Kronos: Stuck on notes

[chensa]

Hi,

My set up is my Yamaha Motif ES is the Master (I really need to upgrade) and the Kronos is the Slave. I have been using this combination for a long time.

On a couple of gigs recently, I've noticed that the Kronos had some stuck on notes. Not sure why because if it was the sustain pedal, it would effect both keyboards and be constant. But this was on random patches and after messing with going in and out the program, it corrected itself and didn't occur again the rest of the night. This happened on two separate gigs. The only constant is that the gigs were consecutive back to back days.

I've tried to recreate the problem at home but can't. It's just random. Yes, I need to bring it in for repairs, but if I can't recreate it I'm thinking they won't be able to help me and I've just lost a trip charge. But I might be wrong.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[b3maniac]

Maybe a bit of dust in the ES keyboard. It is always a good idea to clean them occasionally using "canned air" (same product used to blow out computer keyboard). If that doesn't help you may have a sticky switch/sensor. Don

 

[happyrat1]

Possibly a dodgy MIDI cable? Try swapping out for a known good cable.

Gary

 

[chensa]

Maybe a bit of dust in the ES keyboard. It is always a good idea to clean them occasionally using "canned air" (same product used to blow out computer keyboard). If that doesn't help you may have a sticky switch/sensor. Don

I'll try go do that, but the problem was the Kronos. The Yamaha wasn't giving me a problem.

 

[chensa]

Possibly a dodgy MIDI cable? Try swapping out for a known good cable.

Gary

I actually used two different cables, so that's not it. And in 20 years, I have never had a problem with a MIDI cable.

 

[b3maniac]

The Yamaha wasn't giving me a problem.

Think.........the midi commands for the Kronos all come from the Yamaha via midi. That would include the "midi note off' command for the stuck note key. Probably dirt on a contact, or slowly failing contact, on the Yamaha ES.

 

[happyrat1]

Or it could be a MIDI timing issue. That's why I suspected the cable. And I have seen MIDI cables fail in the past twenty years. Not often but they can be a bitch to diagnose. How long are the cables you're using? I would recommend the shorter the better.

Gary

 

[chensa]

Or it could be a MIDI timing issue. That's why I suspected the cable. And I have seen MIDI cables fail in the past twenty years. Not often but they can be a bitch to diagnose. How long are the cables you're using? I would recommend the shorter the better.

Gary

They are the 3 foot cables and I used two different ones on each day. So unless it's a real coincidence that both cables are faulty, I'm thinking it might be a sticky sensor as b3maniac suggested.

 

[happyrat1]

If it is a sticky sensor then the problem should be isolated to a handful of notes on one or two octaves at the most.

Try testing all the keys to see if you can recreate the problem.

Gary

 

[chensa]

If it is a sticky sensor then the problem should be isolated to a handful of notes on one or two octaves at the most.

Try testing all the keys to see if you can recreate the problem.

Gary

Lol. Did I mention I've been using those keyboards for the last two gigs and it only happened randomly? I'm pretty sure I've tested all the keys on the keyboard by now.

 

[happyrat1]

Do you happen to remember which notes got stuck?

If it is a sensor problem it will take a lot more than a squirt of compressed air to fix it.

It usually involves disassembling the keybed and cleaning the contacts with 95% isopropyl alcohol.

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

 

[happyrat1]

 

[chensa]

It's not the Yamaha that has a the stuck note problem. It's appears to be sending a MIDI message to my Kronos to keep the sustain on.

 

[b3maniac]

It's not the Yamaha that has a the stuck note problem. It's appears to be sending a MIDI message to my Kronos to keep the sustain on.

I explained this in my past post. Typically the Kronos would only be "sustaining" because it's note because has not received (or recognized) a NOTE OFF message from the Yamaha. Take your ES to the Yamaha tech and see about having the sensors cleaned/serviced/replaced. I had my ES serviced for similar issue.

 

[chensa]

I understand that. I was responding to the most recent advice. I took it to non Yamaha tech to get cleaned and found a second cat in there HA!. However, it’s still doing it so I’ll have to find an actual certified repair person to look at it deeper.

 

[Sony Kiwi]

Hi, for the last two gigs I had the same problem. When I play with some monophonic patches, some notes stuck randomly. Did you solve the problem?

 

[delaware dave]

the kronos is not receiving a midi notes off (or sustain off) message from the yamaha consistently, that is why your notes randomly hang on the kronos. Reload the Motif operating system. reloading the operating system could cause you to lose your user programs/setups, so do a user backup first then follow the ES directions for an operating system reload. My belief is that there is a small corruption somewhere in the software and an operating system reload should fix your issue. If it doesnt then you know it is hardware related. hardware includes midi cables. It is also possible that the issue is midi-receive related, that is a corruption in the Kronos operating system software isnt allowing it to process the received messages. Not knowing which one is the culprit I would also reload the Kronos operating system as well, following the same user backup advice. This way you have eliminated all software possibilities of root cause.