Topic: Pedal problem

I use Pianoteq on a desktop Mac and on a Windows laptop. Everything works on the Mac, but on my Windows machine the pedal in Pianoteq (I'm using pedal 4 as a sustain pedal) depresses all the way as soon as I assign it and never disengages when I lift my foot off the physical pedal. I'm using the same keyboard and same pedal, same pedal polarity. What could be causing this discrepancy? I tried switching the polarity switch on the bottom of the physical pedal and it made no difference.

Last edited by bjohn (02-04-2021 20:50)

Re: Pedal problem

bjohn wrote:

I use Pianoteq on a desktop Mac and on a Windows laptop. Everything works on the Mac, but on my Windows machine the pedal in Pianoteq (I'm using pedal 4 as a sustain pedal) depresses all the way as soon as I assign it and never disengages when I lift my foot off the physical pedal. I'm using the same keyboard and same pedal, same pedal polarity. What could be causing this discrepancy? I tried switching the polarity switch on the bottom of the physical pedal and it made no difference.

First thing, click the Options button in the Pianoteq interface, go to the MIDI tab, then press and release the pedal to determine what MIDI messages are being sent. It sounds like you're getting expected messages sent to the Mac but not to the WIndows laptop. You should be getting Controller 64 messages with a value of 0 when the pedal is up and 127 when the pedal is down; if it's a continuous pedal, you'll get intermediate values as it goes between the two.

The same messages should be produced by the same hardware whether it's connected to a Mac or to a Windows machine. If not, I'd look at any differences in the hardware used to connect to each computer and at the drivers used for the keyboard or audio/MIDI interface (depending on how you connect) for the Windows machine. (If you have the option of connecting either way — either connecting your keyboard directly by USB to the laptop or connecting it by MIDI cable to your audio interface — try both methods and see if either makes a difference.)

The fourth pedal is normally set to Sustain Pedal / Controller 64 by default... so I'm not sure why you're having to assign it. When you right-click the fourth pedal, does it show that it's Controller 64? If it's getting set to something else for some reason, try changing it to 64. Clicking the pedal in the interface should cause it to change state. After it goes up, when you press the physical pedal, does it go down with the pedal? Does it then go back up when you release the pedal?

Re: Pedal problem

Coises wrote:

The fourth pedal is normally set to Sustain Pedal / Controller 64 by default... so I'm not sure why you're having to assign it. When you right-click the fourth pedal, does it show that it's Controller 64? If it's getting set to something else for some reason, try changing it to 64. Clicking the pedal in the interface should cause it to change state. After it goes up, when you press the physical pedal, does it go down with the pedal? Does it then go back up when you release the pedal?

Thanks for these tips. Yes, that's exactly what happens on the Mac (I get controller 64 messages with a value of 0 when the pedal is up and 127 when down); on my Windows machine pressing the physical pedal when the software pedal is set to controller 64 has no effect, the pedal doesn't move at all. So I right-clicked on the Pianoteq software pedal 4 and engaged my physical pedal to have it identify the controller; it identified it as controller 12, not 64. I'm not sure what's going on; I'll troubleshoot further. My interface doesn't have a direct MIDI input, so my keyboard goes by USB into the computer, and the pedal plugs into the keyboard. I currently use a different interface on my Mac vs. Windows, but this problem existed even when I was using the same interface for both. It's strange!

I'll troubleshoot further to see if I can figure out what's going on and how to fix it.

Last edited by bjohn (03-04-2021 11:38)

Re: Pedal problem

bjohn wrote:

Yes, that's exactly what happens on the Mac (I get controller 64 messages with a value of 0 when the pedal is up and 127 when down); on my Windows machine pressing the physical pedal when the software pedal is set to controller 64 has no effect, the pedal doesn't move at all.

By "has no effect" I assume you also verified that no MIDI messages (for any controller number) are shown in the MIDI window in the Options dialog of Pianoteq.

bjohn wrote:

My interface doesn't have a direct MIDI input, so my keyboard goes by USB into the computer, and the pedal plugs into the keyboard.

First place to look is the Windows drivers for the keyboard. See if the manufacturer has an update, and if there are forums, see if anyone else reports a similar problem.

Last edited by Coises (03-04-2021 18:14)

Re: Pedal problem

Thanks again for your help with this: I finally figured out how to fix this (by using my keyboard's MIDI assignment editor). I don't understand why it behaves differently in Mac vs. Windows as I've never had to use the assignment editor on the Mac, but for some reason the pedal is assigned to a different controller in Windows.