I’m slowly becoming a newbie-no-longer, and have been digging into using Cubase in a multi-synth setup (which is working well). I’m using the ES8 as my main controller and want to understand the nuances of this pedal control option.

At the Voice>Utility>Midi>Switch screen, there is a CtrlChange option that sets the “mode” for the sustain pedal.  From the manual:

“Determines how this synthesizer receives and recognizes the AEG Sustain Midi message. When set to mode 1, it is received as a Parameter Change. When set to mode 2, it is received as a Control Change message.”

Under what circumstances would you want to use one or the other? Is there some sort of trade-off?

Yamaha obviously added the option for flexibility, so there must be a situation where it is required or desired to use one setting over the other. All my synths and modules appear to respond correctly to sustain regardless of the setting selection, but I don’t want to be ignorant of the reasoning.

Can someone give me a setup configuration example where it might be desired, or even required to choose one setting over the other?

Re: Sustain Command Mode 1 or Mode 2 Preference?

As I understood, when set to mode 1 you apply sustain to ES, while in mode 2 it is CC message that could be transmited via MIDI to another instrument/DAW. Maybe Bad Mister could better explain this.

Alex

Re: Sustain Command Mode 1 or Mode 2 Preference?

AEG Sustain is Amplitude Envelope Generator Sustain.
Back when synthesizers were (all) analog, you would setup the envelope of a sound for loudness using the AEG parameters: Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release (ADSR)

Back when synthesizers were analog you did not have sustain pedals… Not unusual because analog synthesizers did not do piano sounds (and no one expected them to either) and sustain pedals are a piano thing (make no mistake).

So ADSR was how you setup how a sound came in when you pressed the key (attack); how it initially dropped in volume (decayed) immediately after the attack (decay); if it sustained while you held the key, or not (sustain); and what happened when you let go of the key (release). That was the A-D-S-R

The Motif ES give you this type of control on each Voice (there are dedicated knobs for Attack cc073, and Release cc072). In order to provide you both Decay and Sustain it was decided to default the Assign A and Assign B knobs to AEG Decay and AEG Sustain… Although current synthesizer protocol does provide for Control Change Messages for Attack and Release (and Control Change cc075 is dedicated for Decay… but the Sustain did not wind up with a universally accepted AEG Control Change message other than cc064 which is associated with the sustain pedal. The cc064 is basically HOLD 1 – which suspends the synthesizer envelope at the stage it has reached at the time you press the pedal. So for sounds with percussion type behavior (like pianos) it will behave like a piano sustain pedal. However, for sounds that do not have a percussion type envelope – the sound will continue indefinitely. For example, pressing a sustain pedal on an organ sound will result in the sound holding forever. However, percussive envelopes (hammered, struck or plucked instruments) the sound will eventually decay to silence according to the envelope parameters.

But that is another story…

The Mode 1 and Mode 2 preference refers to the fact the Motif ES uses Control Change number 31 (in many synths this is an Undefined Control change Message) for AEG Sustain as a parameter change in MODE 1 and as a real time Control Change in MODE 2.

If you have it set to MODE 2 and send in via MIDI a controller sending cc031 it will in real time act to change the AEG SUSTAIN portion of the envelope (provided no other physical controller is assigned to AEG Sustain). So it would be able to be used the same as cc73 Attack and cc072 Release so you can adjust the envelope of the sound. For example, say you want to change the Amplitude Envelope Generator of sequencer track for a particular chord hit.

Example of usage:
Since the AEG Sustain parameter will determine how sound behaves during held notes. You might use cc031 with a value between 0-127 just prior to a chord to tailor how the sound behaves…

Say you have a piece of music and you have whole note chords… but you want to adjust (after the face) the way that each behaves while held. In MODE 2 by programming a value for cc031 you could change the behavior of the held chords.

I provided an example (attached) in SONG 01 in the ALL SONG file “AEG_SUS.W7S/AEG_SUS.W8S”. A simple four measure, with whole note chords. Play them back using both MODE 1 and then play the same with MODE 2. In MODE 2 I am controlling the behavior of the whole note chords as to their duration…

As you can see on the EVENT LIST, I varied the value for cc031 to adjust how the chords behave… When you select MODE 2 you hear the behavior as now the ES is using AEG SUSTAIN parameter as a Control Change message.

The AEG SUSTAIN function is very seldom used and not missed by most synthesizer users…

Hope that helps

Re: Sustain Command Mode 1 or Mode 2 Preference?

Ok, thanks again Phil for the comprehensive reply and file. I believe I understand now, allow me to recap to make sure.

If you want easy access to the AEG sustain function in real-time, then Mode 2 is the selection you want. Mode 2 allows access to AEG sustain using the cc:31 command which completes the pallette of ADSR-type functions accessable using continuous controller commands.

Since cc:31 is typically undefined, let’s say you want to use it for something else on your rig (as if that would be necessary, given all the other undefined cc commands), you can go to Mode 1 and the cc:31 >> AEG sustain function mapping would be ignored.

If you have external midi control with the required flexibility, you could always access the AEG sustain parameter via a system exclusive command in both mode 1 and mode 2. Mode 2 simply opens up access to the function using a continuous controller.

So, Mode 1, system exclusive only access, Mode 2, system exclusive and cc:31 access.

Thanks again, I thought the option had something to do with sustain pedal command mapping.