Could be for you, but that is not what I am finding from my stance. The stuck notes here NEVER happened until a few weeks ago…and with different controllers. So, I am quite sure this is NOT a controller issue with me. The thing is, no one has a solution yet.
My E-Mu XBoard has never stuck notes in the 15 yrs I’ve had it. Yet it did within the last few weeks.
And I guess the other 5 controllers I used, magically had the same problem…according to you “quality issue of keys or firmware”, within a few weeks time?
I also have an Arturia mini I bought six years ago…no problems. but stuck, like the others, in the same time frame. As for hardware keyboards, my reliable E-MU Proteus I purchased in 1992, never, ever stuck a note till yesterday, when I ran midi out to B-3X thru C3.
Sorry Furio…not buying it for my situation. At least the newer C3 builds seem to be reducing the problem. If not, I will go to an earlier build where there was no problem.
Not intending to be argumentative, but from my experience, my controllers are not the problem. In yours, a new Arturia driver worked, even though you said it was useless and were going to sell it. Glad you finally got it going. I hope to solve my occasional problem soon as time allows.
Dear @Corky…
I have no clear solution, I can only report what I tested.
Recent developments “seem” to show that some software changes made my Arturia Keylab perform better.
But I need a serious test and will try to play in insane mode for some time.
I have my real job and an old dad to support, so I can plan my next test session only for next weekend.
But anyway, as far as I can go, this is a problem for me with setups that are not C3 related too.
I had same problem using Reaper. And I still have if I try.
And with controller bound to Montage.
To be honest, I had it since many years.
So for me it is not C3, quite confident with that.
I was sure it was responsibility of an old cheap controller (M-Audio Oxygen, first version).
So this moved me to buy a serious one, the famous Arturia.
Having more or less same issue (but less often) made me start the discussion here.
It is more or less 500 bucks against 100…
Point is that everyone of us now uses a damn good organ VST like B3X (and you had some responsibility on that…) .
Only playing with that thing, we lose every manner and start playing wildly.
If you play VSTs simulating a classical piano, or a monophonic synth, or a poly synth with brass and pad, no stuck note ever happens, we all can agree on that.
This is why we all find stuck notes now: we are pushing our systems to their limits.
I am disappointed we cannot start a serious comparison with some real parameters (scanning frequency, memory buffer, key mechanics) because all of this data are not known to us when we buy a controller.
Obviously I am not sure of anything: bug tracing is always black magic.
So any contribution is welcome: if you find a working solution backtracking C3 versions, let us know here.
It will be helpful to all of us, including Brad.
As we say here: maximum respect to your efforts and your job.
On my 88 key Arturia Keylab88 I have never had a stuck note, ever. Not 2 years ago, and not now. I play daily on that thing.
On my keylaB 61mkii (now in for repair) I got stuck notes every couple of minutes - even when not playing wild organ parts, just moderately busy piano parts. Tried connecting it to my Kronos and that gave stuck notes too
So … not a recent issue (otherwise I would see it on my 88) - just a bad mkii - covered by warranty so not too worried.
I can’t think of anything in recent builds that might be provoking stuck notes - but it’s a complicated piece of code and anything is possible.
I’m wondering if a good idea might be to add a diagnostic command to Cantabile that simply reports which MIDI-In ports currently have held (ie: unreleased) notes. This could at least help determine when a stuck note happens if it was the controller (or USB cable, or MIDI Driver) vs Cantabile itself.
The other point I’d like to make… if notes are stuck while just playing and not across song/state/routing switches then this is almost certainly external to Cantabile. If these are notes that were held before a song/state switch and remain stuck after the switch, then this is more likely a Cantabile issue.
I would certainly welcome the diagnostic command. I think it might just lead us in the right direction to resolving the glitch.
I was just trying to reason out why this started with several people, in the same time frame, with only Organ plugins. If it were just 1 of the vsts, I would know where to go. If it occurred regularly, I could catch it.
The discussion moved to controllers, when in fact, other similar controllers were fine. Then to glissandos. That led me to what we had in common…Organ VSTs, C3, maybe OS updates. Cabling changes, and interface changes made no difference.
It only happens occasionally, but I’ve learned how to handle it in the middle of a solo with no one knowing any different.
In the meantime, I moved to 3630, and after a few hours of Organ assault (no pun intended), no stuck notes yet.
For the next build I’ve added a new menu command in the Tools menu - “Show Externally Held Notes” which shows any note on events that have been received from a MIDI In device for which a matching note off event hasn’t been received.
Note that this works at the MIDI device level - not the MIDI port level. ie: it’s very low level, before any routing/manipulation by Cantabile.
eg: you’ll notice in the screen shot the MIDI Monitor is showing notes held on the Main Keyboard, but the Show Externally Held Notes command is showing the held notes on the microKEY-25 Air device (the device I currently have mapped to the Main Keyboard port).
Besides held notes, this command also tracks the three common pedal CCs: damper, sostenuto and soft pedal.
Not sure when the next build will be, but this will be included.
See my earlier review, those keylabs are lower quality then the mpks. Mpk has issues with the mod wheel. But the overall quality is high. Keylabs overall quality is China toy level. Cheap keys, loose knobs, bad usb connectors…
Mine came delivered with some knobs off :-/
In the store it certainly didn’t feel like the Keylab Mk2 was lower quality than the MPK. The Mk1, yes, but the Mk2 is a significant step up in hardware quality. Assuming they can get to the bottom of these firmware issues.
Six more hours with 3630 on my usual rig…no problems yet. Three hours at gig tonight, three more at home testing. Many hard glissandos, and two-handed rhythmic patterns on different Hammond clones.
In the store I use, Keylab mkII seemed the best solution possible.
There were M-Audio, Alesis, NativeInstruments.
Native were expensive and not driven to live use.
I have Kontakt but I am not interested to edit sounds on my keyboard display.
I do my editing at home with a PC.
On stage I need live interaction. So Arturia was my choice because of keys feeling and possible live interface
Hey @Corky - it looks like even though you guys have similar symptoms, the root causes are different between @Furio and you. I recall that Furio hooked up his Arturia keyboard to a hardware synth - and the stuck notes still occurred. So Cantabile (or the PC, MIDI drivers etc) definitely doesn’t cause the issues in his case.
Looks like your situation is different - but it sure would be interesting to hook your sticking keyboards up to a hardware synth and see if anything gets stuck.
How are you hooking your keyboards up to Cantabile - hardware MIDI interface or USB?
Confirmed. I had problem driving Montage with Keylab. No PC.
Just controller with power supply and a traditional midi cable connected with Montage.
New feeling that new firmware on controller and new Arturia USB driver for Windows could have improved performance.
No stuck notes in last 4 hours of rehearsals.
These 4 hours were with C3 3628 version.
Massive test tomorrow for the weekend.
I will check new C3 version 3630 too.
Its diagnostics could help
I’m pretty sure that keybed on the Keylab is a Fatar TP/9S - http://www.fatar.com/Pages/TP_9S.htm - I had to make the same repair to the keybed on my Axiom 61 1st gen which has the Fatar TP/9 which instead of the “diving board” type keys has almost a waterfall shape.
Definitely a different situation. I rarely use hardware synths for anything anymore, but I did use my Emu Proteus into C3 lately and produced a stuck note. It uses only a 5-pin midi cable…no usb connection when manufactured. This was happening only on the Hammond clones, Blue3 - B-3X - B5 - VB3 1,4. VB3 was the most active culprit. Other VSTs worked fine. My recent controllers are only USB, into laptop directly or in a powered hub. This happened in both situations, and only with Hammond clones.
The last time it happened, I was playing solo on “Green Eyed Lady”, and one note stuck, but I was able to keep the solo going with other notes, even though the stuck note kept droning until I hit panic button.
Since I moved to 3630, no problems yet (knock on wood). It was only sticking occasionally, so recreating it was impossible. My hub was working fine, and all cables were good. I was watching the C3 signal green lights responding to key press as the stuck note droned. I used the same controller for other VSTs after glitch, with no problems. My next guess was possibly laptop usb ports…maybe driver issues, or worn usb connections.
I know it could be related to cabling, hub, and controller. What I was saying earlier was… I found it strange that it happened on different controllers, different midi cabling (5-pin), only on Hammond VSTs, and directly into laptop (no hub).
The one thing I meant to try was running in stand alone, but my time is all consumed during this part of the year. I moved on with 3630 out of necessity, and will try the next C3 version with diagnostics when posted. It will be after the new year before I will have time to setup and experiment. Until then, I have no choice but rock on!
To be honest…
I tried my Keylab 61 mkII before buying it, in dealer showroom together with others.
Essential version seems rather cheap, but my version which is more expensive, seems quite good. Keys feeling and all other mechanics.
Much much better than old version tested by Woody
