Hello, in a sentence, I am trying to add some sustain, to my notes, while playing a piano vst, like Eagle for example. I need this for live playing, not playback/offline editing.
To clarify, I would like the notes I am playing to not stop immediately when I raise my finger, but rather degrade for some seconds (e.g. 5000ms). Is there a cubase effects plugin that can do that (e.g. add it as an insert to my Eagle piano instrument track)?
Since I couldn’t find an effects vst to do that, I am trying to use the “Midi Control” midi insert on a piano track, in order to change the sustain C64 data. What I found was that I can only set this to on or off. Any value between 0-64 is off (no sustain), then values between 65-127 are on (too much sustain).
So the effect on my sustain is binary (on/off), where what I want is to reach e.g. a 1500ms sustained note which would correspond to (e.g.) 85 in CC64.
Is there any way, to achieve all the ranges in between? Or is there a vst effects plugin that does this for me? Again, I need this for live playing, not playback/offline editing of midi data.
I wouldn’t like to use reverb effects, that have a similar effect, but not exactly the effect I want to achieve.
Hi Martin, thanks. I described in my text, why CC64 is not quite what I need.
“Since I couldn’t find an effects vst to do that, I am trying to use the “Midi Control” midi insert on a piano track, in order to change the sustain C64 data. What I found was that I can only set this to on or off. Any value between 0-64 is off (no sustain, e.g. 50ms), then values between 65-127 are on (too much sustain, e.g. 6000ms).
So the effect on my sustain is binary (on/off), where what I want is to reach e.g. a 1500ms sustained note which would correspond to (e.g.) 85 in CC64.
Is there any way, to achieve all the ranges in between? Or is there a vst effects plugin that does this for me? “
Sounds like you want to use the “length compression” modifier(?) - Ramp it up to 500% or something and you should start to notice a change in length.
Just note that it only works on playback.
Also, depending on what your goal is, you can process legato on the MIDI data too so that notes extend to the start of the next one. May be something you could use too perhaps?:-
Thank you skijumptoes! I neglected to say that I need this for live playing, not playback/offline editing. Yes, the MIDI Modifier (length compression), would be a workaround in that case.
Please let me know if there are any other Cubase suggestions, or a 3pp vst.
Well, really I don’t know why the Cubase controls don’t work in real-time. Even the record mode doesn’t work, and it should print those MIDI modifiers into the track. Bug?! On purpose?! I really don’t know why it doesn’t operate as you’d expect.
You really want to find a plugin that offers MIDI Latch, or perhaps MIDI Legato. I had a quick look and there’s a few which are 32 bit only. So not really suitable, as you need 64 bit and VST3 ideally…
Bidule seems to offer a latch function, but I’ve not used it and a lot of money for something that the MIDI modifiers should be doing anyway.
Just in case this isn’t clear, MIDI CC #64 is typically used for controlling sustain/damper pedal.
Have you ever played a real piano? If so, you probably know what the sustain pedal does. The sustain pedal on a piano completely moves the dampers away from the string to allow them to ring out fully (or until the pedal is released).
You can’t dictate a specific length of the sustained notes. They will sound until the string(s) stop vibrate—either from gravity or from getting muted by the dampers.
On a real piano you can press down the damper/sustain pedal half way (where the dampers are just barely touching the strings) and you get a “semi-dampened” result. Some digital pianos support halfway sustain pedal. You can tell since MIDI CC #64 recorded from such a digital piano will be continuous rather than just on/off. If you are using a virtual instrument (VSTi) then it will have to support continuous CC #64 (or half-way damper pedal if you will).
In conclusion, the only way to control the length of individual notes on a piano is with your fingers.
