# Kontakt 4.2.3 and sustain pedal



## Elisis_Ra_Arwal (Oct 6, 2011)

Hello everyone,

I am creating an historical pianoforte out of samples I downloaded online, and fortunately there have been no problems in modifying them using kontakt 4.
The "problem" that I’m having now is related to the sustain pedal.
The real pianoforte has this set up for its pedals:

There are 2 pedals that raise the dampers:

*Left pedal =* raises the dampers throughout the notes of the keyboard.

*Right pedal =* raises the dampers just on the treble notes, say from middle C to the end of the instrument upper range.

My question is, how can I program the pedals in kontakt in order to give to one full range, and to the other limit the range to the treble area only?


Thank you all in advance for the answers and the effort!

- G.


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## Rob (Oct 6, 2011)

create two groups, one containing the zones from down low to the split point you want to define, and the other with the zones from the split up... then you can assign to both groups the left prdal while the right pedal will be assigned only to the second group (treble)


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## Elisis_Ra_Arwal (Oct 6, 2011)

Wow that was the fastest answer ever!

Thank you infinitely for that! 

You're right, I will do this setting tomorrow and I will let you know how it works! 
Thank you again!!


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## Elisis_Ra_Arwal (Oct 7, 2011)

Hi,

I did how you suggested, I created the groups and deleted the notes at the respective split points i needed, but the results aren't the ones I was expecting.

Since my kontakt is linked via midi cable to my digital piano, I suppose that, since it was programmed to act as a real piano, the pedals are programmed accordingly to what a piano does, that is, with the sustain pedal leaves the strings vibrate freely and with the una-corda pedal makes the "digital hammers" strike one string instead of two or three.
So the data that sends to the kontakt engine are such that I can't modify within the program itself but I would need to reprogram the chip inside the piano to make it behave the way I want. Since I am not a programmer of such kind, I think I will just take it the way it is and that's that! hehe

Thank you for your help.

N.B. If you or someone else has got another suggestion to make what I'd like to replicate, it is more than welcome!

Ciao ciao 8)


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## Rob (Oct 7, 2011)

Elisis_Ra_Arwal @ 7th October 2011 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I did how you suggested, I created the groups and deleted the notes at the respective split points i needed, but the results aren't the ones I was expecting.
> 
> ...



I'm afraid I'm not following you...  
You're not trying to use the internal sounds of your digital piano, aren't you? So what has the internal piano chip got to do with a sound that resides in Kontakt?
Once you have pressed the right pedal, your piano sends a controller numer 64 with value 127 through the midi cable to your pc and to Kontakt. From now on, it's all in kontakt, and how it interprets the message, and that's something on wich you have control... or I'm not understanding


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## Elisis_Ra_Arwal (Oct 7, 2011)

I guess I didn't explain myself in a good way...

I am using only the sounds I have loaded in Kontakt.

I play on the piano and it sends MIDI informations to Kontakt, so with the keyboard there's no problem because I play a note on it and I get what I played from Kontakt.

(The only little thing I have with the keyboard and Kontakt is that over 127 possible velocities, my keyboard gets up to 108/110 while playing hard with both hands, instead if I insist on a single note I get up to 127, but this is another issue I am trying to fix.)

My "issue" is with the pedals.

The left pedal is assigned to controller 67, and that controller is designed to lower the volume of the piano to mimic the "una-corda" pedal on the real piano.
On my digital piano it does the same, when I press it I get a decrease in loudness of the piano.
When I press it using Kontakt I get the same result, a decrease in loudness of the instrument.

The right pedal is assigned to controller 64, and that one is designed to let the piano notes resonate for a longer time and kind of blend together, which is the same result you'd get from a real piano.
When I press it using Kontakt I get that result.

Today I created the two groups as you suggested. I deleted the notes I didn't need so to have from each group the split-point.
I assigned to both groups the left pedal, cc 67, and to one group also the right pedal, cc 64.
Now I would expect to hear this:
When I would press the right pedal, the sustain is activated only for the group I assigned it to. 
From middle C to the top I hear the notes all blend together, and from middle C to the bottom I hear the notes as if no pedal has been activated for them. Right??

...unfortunately no...

What I got, instead, is that from middle C to the top the notes blend together and from middle C to the bottom... the notes blend together too.

Because of this, I thought that the microchip inside my piano processes the midi data which are, then, sent trough the MIDI cables to the computer and into Kontakt and the program responds to such informations accordingly. Because that's how MIDI works. Right?

What I was trying to achieve was to create two sustaining pedals.
The left pedal would sustain the notes of the whole keyboard while the right pedal would sustain only the notes from middle C upward.

But I guess I can't really make that...

...or I am doing something wrong or I just missed something very basic which would make everything work the way I want it... who knows! 

I hope this explanation is more clear and to the point


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## robh (Oct 7, 2011)

Hey Rob

(BTW, I like your name!  )

I believe his Left pedal will trigger CC#67, which does not behave the same way as the typical sustain pedal CC#64.

Elisis, to do what you want will require some Kontakt scripting to get cc#67 to behave the way you want. I don't think that is unavoidable.

I have an idea how to get it to work for you. It may not be the most elegant, but I'm pretty sure it will work.

Instead of creating two groups, create two instruments (with the key ranges split) and save them as a multi. Make sure both instruments use the same MIDI channel.

For the "lower" instrument, go into the scripts tab and enter this script:


```
on controller

if (%CC_TOUCHED[64]=1)
set_controller(64,0)

end if
if (%CC_TOUCHED[67]=1)
    set_controller(64,%CC[67])
    set_controller(67,0)
end if

end on
```

For the "upper" instrument, go into the scripts tab and enter this script:


```
on controller
  if (%CC_TOUCHED[67]=1)
    set_controller(64,%CC[67])
    set_controller(67,0)
  end if
end on
```

I'm a scripting noob, so I can only hope this does the trick.

Rob


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