David B Hi David! I'm glad you're still enjoying the Modern D. For me, it's all I open as well, and I have it come up as one of my saved Reaper projects. After this busy time, I plan to make more videos. And once we have an accessibility patch done, I'll also do an update here. I'm looking forward to what we have in store.
jenpal Wow, that sounds gorgeous. Exactly like a real piano in a large church or other resonant space. I doubt I could tell the difference between it and an authentic recording.
Interestingly, when playing or practicing myself I almost always prefer a very close and dry sound, but when playing back my own renderings or listening to recordings of others, I find a nice resonant ambiance to be much more pleasing.
jdg78 +1
Thank you jdg78. I’m delighted to hear that you enjoyed the big hall ambiance. 😊
When practicing on the N1X speakers, I also prefer without the room mic and reverb as the instrument itself provides a nice 3D sound with a natural room ambiance. However, when using my headphone, I always turn on the room mic and often add a reverb for a more immersive experience. 😊
Jane
As an update to my Modern D pedal travails...
@David Lai was kind enough to look at the MIDI from my little experiment where the piano sounds weren't clearing when I let the pedal up.
He noticed some weird pedal MIDI values.
So I've tried two experiments.
The Yamaha N3 has a self-test. In that mode, the una corda pedal goes rather linearly from something like 10 to 240 as it's pressed and released.
The sustain pedal, on the other hand, goes from about 14 to 255, then back to 40, then up to 240 as it's pressed. And the same as it's released. Double bounce oops!
The second test - Pianoteq's interface shows the pedals, and I can actually see the sustain pedal bounce a couple of times in Pianoteq as I'm pressing it smoothly once from fully up to fully depressed.
So I guess I can't blame VI Labs for that, in spite of the fact that other VST libraries don't seem to be bothered.
I've downloaded the service manual for the N3 and it says in BOLD type that the "rotary volume installed to the pedal lever unit needs adjustment at the factory and it should not be replaced. Do not touch the rotary volume when removing the pedal lever unit." Ouch. By "rotary volume" I assume they mean a potentiometer that tells the computer how far the pedal is pushed.
Yamaha had a tech from 100 miles away come to fix a different problem with this unit about 6 years ago. I guess the next step is to see whether I can get a replacement pre-calibrated pedal assembly from Yamaha or else see whether that tech has access to parts.
Anyone have other advice?
Jane I guess the next step is to see whether I can get a replacement pre-calibrated pedal assembly from Yamaha or else see whether that tech has access to parts.
Anyone have other advice?
Since it's out of warranty I'd do whatever I could to try and fix/adjust it myself if that's even possible. It sounds like the pedal behavior is not normal even if other VSTs are not bothered by it. I wonder why UVI/Modern D is sensitive to it while the others are not? Hope you can get it solved because the Modern D is worth playing.
God Bless,
David
As @David B says, I'd be inclined to DIY too.
It's quite probable that you're guessing right that it is a potentiometer and those aren't exactly rocket science, so to speak. Of course this is not a 100% certainty.
I'd start by unplugging/de-soldering the leads to that pedal and to measure (with an Ohm-meter/multi-meter) the behavior of that potentiometer first -- without touching any of the mechanics yet -- and see what can be found from that.
Of course you'd need the nerve and a bit of handiness to start such an exploration.
In any case do carefully consider every step along the way.
Cheers and.. a happy outcome,
HZ
Jane get a can of DeoxIt D5. Open the pedal unit and spray a tiny amount (i.e. there is no need to flood it on cleaner) on the offending pot. Exercise the pedal several times and recheck. If there is no improvement, a replacement pot is advised.
If you are in doubt on where to apply the cleaner, share some pictures of the pedals mechanism and I can tell you.
I agree with Jose. Had similar noisy pedal problems myself. Same fix.
Thanks, Jose. The only cleaner I have on hand is an ancient can from Radio Shack, so I ordered D5 and should have it by Friday.
I will post pics of the pedal mechanism. I'm not a complete kutz (in my youth I worked on a variety of VTRs and VCRs during 20 years in the tech department of a television station). But there we had jigs and gauges needed for different alignments. The Yamaha manual is very paranoid with their bold type: "rotary volume installed to the pedal lever unit needs adjustment at the factory and it should not be replaced. Do not touch the rotary volume when removing the pedal lever unit." So if I can get it cleaner without having to disturb its calibration I'd prefer to do so.
Thanks to all for your suggestions.
Jane Thanks for the update, Jane! Yes, on Reaper when I looked at the midi events, I could see the jumps. So thanks for confirming that such jumps exist. Good luck finding a workaround for your sustain pedal!
A review & comparison by Gamma1734 is up!!!
just measure the pot with a multimeter in that position, max depression and open, now that you have a set of value for reference, you can take it off and mess with it.
it's probably out of calibration as is. but the calibration probably isn't the problem. it's probably the wipers.
deoxit might work, but if it's grease on the carbon track, it might not. this is not a high tech part though, you can buy another pot and make it work.
I think it's fixed, at least for now.
I originally thought it might be simple to swap the "soft pedal" and sustain pedal pots, but Yamaha inconveniently put a 3-pin connector on one and a 4-pin on the other. And I'm too lazy to spend time trying to find the soldering iron I last used 25 years ago.
I wound up disassembling things enough to get full access to the sustain pot. Decided to go with DeoxIT fader spray rather than the D5 that Jose recommended. With the pot's bracket removed I was able to get a good shot into a slot opening into the inners and to be able to rotate the pot's shaft back-and-forth through its full range.
For "calibration" I decided to use one of the self-tests built into the N3 and adjusted the bracket until the pedal outputs between 1 and 255 (it won't go to zero).
And... Modern D seems happy. Still don't know why it was the only VST I own that hated my noisy pedal.
Thanks for the suggestions, Jose et al.
Jane I'm glad it's fixed for now. Well, not just Modern D, I'm sure Modern U and other VI Labs libraries wouldn't like your pedal before the fix either. 🙂 But glad it's now normal. Hope it stays!
Jane And... Modern D seems happy.
Cool! 👍
Now you can enjoy one of the best virtual pianos on the market.
God Bless,
David
David B I still love it after playing it since July when I started testing! 🙂 I have all I need in this package.
@Jane You should see the pedal data stream when it's dirty. Some softwares are more tolerant than others when the numbers coming in are all over the place.
Jane Caig Laboratories has an extensive set of cleaning and lubing products. I told you to use D5 as it is a generic cleaner which I have used for a long time on my work with stellar results, but specific products may be even better. Unfortunately here in Spain is really difficult and expensive to get them. There is also an specific grease for pots, but applying it usually involves full disassembly, which may be tricky.
I am glad you have got it working, good job!
Deoxit F5 is the fader spray, or the F100L liquid. There are similar fader/pot sprays (cleaning+lubrication/protection) of other brands, Deoxit seems to cost as much as the pedal around here. Specialty stuff, often not in stock locally. Water-free isopropyl alcohol should be okay for cleaning. I understand preferably the pot axis shouldn't get soaked (may require different lubrication).
