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When my Kawai CA95 is in either split or 4 hands mode, the middle (sostenuto) pedal acts on the right hand side of the keyboard only but not on the left. I am looking for a way to get the sostenuto pedal to act only on the left side of the keyboard instead. An intensive search of the owner's manual and the menu system of the piano has turned up nothing.

If any CA65/95 owners have an idea how to do this I would be grateful if they would share their knowledge on this forum. Perhaps there is a way using the MIDI interface, or does anyone know whether the CA67/97 implements this?

Thanks,
Mike

Hello Mike,

I don't believe this is possible using the instrument's built in features, however it may be possible using MIDI.

Kind regards,
James
x

I don't think this is possible using MIDI either, unless you used some sort of advanced scripting to implement the 4-hands and sostenuto manually.

Kontakt has a MIDI scripting language built in, which could probably be made to do this, but the price of buying Kontakt and the cognitive overhead of learning to use it mean it's probably not worth the effort. There may be other scripting tools that could be used, if you can invest the time to research it.

Mike, while not directly applicable to your case, it's perhaps worth noting that the MP11/MP7 should be able to achieve such a keyboard setup, as these models allow the function of each pedal to be assigned separately for each section/zone.

Kind regards,
James
x

Thank-you, both of you, for your quick replies. lolatu, the idea of a scripting language is interesting. Kontakt, is as you say, rather an expensive hammer for a quite small nut, but perhaps there are cheaper alternatives.
James, do you think Kawai might consider adding the ability to allocate the sostenuto pedal to the LHS of the keyboard in an upcoming firmware update? It doesn't seem like a terribly major modification to me, but I would find it pretty useful. Even if the update were restricted to the new CA67/97 I personally wouldn't mind as I am thinking of changing my CA95 for a CA97, anyway.
Thanks
Mike

Hello Mike,



Unlike the MP instruments, the CAx5/CAx7 do not offer the ability to reassign functions to the different pedals, so this functionality would likely need to be implemented first - a not insignificant task.

I believe if there is recognised demand from CA users for a particular feature or improvement, the development team will consider implementing it with a software update. In some cases, we also 'back-port' features/improvements from the latest instruments to previous generation models (as with the recent CA95/CA65 v2.02 update). However, I believe this is the first time I have heard such a specific request - as such, I have to wonder if there will be a benefit to the wider CA community?

I will forward your suggestion to the CA development team, and you may also wish to contact Kawai Europe (based in Germany) to further highlight your request. However, I'm afraid I am not in the position to make any personal guarantees, unfortunately.

Kind regards,
James
x

Yes, Kontakt offers sophisticated scripting capabilities.

Such a script could keep track of the sostenuto-down state ... on or off.

When in the sostenuto "on" state ... any previous note "on" message (for those notes within a defined "left-hand" range) would be recorded in a list. And the script would ignore subsequent MIDI note "off" messages for any note in that list, thereby allowing such a note to be sustained.

Upon release of the sostenuto pedal, the script would send a note-off MIDI message for every note in the list, and would then clear the list.

Tricky, but do-able.

Thanks James,
I appreciate your taking the time to post several times on my inquiry and to communicate my suggestion/request to Kawai in Japan. I'll contact Kawai in Germany when I get back, as you suggest.
Mike