preset Boy's Choir not fully sustaining on release

[richkeys]

I have a new SX900 and disappointed that all the preset Boy's Choir voices are not fully sustaining upon release of keys while using the sustain pedal. The whole sound just dies off really quickly. Playing with the Release slider in the Voice Edit menu does not do much. I suspect the samples in these voices cannot be altered to sustain like this. The MODX choirs do not behave this way. The choirs from the free Church & Christmas pack do sustain, but those voices are from the older S series instruments and they are not as good in my opinion. The Free Play Style called "Ethereal Movie Voices" has a great sustaining choir in the 4th variation, however I am looking for a Voice, not a Style.

My question is, is there any other way they can be sustained?

If not, can anyone recommend some good choir expansion packs that do sustain at release?

[richkeys]

Update: It appears that changing the Foot Pedal setting (under Menu-Assignable) from Sustain to Sostenuto gives the indefinite sustaining on Choir that I was looking for. I haven't used a Sostenuto setting before, I am assuming it might be best on Choir and not best on Piano etc.

[jwyvern]

Update: It appears that changing the Foot Pedal setting (under Menu-Assignable) from Sustain to Sostenuto gives the indefinite sustaining on Choir that I was looking for. I haven't used a Sostenuto setting before, I am assuming it might be best on Choir and not best on Piano etc.

It works like that with choirs on Genos too.
Sostenuto is a special case of sustain. If you press the sostenuto pedal while pressing selected keys those notes will sustain until you release the pedal as you have found.
But there is more to sostenuto than that (if you need it ). While continuing to hold the pedal you can play other notes normally as melodies or embellishments, while the sostenuto voices continue to sound as a static background until you choose to release the pedal.
John

[richkeys]

John,

Good to know about the extra Sostenuto function.

Also I am assuming the best shortcut to toggle between Sustain and Sostenuto setting is to set up some kind of Assignable shortcut to the Pedal settings. I will be doing this a lot, as I mentioned, voices like Piano behave more normally with regular Sustain.

But at least this is a solution to the problem, as I was initially concerned that the strings and choirs were not holding with the pedal pressed.

Rich

[jwyvern]

Rich,
If you use registrations for keyboard set ups you can memorise the relevant choice of sostenuto or sustain to them for the pedal depending on the voices in use.

John

[richkeys]

John,

Yes I saw the option to check "Pedal" when saving a registration, so that's good. I just got this thing, but trying to read the manual and do my own research before posting a lot of questions. I found out about the Sostenuto setting on another online forum. The manual didn't really spell it out for me that this was the way to go.

Rich