Help!

Every now and then one or two of the keys on my new XV-88 will "stick" in sustain. The key itself doesn't stick. But the sound will not stop. On an patch with sustain, you get the sound forever. On a patch with no sustain (like a piano), you get a really long note while the note decays. This only occurs on selected keys. The condition can be "corrected" by power cycling the synth. It seems to occur when playing notes hard (not slamming them, just hard). Do I have a sick synth?

P. Todd

I also have an XV-88 and have noticed some strange behavior - distortion overload type of sound - on certain patches when playing only a certain combination of notes simultaneously ( as in a chord ). Similar to what you described either power down the up or changing the patch and then coming back to it cleared it up.

Not sure if your synth is sick or not - or if mine is. I have a feeling there may be a few bugs in some of these synths.

I have a couple of question for you.

Have you done much messing around with aftertouch? It seems that the aftertouch on my XV-88 is unusually hard to trigger! I was wondering if you felt the same way about your XV-88.

Also whith velocity set to REAL, it seems as though I have to play exceptionally hard to get certain patches - like piano ones - to respond to the high velocity playing. On many of these patches the high velocity produces a diffrent timbre of sound. Do feel you have to play maybe a bit too hard on your XV-88 to get the velocity needed to trigger the change?

Let me know what you find out about your stuck note problem.

Yes, it seems sort of buggy.

The aftertouch is hard. You really gotta push and then, when monitoring the MIDI messages in Cubase, you really don't have much fine control over it. It seems to be off or full on. I was a bit disappointed that such a advanced synth has only monophonic aftertouch as opposed to polyphonic. Pressing on any one note hard kicks in aftertouch modulation on all the currently on tones.

As for velocity, it does take some hard hits to get it to kick in. This is, in fact, how I ended up with "stuck" keys.

My great-uncle (mid-70s), of all people, is a wonderful jazz player. Anyway, during a recent visit he came over and played it. He seemed to really like the feel (velocity and aftertouch included). He was playing the Rhodes patches and was, in all honesty, makeing them sing. But, he was playing it like the real thing--pushing hard for pitch bend, etc. So, perhaps there is hope. If you use Cubase, I'll send you the tracks.

The frustrating thing is Roland support doesn't seem to good. It is like night and day compared to the support that Clavia provides for my two Nords. I cannot even seem to locate where to even "officially" ask about our XV-88 problems.

P. Todd

Thought I would follow up. The store I got my XV-88 from just got another one in today and they brought it out to do a comparison with mine.

I found the aftertouch to be the same for both XV-88's and the velocity characteristics to be identical. Apparently I am being too much of a wimp with the way I am treating my XV-88. I felt rather foolish but at least now I know from your comments ( thank you for responding ) and actually checking out another XV-88, that my keyboard is functioning as it should.

In my own feeble defense I can only say that my other synth is an Alesis QS6.1 which of course does not have fully weighted keys and I am not yet used to playing on the fully weighted Roland. I guess I will have to get over being afraid of damaging the XV and start playing more forcefully when required.

I have been assured that Roland built this thing to take some abuse and my playing it within resonable limits will not cause any damage. Obviously my playing style is not going to hurt it! I am not an advanced keyboard player - just taught myself and perhaps my finger/hand strength hasn't been developed sufficiently - especially as I was only playing the QS until I bought the XV a few weeks ago.

I use Cakewalk but most likely the midi tracks would be playable when imported to Cakewalk!? If you want to send them I would love to give them a try.

Not sure what to tell you about the stuck notes - that would still seem to be a problem especially if you can duplicate it consistantly.

I have found a big difference in Roland support depending on the individual support person you end up with. Some take time to understand and help you, others are very impatient.

Keep me posted on what you find out.

Thanks
Ken D.

Hi,

I noticed that behavior also on my Sk880 which has weighted 88 keys. You are right, there is nothing you can do but power cycle it. Lately I have not seen it, but I have seen several times.

Hi all,

Stuck notes seem to be a part of MIDI: it has been my experience that even the best of instruments (modules and keyboards) will occasionally (although rarely) exhibit this. That's the reason many controllers and MIDI switching units (MOTU, etc) feature 'panic' (all notes off) keys.

Stuck notes can effect only one MIDI number.
Sometimes, simply changing the patch will eliminate the problem temporarily. I'd say if it happens more than once per session, there might be a bigger problem.

Re: the action of the XV-88, the unit features Roland's famous PA-4 keyboard action, the same found on the A-90. Some love it, others less so.

If you read reviews at Harmony Central, you'll see many people mentioning the fact that you really have to press on the keys to activate the monophonic aftertouch. Just seems to be the way the beast is made (start doing those finger push-up calisthenics).

RE: touch, I would be extremely surprised if the unit didn't have a way to modify velocity sensitivity to match the user's style (like the A-90). These things are built like tanks, and you won't break it by playing harder.

Regards,
Chris