cpcohen

Is there a way to do a "factory reset" ? That might help. . Charles

Grrrrr . . . . the problem is still present, after several power on/off cycles, and "factory resets". I'm not ready for professional help (and cost), yet. I think my "solution" will be: . . . Don't use any tones that derive from the "Grand Piano" sound. "GM Piano 1" is corrupted -- I bet it derives from the "Grand Piano" sound. The "GM Piano 2" tone isn't corrupted (yet), and sounds OK as a piano patch. The next time my choir needs the DP, that's what they'll use. I'm going to leave it turned on for a few days, hoping for a miracle cure. It still drives Pianoteq. . Charles

Thanks, Brad and J-man. I'm not the first case -- see here: Now, I'm going to try a factory reset . . . . Power off --> hold down GMTones & Function while powering up -- > "INITIALIZING" . . . . . . . Problem still present. Run a few minutes of glissandos, up and down the white keys . . . . . . . . Problem still present. Check the output of the power supply -- 12.15 vDC / 0,001 mV AC. Check other tones: . . . Many (not all) of the tones on the "Grand Piano" button (variations of the basic Grand Piano Concert sound) have the problem; . . Tones on other keys -- Elec Piano, etc) do _not_ have the problem. I'll leave it turned on overnight, and see if things change. I bought the PX-350 when it came out, just before the P5s became available, whenever that was. If the problem persists, I have two choices: 1. . . . Continue using the MIDI output to drive Pianoteq, and ignore the built-in Grand Piano tones. 2. . . . Bring it in for repair, if I can find someone who'll fix it. I think this is a "no cure, no pay" situation, but the repairman might disagree. Enough for tonight. I have a choir concert tomorrow, with stuff yet to learn . . . I'm going to cross-post to the Piano World forum - less specific than this one, but with very large readership. I'll report back, one way or the other. Thanks again -- . Charles

I started-up my PX-350 after a long rest. Started playing bass notes, using default "Piano" tone, at high volume: . . . If the lowest C is "C1", the fifth F1/C2 gave full-volume motorboating (intermittent sound). Some other intervals did that intermittently. This morning, the critical pitches changed, but the motorboating was still there. I've tried it with headphones -- same effect. So it's not a loudspeaker vibration. Worse, I've recorded it on the built-in USB drive -- so it's really coming out of the sound generator. I've tried to attach a WAV file to this message -- the problem shows up clearly. (The file has been trimmed in Audacity -- no other editing has been done.) HELP !!!! . Charles TAKE18 motorboating.wav

PMFJI -- There is an extreme solution to this problem: . . . Use a "software piano" like Pianoteq, instead of the PX-350 sound generator. It may be difficult to gig with a laptop computer, but Pianoteq sounds _way_ better than the PX-350. It will run OK on a medium-performance laptop (Intel i5 or better). You'll still need a good PA amp/speaker, rather than a "keyboard amp". Some bass amps are "full-range"; people have reported good results with those. If the unit has only woofers (no tweeters), it probably won't work well for piano. I like my ElectroVoice ZXA1 -- nice, undistorted sound, less than 20 pounds. . Charles

The PX-350/PX-360 speakers are inadequate to show what the sound generator can do. A subwoofer will help. IMHO, you need an 8" woofer to get the low end sounding OK. I bought one EV ZXA1 (couldn't afford or fit two of them). It sounds way better than the built-in speakers, even though it's monophonic. . Charles

FWIW -- The middle pedal is a _sostenuto_ pedal. The way it's supposed to work: . . . If a key is being held down _at the moment when the pedal is pressed_, that note will continue to sound after the key is released. That is, the sostenuto pedal acts as a damper pedal, for notes that are sounding when it is depressed. . . . If a note is struck _when the pedal is already down_, it will behave as though the sostenuto pedal is not present. Lift your finger off the key, and the note stops. I don't know how an acoustic piano behaves when the sostenuto pedal is depressed _when notes are sounding because the damper pedal is held down_. I suspect that -- in that case -- it will "catch" the dampers in their raised position. So when you let go of the damper pedal, the notes will continue to sound. If that's how your DP is acting, I don't think there's a problem. The previous thread was about a mis-behaving pedal assembly. Yours, sounds like it's OK. . Charles

Yes, an Android (or even a PC) app would be nice. But the PX-350 is obsolescent (I think it's still in production), replaced by the PX-360. I've read some reviews of the PX-360 touch screen -- it sounds very nice. But it doesn't permit programming the DSP chip. . Charles PS - my PX-350 is now a MIDI keyboard for Pianoteq. Its built-in sounds are OK, but Pianoteq's are better. And there's an adjustable reverb, an EQ, and so on, inside Pianoteq.

>>> . . . Neither are the microkorgs [velocity-sensitive] as far as I know. <<< Yes, they are. I _know_ the microKorg XL+ is (I own one), and I think the rest are, also. As for playing serious, sensitive music on mini-keys -- yuck! . Charles

Yes -- based on those results, it's the PX-350 (not the SP-33) that is too "dumb" to do proper translation of the SP-33 position to a MIDI value. . . . I learn something new every day! And congratulations to the PX-360 owners who have "continuous pedalling"! . Charles (a PX-350 owner) PS -- thanks to the testers!

I've watched the MIDI data stream _out_ of the PX-350 with the SP-33, and it _doesn't_ have continuous half-pedalling -- three values come out: . . . Pedal up . . . half-pedal (the MIDI value is settable in the menu system); . . . Pedal down.. I have sent MIDI streams with "continuous half-pedal" messages _into_ the PX-350, and its sound generator _does_ respond properly to them, with slowly-increasing sustain times as the MIDI value changes. I haven't checked -- pin-to-pin on the connector -- whether the "sustain" pedal is actually a continuous controller. But I'd bet that it isn't. Check for some messages by Mike Martin on "Pianoworld" in 2014-2015; I think he finally agreed with me. But I can't find them now. It would take an incredibly short-sighted engineering department to have a continuous pedal, and a sound generator that responded to "continuous half-pedal" MIDI messages, and _not_ send the pedal data straight to the sound generator. . Charles

FWIW -- When you press down two keys, _two_ MIDI "note on" messages should happen - and nothing else! My guess is that the "high-res" portions of the "note on" messages are being interpreted as something peculiar, by the software. In Pianoteq, there's a menu setting for "hi-resolution MIDI", which stopped some problems I was having with my PX-350. I'd contact the people who wrote your software, and ask if they can handle "high-resolution MIDI". . Charles

From someone who owns an acoustic grand, that's a powerful statement! A bunch of technical information is still missing: . . . Are the decays looped? . . . . . .Are the decays full-length? . . . Are the samples stretched (that is, one sample serves for several pitches) ? . . . Are the samples from the "old" sampled piano (for the PX-x50, etc) re-processed and re-used, . . . . or is it a brand-new sample set? Since the GP300 can produce sounds louder than an acoustic grand, I'd expect something over 100 watts in the amps -- but I can't find the specs. I'm sure all will become clear . . . Then I can really drool. . charles

"Short sustain" is a problem with all low-priced digital pianos (and some high-priced ones, too). It has nothing to do with the physical pedal. It is a frequent complaint. It's caused by technical issues in designing a lowest-possible-cost "sound generator" -- the electronics that generates a sound, when you press a key. A nice long sustain requires nice long recordings of a real piano -- and that requires lots of internal memory, and that memory costs money. Another problem is that an acoustic piano is _loud_. If you have your DP set below "full volume", its sustain will seem even shorter than it really is. There are two solutions: 1. . . . Buy a more expensive instrument -- the sustain gets longer, by and large, as the price goes up. 2. . . . Use your digital piano's MIDI output to control a "software piano" running on a computer. "Pianoteq" is one example -- its sustain is . . . quite nice. So are other candidates like "Vintage D". Solution (2) is usually cheaper, _if_ you have a computer to run the software piano, and some loudspeakers to play it through. . Charles

In the unfavorable thread, Jokeyman says: The capability the OP was looking for was sending "instrument change" messages. . . . How much control do you need over the recording process, _from the keyboard_ ? That's going to determine whether the PX-780 is adequate, or not. . Charles