I can see the gradual increase and decrease in the UI in Ableton, so I wonder if it is an issue between 9 and Ableton live. I will revert to v8 for now as I have limited time at the moment to consider other DAWs.

Reply by brundlefly

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Pianojazzableton wrote:

No I can see the gradual increase and decrease in the UI in Ableton, so I wonder if it is an issue between 9 and Ableton live.

Okay so the pedal response is visually correct which means the pedal messages are making it into the VSTi unaltered, but the audible damping response is not correct?

Reply by Maboroshy

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

I have the same random sustain issues with Ableton Live 12 and Pianoteq 9.

Reply by theinvisibleman

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

sustain pedal doesn't work on windows 11, Ableton 12

Reply by Pianojazzableton

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

theinvisibleman wrote:

sustain pedal doesn't work on windows 11, Ableton 12

Do you have any idea why? Is this something we can report to modartt?

Reply by Pianojazzableton

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Maboroshy wrote:

I have the same random sustain issues with Ableton Live 12 and Pianoteq 9.

Perhaps it is a wider issue then with the VST? Any ideas on how to resolve or report?

Reply by theinvisibleman

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

also in standalone, midi cc64 is being received but not effecting the sound sustain.

Reply by julien

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Hi all,

We are aware there is an issue with the pedal in the plugin version. It is a bit complicated but we are working on it.

julien's Website

Reply by theinvisibleman

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

julien wrote:

Hi all,

We are aware there is an issue with the pedal in the plugin version. It is a bit complicated but we are working on it.


its also the standalone version too FYI

Reply by theinvisibleman

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

will there be a fix this week?, i can't use version 9 at all

Reply by JL

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Pianoteq 9, Win-11, Bitwig Studio, REAPER

Upon upgrading to Pianoteq 9 from 8, I instantly noticed some anomalous behavior with CC64 Sustain that was completely different from 8.

It's been extremely difficult to diagnose, but it appears that CC64 in PTQ-9 is behaving like it's bipolar modulation, rather than the usual unipolar...

Unique to this update too, is that it seems to be something peculiar to Bitwig Studio, while in REAPER, I'm not seeing this exact same behavior.

In the context of REAPER, I've looked at the MIDI logs using MIDI ReaControl, as well as the MIDI page in the PTQ standalone, but have not been able to identify why it's behaving differently in BWS than REAPER and the standalone, otherwise I would've issued a bug report already.

Was glad to see this post and that it's being addressed by the devs, as I've not been able to use version 9 in Bitwig Studio due to this anomalous and different behavior with the sustain pedal.

Reply by theinvisibleman

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

So, with modartt teams help i fix my particular issue.

it seems like my sustain pedal was in a opposite mode, sustain trigger off but not on.

the solution was to right click on velocity window

reset all velocity curves to default value

that worked for me.

Reply by julien

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

Hi all,

The (just released) version 9.0.3 should address these issues with the sustain pedal (and automation in general) in DAWs.

julien's Website

Reply by JL

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Re: Sustain pedal intermittently only half sustaining when using VST 3

julien wrote:

Hi all,

The (just released) version 9.0.3 should address these issues with the sustain pedal (and automation in general) in DAWs.

Yes. Just tested here in Bitwig Studio 5.3.13, and balance has been restored to the universe...

Working perfectly in the manner of version 8 before.

Thanks so much to all of the developers for this fix.

Greatly appreciated.