I have a piano VST that I want to play from an external MIDI keyboard with a sustain pedal. Ardour records the MIDI notes and also the MIDI CC 64 data from the sustain pedal, which I can see as automation.
Playing back the track after recording includes the effect of the sustain pedal on the VST notes but monitoring the track during recording only plays the VST notes without the effect of the sustain pedal.
This behaviour is the same with all the instrumental VSTs that I have but being able to hear the effect of the sustain pedal is particularly important for playing pianos.
How do I configure Ardour so that I can hear the effect of the sustain pedal on the VST during recording?
Are you recording over an existing MIDI region that already has CC automation?
I just did a quick test, new session, add MIDI track (default Ardourâs General-MIDI-Synth), rec-arm, record and the pedal has immediate effect during recording, and later also while playing back.
Can you try this (to rule out some VST specific issues).
Rewind and recording over the section replays the old pedal data, and things get messy (using âNon layeredâ record mode can solve this, or simply just monitoring input)
I repeated the test but using third-party VSTs instead of Ardourâs GM Synth.
New session, add MIDI track for VST (Wurli from Spitfire Audioâs Labs
series), rec-arm, record. The pedal had no effect before and during
recording but it was applied while playing back.
New session, add MIDI track for VST (Keyzone Piano from Bitsonic), rec-arm,
record. The pedal had no effect before and during recording but it was
applied while playing back.
I then discovered that my MIDI keyboard reverts to transmitting MIDI All
Notes Off every time it is powered up. I stopped it transmitting MIDI All
Notes Off and both VSTs started working as expected. I could hear the
effect of the sustain pedal before and during recording and during
playback. A little more testing showed that the Ardour GM Synth is not
affected by whether or not the keyboard is transmitting MIDI All Notes Off.
The sustain pedal works as expected in either case.
My immediate problem is solved, I now know to adjust the settings on my
keyboard before each session, but I am not sure why the Ardour GM synth
appears to respond differently to MIDI All Notes Off than the two VSTs that
I tried. Is it something to do with the way that Ardour handles VSTs?
This is likely because âMIDI Panicâ was never officially specified.
âPanicâ sends 2-4 messages (for each MIDI channel):
Raise Sustain Pedal (CC 64)
All Notes Off (CC 123)
Usually followed by
Reset All Controllers (CC 121)
And sometimes also followed by
All Sound Off (CC 120)
Some devices/synths already internally reset the pedalâs state when a âAll Notes Offâ is received, even though the sustain pedal may still be pressed. â Fluidsynth (which is used by Ardourâs GM-synth), does not do that and interprets âall notes offâ literally: Only active notes (pressed keys) are affected, the pedal and controller state is left untouched.
If I may ask, what keyboard model are are you using that sends âall notes offâ when it is powered on? That information may be useful to help others in case they have the same issue.
My keyboard is a Roland D-10 from the late 1980s. According to the manual,
its default setting is to transmit MIDI All Notes Off messages. If the
transmission of those messages is switched off during a session, that
setting is not retained when the keyboard is powered down. To make it work
with the VSTs, the Transmit MIDI All Notes Off setting will have to be
switched to âoffâ at the start of each session.