hanging note

[fermata]

I've got a problem with a note that hangs at the end of a passage. The only way to turn it off is to play that particular note. If it is a chord, then I have to play all those notes to turn them off. Is this a Hauptwerk problem, and can it be fixed there?

[ldeutsch]

This is a common problem and is caused by your keyboard producing a MIDI message (in this case, a "note off" message) faster than it can be processed. The culprit might be your computer's MIDI interface but it is possible that HW is missing the message itself.

Unless you are getting these quite often, I suggest simply living with the problem. I get these about one even ~10 hours of intense playing on my own Rodgers-based HW instrument.

Les

[jkinkennon]

A hung note is not a Hauptwerk problem and is not something that I would tolerate. There's a possibility that the computer is having trouble keeping up, especially if the MIDI signal is running through an audio interface. The most likely problem is with the MIDI encoder, MIDI daisy chaining, or a defective MIDI to USB interface. If there are multiple MIDI streams from individual manuals or the pedals they should be combined in a quality MIDI merger which has a USB connection to the computer. Kind of depends on your MIDI configuration.

If the MIDI is going through an audio interface then check if the HW CPU indicator is going into the red zone. That would indicate that the CPU is not keeping up with the interface which could affect the MIDI data as well as the audio. Increasing the buffer size would be good for both MIDI and audio in this case.

Don't forget to consider dirty, noisy expression pedal potentiometers. Do the hung notes disappear with the expression pedals all the way open or closed? That would suggest the pots need changing out.

[magnaton]

A hung note is not a Hauptwerk problem and is not something that I would tolerate. .

I agree! In my early HW discovery I enlisted the MIDI out from an old Ensoniq EPS keyboard. Using a cheap $3 Chinese USB to MIDI interface worked fine for a while however it got dropped or shocked or something but notes started to hang when playing 3 or more notes simultaneously. So I only could get through half of CPE Bach's Solfeggietto I simply upgraded to a Roland UM-1 and haven't had a hung note since, of course the EPS is long retired from my setup. I've had good luck with the iConnectivity mio MIDI interface too.

Danny B.

[anco111]

I have never had that problem. Most likely it's your midi interface. I use Roland um-one and I never had a MIDI related problem...

[robsig]

I think a hanging note may be linked to the keyboard. On one of my keyboards (CMK-1) I currently have a hanging note, which began as a note that failed to play occasionally. I had previously had the problem of a note failing to play and fixed it by taking off the key and fiddling with the plastic that covers the contact. That fixed it that time; I was prepared to replace the contact (they come in strips of 10) but didn't need to. Perhaps there was dirt or the contact had become unseated. In the present case the note (not the same one) began by failing to sound occasionally but then become a hanging note. If I was playing three notes at the same time (on two keyboards and pedals) all three would stick until I played each one. This lasted for several days but now the hanging has been occuring more rarely while the note failing to play persists. It may have something to do with the weather!

The fact that the trigger was the one note that occasionally fails to play leads me to think it is the key contact which is the culprit. I've been lazy about fixing it because the problem is with the lowest keyboard and I would have to take the 3-keyboard stack (with the cables) apart to get at it. So I live with it, but it is definitely annoying.

Let us know if you find a resolution of the problem.

[jkinkennon]

A bad key contact can create problems if the encoder is not doing the debouncing well. This could cause excess traffic just as one would get from a defective potentiometer. With the old, slow 5-pin MIDI its easy to overrun even large buffers.

The fix would be to first repair the keyboard of course. If hung notes remain an issue one might look at using a different encoder or a different connection scheme such as replacing daisy chains with a MIDI merger that connects to the computer using USB-MIDI.

[fermata]

It is really helpful to hear this discussion, thank you all. The hanging note(s) problem went away when I switched out the cheap-o USB-midi interface, like Danny B. did, and used the keyboard's USB port. The cheap-o interface worked fine until just recently.

Sounds like it was a simple fix, and maybe it was for people who know what they are doing. But if it weren't for this forum, I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. Am so grateful to you all.