I was wondering if anyone might have a suggestion for an easy way to edit some left hand notes in a piano section.
The sustain pedal is pressed, as intended for the right hand notes. I wanted to play the left hand notes stacatto, but I didn’t, so now they sound legato and mushy. I initially thought if I shortened the left hand notes in the editor it would make them sound more stacatto, but of course it doesn’t because the sustain pedal is pushed . It’s all played on a Yamaha Motif, which doesn’t have VST3.
I know there’s some way I can probably use the logical editor to separate out the notes and turn off the pedal for those left hand notes only, that would probably work. Or maybe I can somehow get the offending notes in to Halion, and adjust their individual properties there (shorter, or no pedal, I’m not exactly sure what I can do with that VST3 stuff). Or replay the part, which I’d rather not do, because it is free tempo, and I’d likely not get the same “feel” as the original. But, does anyone have an idea for a quicker/more efficient way to do this?
Yes, you’ll have to separate the “left hand” notes, then move them to a new MIDI track (which will have to be at least on a different MIDI channel, otherwise the sustain pedal on the original track will affect it nonetheless).
It is easiest to separate by MIDI channel anyways (let’s say that the performance is originally on ch#1). Set the Key Editor’s color menu to “Channel”, then go through the notes, manually, to change all the left hand notes to, say, ch#2. When finished use the “Dissolve Part” command, to separate the channels.
It would require a re-play and re-record but you might be able to divide your controller up into a left hand zone and a right hand zone then send them to Cubase on different MIDI channels to two different tracks. Then tell your controller to send the sustain pedal CC data on the channel/track that you want the sustain on.
I am not a keyboardist and I just use a small 25 key controller and have never messed around with the zones though so I could be way off.
As far as editing the data after the fact, you could duplicate the track, remove the left hand zone from one track, remove the right hand zone from the other track, then delete the CC data for the track that you don’t want it on. I think…
Thank you, vic-france and jaslan for your great suggestions!
vic-france, I’m going to go try your way right now - your suggestions are always great ones to learn by. Jaslan - something good to try the next time I record!
There is a function in the MIDI/Functions/Pedals to note length that will convert your performance into a non sustain pedal version just by extending all notes to where the sustain pedal is lifted. Then you could just select your bass notes and shorten them with the Command key to make them all the same length.
There is also the Sostenuto pedal that you would normally use to do this on a real piano. If it is supported by the Yamaha Motif, it is Controller 66.
I have to admit I’ve really only been around two pedals my whole life, you motivated me to go and read about that 3rd one - now I finally know! I’ll look and see about getting that out of the Motif - it’s exactly what I would need here -
If you make the LH notes staccato while the RH notes exhibit the sound of the sustain pedal, won’t it sound rather strange/unnatural? – as if your LH and RH are playing on two separate pianos?
Also, real pianos sound very different when the sustain pedal is down, due to the sympathetic vibration in the undamped strings. Sometimes, a pianist will press down the sustain pedal during a held chord and release it before the end of the chord, purely to bring in the richer sound associated with the sustain pedal. Some VI pianos will emulate that different sound - eg playing different samples taken with the sustain pedal down, or using a method to simulate the resonance of the strings. (In those cases, the mentioned MIDI function that will delete the sustain pedal data and compensate by lengthening the notes will, of course, result in a different sound.) If the VI piano you’re using behaves like a real piano in this respect, you’ll get an even bigger contrast between the LH and RH - ie it’ll sound even more like your hands are on two separate pianos, if you use the sustain pedal on the RH but not on the LH.
Re the mentioned use of the sostenuto pedal, this is what it does: when you apply it, any already-lifted dampers will remain lifted until the sostenuto pedal is released. It seems to me that there are limited circumstances in which that would help in your situation - eg you couldn’t apply it while a staccato LH note had its damper up, and it wouldn’t affect any RH notes coming later in the phrase you’re editing (ie not already sounding when the pedal was pressed).
Not being classically trained, I may have used the word stacatto wrong - what I meant was I played the notes wrong in the left hand, using long durations “key on”, rather than shorter ones with a sharper attack.
. It’s all played on a Yamaha Motif, which doesn’t have VST3.
