My sustain pedal works, but not on Cakewalk

[Daniel Ito]

The title says it all.

I am using a Roland A800-Pro controller keyboard with an ordinary sustain pedal.

It works just fine using other apps, i.e. Kontakt. But when I open Kontakt as a vst plugin inside Cakewalk, my sustain pedal won't work.

There is also no signal of MIDI activity on Cakewalk monitors when I press my pedal.

Is there any configuration stuff that I am missing?

Thanks in advance.

[msmcleod]

Check your Keyboard Shortcuts settings - there's an option to use MIDI CC as a shift key.


 

Uncheck the "Enabled" checkbox if enabled, and consider changing the controller to something you don't use, e.g.:

[Daniel Ito]

42 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

Check your Keyboard Shortcuts settings - there's an option to use MIDI CC as a shift key.


 

Uncheck the "Enabled" checkbox if enabled, and consider changing the controller to something you don't use, e.g.:

Hello, Mark! Thank you for helping me.

My settings had "Computer" selected on the first column with the "Enabled" box unchecked. In the second column I had "Key" selected instead of  "Controller".

I tried different combinations there, and the only difference I noticed was when I checked the "Enabled" box and set the second column to "Controller: Pedal (sustain)". In that case, when I press my pedal it just mutes the sound I am playing.

Good news is that my Cakewalk IS responding to my pedal. Just not the way it should.

Any other insights? Thank you!

Edited April 13, 2020 by Daniel Ito

[Matthew Sorrels]

Do you have Controller selected in the MIDI Playback & Recording panel?

 

[Daniel Ito]

7 minutes ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

Do you have Controller selected in the MIDI Playback & Recording panel?

 

Hello, Mathew!

That box is checked, yes.

[Matthew Sorrels]

Assuming you have the pedal going into a MIDI interface you have enabled as an input, I'd recommend running something like MIDI Ox
http://www.midiox.com/

Might help you figure out where your MIDI input is going to/coming from and then make sure Cakewalk is configured to accept input from that MIDI device.  There are lots of settings but if you line everything up you should be able to start an empty project, add a single MIDI track, arm it and record and see the sustain pedal up and down events.

 

[Daniel Ito]

@Matthew Sorrels, I have the pedal plugged into my Roland A800-PRO controller keyboard, wich is connected to my computer via USB.

The controller itself is working fine. I can record note inputs with pich/bend and modulation, and even connect to Cakewalk via the ACT funcion.

Here is a screenshot for my pedal inputs on MIDI-OX.

7F is the data when I press the pedal, and 00 when I release it.

[LarsF]

The most useful tool to troubleshoot this kind of thing is a midi monitor

http://www.tencrazy.com/gadgets/mfx/

PortDiag will tell the live input when monitor is on.

TrackDiag will tell what is played back from recorded material.

Very useful stuff.

If you notes when playing keys on A800 come through, it could be a midi channel thing.

Some controllers send controller on a global channel which can differ from keys in some cases.

Others are if omni or all channels are input on midi track in Cakewalk. Not getting activity on meters suggest you might have sustain on a different channel as it is coming.

[Daniel Ito]

Hello, @LarsF!

Seconds before you answered, I posted a screenshot with my inputs on MIDI-OX monitor.

Now I am posting another screenshot, this time comparing the pedal inputs with a note input (middle C on the controller keyboard).

I thought it could be a channel thing as well, but it seems that the controller is transmitting note and pedal data within the same MIDI channel and port.

And as I said before, when I play an instrument on Kontakt Player, for instance, the pedal works just fine. But with Kontakt vst plugin within Cakewalk, it doesn't.

[LarsF]

Yes, we posted on top of each other.

And really weird if you get midi activity on midi track meters in Cakewalk for notes, but moving pedal not.

 

[Matthew Sorrels]

Maybe control surfaces and ACT setups are stealing MIDI input before it makes it to the track?  SONAR/Cakewalk has always had some strange things with Roland A800, see the mention on this page:

https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=ExternalDevices.15.html

I'd strip out as much of that stuff (ACT/Control surface setups) as I could and try and get everything as plain as you can.  Then see what you are getting.

[Daniel Ito]

You nailed it, @Matthew Sorrels!

I disabled the A-PRO Series Control Surface Plugin for Sonar (wich is distributed by Roland on its website) from Cakewalk settings. The pedal worked just fine! Then I reinstalled the plugin and it stopped again.

I tried to find what could be wrong in the plugin's settings, but couldn't figure out what is happening. I will contact Roland support to see if they can help me with this.

In the meantime, I'll just try to use one of Cakewalk's default ACT plugins with my controller.

Thanks a lot for helping me out, guys!

[zheezhay]

I had a similar problem, for some reason using sustain from my Kawaii CE220 began having the effect of sustaining whatever notes were already been pressed (even after releasing the pedal), but no subsequently played notes were being recognized while the pedal was being pressed.  This has been driving me nuts for two or three weeks; but the first screen shot from MSMCLEOD cleared it right up.  I clicked on the MIDI button under "Type of keys", unchecked the Enabled box while the Controller button showed Pedal (Sustain), saved changes, problem went away.

Thank you!