Can Ableton play sustained, overlapping notes?

[Serpent Dude 615]

Hi guys,

I've been trying to record some MIDI instrument tracks, like a basic piano track, with a sustain pedal. I simply want it to sound just like an actual piano. You hold the sustain pedal, hit a straight series of quarter notes, and it should sound just like you did it on an actual piano.

My problem is that it doesn't quite sound right, because each note sounds like it's cutting off the previous note, creating a choppy sound.

This seems like a basic thing that I would think every DAW should be capable of. DUN...DUN...DUN...DUN...just playing the same note, with the notes flowing right into each other, not sound choppy and having any note cut off the previous note.

I don't have any MIDI mappings on my sustain pedal so I don't think my CC64 setting is a problem.

Would much appreciate any help. Thanks.

[yur2die4]

It depends on the instrument settings. Lots of different things affect it. Between the number of total voices, legato settings, and retrigger settings.

[Angstrom]

Live does have a very "unique" feature where every successive overlapping note of the same value is made legato. So starting a new note of the same value as one which is already playing will end the previous note and start a new one at that value. In other DAWs the notes may overlap, but not in Live. It is very weird. Unique!

[yur2die4]

Doesn't the retrigger button change that behavior? It is probably off by default to reduce CPU.

[Serpent Dude 615]

Doesn't the retrigger button change that behavior? It is probably off by default to reduce CPU.

Retriggering has to do with the sampler. I'm talking about just normal MIDI instruments. I don't want to put them in the sampler.

Live does have a very "unique" feature where every successive overlapping note of the same value is made legato. So starting a new note of the same value as one which is already playing will end the previous note and start a new one at that value. In other DAWs the notes may overlap, but not in Live. It is very weird. Unique!

It's HORRIBLE and sounds like total crap. I can't imagine anyone wanting this choppy, unmusical sound in their music. Instruments don't play like that. It sounds like a computer glitch. If you want staccato notes, you can always do that by tapping notes fast. But they shouldn't LIMIT you to that. Holding notes with the sustain pedal should smoothly make notes flow into the next note, like when you hit the same note repeatedly on a piano while holding the pedal. Seems like a extreme oversight on the part of the developers. It ruins the ability to play bass guitar MIDI and piano MIDI by making it sound like crap. Is Ableton like not meant for anything outside of electronic music or something?

[Angstrom]

Not really.
You are thinking about it incorrectly. Pedal is not the same as a note-length

Think about the action of the finger on a single piano key on which you play consecutive strikes, with the sustain pedal down. Each finger lifts and is replaced. And this is exactly what the midi note representation means and it is the same in standard musical notation, the notes would be 16ths and there would be a pedal mark. Think about how a pedal note on eight consecutive 16th notes is notated. It isn't with eight breves in a 4/4/ bar. It's Just the same as Live - the notes you are just the notation. and there's pedal notation (controller data) which affects the global release.

What's really happening in a real piano is NOT different polyphonic length control over 8 consecutive note lengths, but rather the sound source has a modifier applied globally (dampers lifted in unison) . In fact, the idea of having different note lengths on consecutive notes of the same value isn't possible on a Piano either.

Anyway - What is required is to apply the pedal to a "release" value in the sound source, just as it is in a real piano.

So if you are using a slightly crappy sample set - you have to map the pedal to the release value. pedal down = release 60 seconds
Or if the VST you are using has a sustain pedal facility then that should work>

Kontakt's basic grand piano uses a sustain pedal (CC: 66) and when you press the midi pedal then Kontakts piano (In Ableton) will behave like a Piano should.

[muckleberryblim]

what instrument are you using exactly?
Live will only send the sustain message, it is up to the instrument to do the sustaining