Midi and Sustain

[Act20]

I've seen similar questions asked and I've tried their solutions, but nothing is working or I'm doing it wrong.

I have an Alesis v49 midi controller hooked up to the latest cakewalk. The controller plays no problem through the default Cakewalk virtual piano.. I have a standard Proline sustain pedal plugged into the 'sustain' port on the back. It isn't doing anything at all. Might as well not be there. 

 

*The pedal works on my regular keyboard

*I disabled the "shift" thing in the keyboard shortcuts

 

Not sure what else to do. I'm very new to DAWs, please overexplain. I find the Edit>Preferences>Midi style format very helpful. Thank you

[David Baay]

If you record MIDI are sustain pedal message recorded, and do they show as CC64 in the Controller pane of the Piano Roll view or in the Event List view? the value should be 0 for pedal up and 127 for pedal down. If there are no messages recorded or they are something other than CC64, it's a problem or configuration issue with the Alesis. The pedal is just an on/off switch; It's up to the controller to generate the message.

Views > Event List (Alt+8) should show you something like this:

Edited December 11, 2023 by David Baay

[Act20]

7 minutes ago, David Baay said:

If you record MIDI are sustain pedal message recorded, and do they show as CC64 in the Controller pane of the Piano Roll view or in the Event List view? the value should be 0 for pedal up and 127 for pedal down. If there are no messages recorded or they are something other than CC64, it's a problem or configuration issue with the Alesis. The pedal is just an on/off switch; It's up to the controller to generate the message.

Views > Event List (Alt+8_ should show you something like this:

Thank you. There are no messages pertaining to the pedal. What sorts of configuration issues could cause this?

[John Vere]

Is the pedal the correct pedal for that keyboard? There’s often different pedals. 
Best troubleshooting tool is to download and install Midi Ox it shows you all input data. 

[Act20]

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

Is the pedal the correct pedal for that keyboard? There’s often different pedals. 
Best troubleshooting tool is to download and install Midi Ox it shows you all input data. 

Yeah, it doesn't register on Midi Ox. Does that mean it's the wrong pedal?

[Promidi]

3 minutes ago, Act20 said:

Yeah, it doesn't register on Midi Ox. Does that mean it's the wrong pedal?

You need to check you user guide for your Alesis v49 midi controller to see if there is a way to make the pedal send CC64 events.

From page 6 of the Alesis v49 midi controller user guide

“You can also use the V Editor software to set the sustain pedal to send other MIDI CC messages to your software.
See the V Editor's User Guide to learn how to do this.”

[Byron Dickens]

Whaaaat? RTFM?!?!

[msmcleod]

FYI - some electronic pianos support more than one pedal value.  My old Yamaha PF80 used to send four different values of "on" depending on how far the pedal was pushed down. 

How synths / VSTi pianos react to that is up to how they are programmed - i.e. some will see anything other than zero as on, for others it'll be 64 and above, and others will support a range of values adjusting the sustain accordingly.

[John Vere]

12 hours ago, Act20 said:

Yeah, it doesn't register on Midi Ox. Does that mean it's the wrong pedal?

As said above the answer to that question is in the Alesis user manual but generally sustain pedals are just doorbell buttons. 

I have a few generic foot switch’s that have a toggle switch to change what they do. 

[Act20]

18 hours ago, Promidi said:

You need to check you user guide for your Alesis v49 midi controller to see if there is a way to make the pedal send CC64 events.

From page 6 of the Alesis v49 midi controller user guide

“You can also use the V Editor software to set the sustain pedal to send other MIDI CC messages to your software.
See the V Editor's User Guide to learn how to do this.”

In the V Editor, it says that the sustain is sending:

 

Midi channel 1 (same as the keys)

CC 64

Pressed 127

Released 0

 

That all seems right to me. I can't find anything  online saying to configure it any differently

[Promidi]

3 hours ago, Act20 said:

In the V Editor, it says that the sustain is sending:

 

Midi channel 1 (same as the keys)

CC 64

Pressed 127

Released 0

 

That all seems right to me. I can't find anything  online saying to configure it any differently

That looks right to me too.  MIDIox should be showing Data coming in when you press the sustain pedal.

Maybe you have a faulty Alesis v49.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Promidi

[Act20]

4 hours ago, Promidi said:

That looks right to me too.  MIDIox should be showing Data coming in when you press the sustain pedal.

Maybe you have a faulty Alesis v49.

That's what I'm thinking too. I did buy it used. Oh well. Thanks everyone

[John Vere]

The jack is probably typical mounted to a circuit board and has no mechanical support from a nut. These  often get damaged easily and disconnected on the circuit board. So look for hairline cracks around the soldering. 

[57Gregy]

15 hours ago, Act20 said:

That's what I'm thinking too. I did buy it used. Oh well. Thanks everyone

Before you delete all those projects that the sustain pedal didn't work and start all over, you can enter sustain in the Staff view. I know it's a poor substitute for pressing on a pedal while playing in real time, but it could save you some work.
And welcome to the forum.

[OutrageProductions]

50 minutes ago, 57Gregy said:

...you can enter sustain in the Staff view.

Or CC64 in the Piano Roll View.