Stuck note / "accidental" sustain? Here is a possible reason

[Patrice_Peyret]

You may have an accidental sustain issue creating a "stuck note" effect if you use a MIDI controller with numerous knobs and switches.
The issue is that the MIDI standard only has 38 "undefined" codes, so if your controller has more than 38 knobs, switches and sliders, chances are that one of them may have been assigned factory-default Controller Code #64 (40H in hexadecimal) which is normally reserved for the sustain pedal in the MIDI standard. This is because manufacturers of modern MIDI controllers have no choice but to overlap with assigned MIDI codes because of the high number of individual controls on their devices.

For example, the Alesis VI49 or 61 controllers have push switch #13 assigned to CC64, which conflicts with the sustain pedal. I would bet that other brands may have the same issue.
I suspect that devices that auto-map nicely to Ableton have probably avoided that sort of stupid conflict, but these Alesis keyboards have almost no auto-mapping besides track volume knobs.

This means 2 things:
- whatever switch or knob has code CC64 may be interpreted as a sustain on/off by Ableton or your DAW, although you have no physical sustain pedal connected!
- if you connect a sustain pedal to such controller, it will create a conflict with that mis-assigned switch

The solution:
- read the spec for your controller or use a MIDI scanner like http://outputchannel.com/midi-logger/ (works on Chrome browser, not on IE or Edge, did not try with Safari) to figure out if you get a CC64 message from an unexpected control other than the sustain pedal
- change the code assigned to the conflicting switch to something else (paying attention to not creating another conflict somewhere else) using whatever configuration editing tool is available for your midi controller

For example, I reprogrammed switch #13 on the Alesis device to code CC102 which is "undefined" in the MIDI spec and was not used for any other control on that device.


You can find the list of standard MIDI controller numbers here: https://www.midi.org/specifications/ite ... ta-bytes-2
Note that they use the word "damper pedal" instead of "sustain", but this is the same thing as the sustain pedal acts by removing the damper on a physical piano.

[Stromkraft]

Very helpful.

[adamjmusic@hotmail.com]

I solved this by using this: https://www.maxforlive.com/library/devi ... tain-pedal

If sustain is ever stuck I just have to click "off" with it and sustain is now off.