Roland RD-300s help please! :)

Hi there.

Let me first begin by stating that I am a complete MIDI newbie.

Here's my problem - I'm unable to use the sustain (damper) pedal on my Roland RD-300s in Ableton Live 9 Suite. The pedal is indeed sending MIDI messages. From the research I've done, I hear it's because these old Roland digital pianos send an "all notes off" function when the key is released, even if the sustain pedal is being pressed.

The user who posted this on the Ableton site was using MidiPipe, but I assume that with Bome we can obviously do the same thing. I don't know if he's using the same model of Roland digital piano, but here is what he wrote:

"Through the use of MidiPipe I was able to filter out the 'all notes off' message (CC123) so that Ableton no longer received them and everything worked!

Since it took me a while to figure out how to get MidiPipe to do what I wanted, I thought I'd mention what I did to get it working in the end. I added a 'Midi In' pipe to receive the messages that were coming in from the piano ("hijack" option checked), added a 'Message Converter' pipe and mapped Control Change #123 to Control Change #002 (for example), and lastly a 'Midi Out' pipe to MidiPipe Output 1 ("pass through" option checked)."

I'm hoping to be guided in the right direction as to what I should do. I've never used a MIDI Translator before and it's my second try at this. When I first installed, I declared "screw it", and uninstalled but now I'm determined to get this going and learn some valuable information on thew way!

Thanks and I hope to hear from someone who knows what they're doing soon

Hi djjoel

This is pretty simple to do. You want to tell MT to filter out the off messages globally. Create a translator that states
And all of your off messages should be stopped. Then, in the MIDI router, connect your Roland MIDI device to MT Virtual Port 1 Out, and set MT Virtual Port 1 In in Ableton.

Make sense?
Jared

Hi,
chiming in... if you want to just filter out the "All Notes Off" message, use the same setup as DvlsAdvct outlines, but use this translator: It's very important to check "swallow MIDI message" so that the original message won't be passed through in the MIDI Router.

Also important is to not use the Roland MIDI device in Ableton. Only select MIDI Translator port 1.
Florian

Hi guys, thanks for the help.

I'm still a bit confused as to where to input this code. I tried to copy it into the "rules" section but it gives me a syntax error.

Once again, I've never used a program like this so I'm not sure where to put it.

**EDIT** I figured out I'm not supposed to copy this code anywhere, but input the values somewhere... I think.

I have it detected in Ableton running through Bome Translator 1 now at least. I'll post the values of where I'm at.

In a new translator:

Channel: 0 -Channel1
Note: Trigger on any note
Velocity: Trigger on any velocity
Swallow Midi Message: Yes
Rules: Nothing here yet
Outgoing: None

Here's what the incoming trigger in the main window says:

[x] Translator 0.0: All Notes Off
Options: swallow
Incoming: Note Off on channel 1 with note:64 (0x40) and any velocity
Outgoing: (none)

Hi again

You'd want your incoming message to be

MIDI Message
Control Change
Channel: 0 - Channel 1
CC#: 123
Value: Any Value

and your outgoing message to be

None

That should filter that message out for you. Let me know if that works
Jared

Thanks for the quick response. Ok I've tried that but no luck yet.

Now my incoming trigger looks like this:

[x] Translator 0.0: All Notes Off
Options: swallow
Incoming: Control Change on channel 1 with CC#:123 (0x7B) and any value
Outgoing: (none)

Any idea what might be going wrong now?

**EDIT** it may be worth noting that in the first code you posted, I am unsure what "Incoming Message: pp qq 00" means.

Also, should I be capturing MIDI during any of this process?

Actually, yes. Activate Capture MIDI and trigger the Roland. It will pick up a few messages, but what's the last message that comes in?

Jared

Here is the entire capture when I hit and release the middle C key.

MIDI 90 3C 57
Note On on channel 1 with note:60 (0x3C) and velocity:87 (0x57)
Note On on channel 1 with note:60 (0x3C) set 'pp' to velocity
MIDI 91 3C 57
Note On on channel 2 with note:60 (0x3C) and velocity:87 (0x57)
Note On on channel 2 with note:60 (0x3C) set 'pp' to velocity
MIDI 90 3C 00
Note Off on channel 1 with note:60 (0x3C) and velocity:0 (0x00)
Note Off on channel 1 with note:60 (0x3C) set 'pp' to velocity
MIDI 91 3C 00
Note Off on channel 2 with note:60 (0x3C) and velocity:0 (0x00)
Note Off on channel 2 with note:60 (0x3C) set 'pp' to velocity
MIDI B0 7B 00
Control Change on channel 1 with CC#:123 (0x7B) and value:0 (0x00)
Control Change on channel 1 with CC#:123 (0x7B) set 'pp' to value
MIDI B1 7B 00
Control Change on channel 2 with CC#:123 (0x7B) and value:0 (0x00)
Control Change on channel 2 with CC#:123 (0x7B) set 'pp' to value

Here is the entire capture when I clear the capture and then press and release the pedal.

MIDI B0 43 7F
Control Change on channel 1 with CC#:67 (0x43) and value:127 (0x7F)
Control Change on channel 1 with CC#:67 (0x43) set 'pp' to value
MIDI B1 43 7F
Control Change on channel 2 with CC#:67 (0x43) and value:127 (0x7F)
Control Change on channel 2 with CC#:67 (0x43) set 'pp' to value
MIDI B0 43 00
Control Change on channel 1 with CC#:67 (0x43) and value:0 (0x00)
Control Change on channel 1 with CC#:67 (0x43) set 'pp' to value
MIDI B1 43 00
Control Change on channel 2 with CC#:67 (0x43) and value:0 (0x00)
Control Change on channel 2 with CC#:67 (0x43) set 'pp' to value


It might be worth noting that I never capture before, and now that I have, I can see that each value that I select in the capture list has different parameters. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be selecting a value in the capture list to make the changes you guys suggested before.

Thanks, and talk to you soon! (PS. I got my Akai MPK249 yesterday, and it's working great although my pedal has reversed polarities and I'll have to solder them backwards some time soon.)

It's interesting that notes are coming in on 2 channels. This is because of the Roland RD-300s's Lower and Upper MIDI settings, which I don't understand in the very least.

Instead can you try an incoming message of

All Channels
All Notes
Velocity 00

And see if that does what you need? If so, do the same for All Channels and All CCs.

Thanks
Jared