Topic by groovy

  • Avatar
  • groovy
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 12-06-2009
  • Posts: 724

Topic: Note Off velocity 0

One question about the defaults for  note-off velocity in Pianoteq:

My Kawai portable piano transmits note-off events always with velocity 0. I can see this in PTQ's MIDI-monitor.

But the velocity-curve-mapper for note-off shows incoming events at velocity 64 (a green bar at x-position 64). Apparently note-off 0 is always internally converted to note-off 64.

The default velocity curve for note-off is a flat line (y=127), so 64 is mapped a second time to 127 and this is, what the sound-engine gets.

In this context 127 stands for "key is released as fast as possible", is this correct?

Thank you

Reply by jcfelice88keys

  • Avatar
  • jcfelice88keys
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 22-09-2008
  • Posts: 1,149

Re: Note Off velocity 0

groovy wrote:

In this context [, note-off velocity] 127 stands for "key is released as fast as possible", is this correct?

Thank you

Hello Mr. Groovy,

My understanding is that a note-off velocity value of 127 means that the given note's string vibration gets damped as fast as possible.  In a real acoustic piano, this may or may not also correspond to the "key" being released as quickly as possible.  Why is there such a possible difference between key release speed and note-off velocity?  That's because there is a certain amount of inertia in the ~54 parts that make up the action mechanism for each piano note that has a certain response time to shut down the note ... that might not be exactly related to how fast the note was physically released.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Joe

Last edited by jcfelice88keys (06-01-2019 19:50)

Reply by skip

  • Avatar
  • skip
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Sydney, Australia
  • Registered: 21-12-2007
  • Posts: 1,059

Re: Note Off velocity 0

groovy: Just checking - are you absolutely sure it's sending a Note-Off event, and not a Note-On event with a velocity of 0? The reason I ask is that some pianos don't send a Note-Off at all - they send a Note-On with a velocity of zero, which is then interpreted as a Note-Off. This appears weird, but is actually allowed by the MIDI standard.

Greg.

Reply by groovy

  • Avatar
  • groovy
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 12-06-2009
  • Posts: 724

Re: Note Off velocity 0

Hello,

thanks for your comments.

Pianoteq's MIDI-monitor logs note-off events at key-release with veloc: 0.
I trust in that.

@jcfelice88keys
My understanding just differs in the logical order. When the sound-processing get's the value-pair (note-off,127) it starts with the assumption, that the player released a key as fast as possible. Then/afterwards this is interpreted in several ways. For example as you mentioned: Damping as fast as the inertia of a key-mechanism allows and simulating this.