How to lengthen/sustain last note in a piano recording?

[Dave Nuttall]

I've been recording piano solos and on playback I have one where the very last note has a length of 8 beats, but when played back (using MixMaster), it barely sounds more than 1-1.5 beats.

Isn't there some MIDI event that can make it "sustain" and eventually fade?
TIA.
Dave

[EileenL]

A real piano could not last for eight notes. The hammer hits the string and then dies off. You need to finish the song with added notes like a run up or down.

[DerekA]

Firstly, I take it you're recording with a sustain pedal, holding it down while playing the last note.

Secondly, I assume you're not stopping the MIDI file recording on the track until after the note has "finished" otherwise it will be treated as a note-off event

[Dave Nuttall]

Firstly, I take it you're recording with a sustain pedal, holding it down while playing the last note.

Secondly, I assume you're not stopping the MIDI file recording on the track until after the note has "finished" otherwise it will be treated as a note-off event

Correct on both, Derek.

[mikf]

Actually high quality acoustic pianos often do have very long sustain because they have wonderful soundboards. I have a top quality grand piano and I once checked in excellent acoustic conditions and and could still physically hear a sustained chord after about 30 secs which would typically be a lot more than 8 beats. Number of beats in 30 secs depends on the tempo so at 100 bpm for example, 8 beats is only about 5 secs. Even in a slow piece at about 60 bpm 8 beats is still only 8 secs.
But even the best digitals don't come close to this. And one of my few criticisms of Yamahas digital pianos in general, and arranger pianos in particular,  is that the sustain is not great and dies way too fast. There didn't seem to be much I could do it make it better.
Mike

[jwyvern]

The length of sustain will also depend on the frequencies of the notes involved, eg. the lowest notes are made from the heaviest strings which will naturally vibrate for longer. (Generally RH notes play on shorter lighter strings and fade quicker).
Even the CFX samples on Genos reflect this, sounding richer and will sustain for the 8 beats or more if you play notes in the left hand eg. Test the lowest F or C octave to get used to it and see how far you can come up the scale and still get the the lengths of sustain defined by mikj.

John

[Dave Nuttall]

I created a very short MIDI and held the key and the sustain pedal until the note completely faded while in record.

From that snippet, I duplicated a series of "channel pressure events" starting one beat after the last note began, then 2 or 3 more channel pressure events at 1 beat intervals while decreasing the VALUE of the event by 1 at each beat.

For example:
050:3:0000  NOTE length 7200
051:3:0000  Channel pressure 4
052:3:0000  Channel pressure 3
053:3:0000  Channel pressure 2
054:3:0000  Channel pressure 1
055:3:0000  Channel pressure 0

I'm not sure I can explain it, but it seems to work.

Thanks to all who shared ideas.
d.