Welcome to Yamaha Synth!

Well, let's start this discussion with - the CP4 Stage is not an acoustic piano; It is an incredible simulation of that instrument using some fairly new technology. Not all acoustic pianos have the same amount of sustain; The CFX, the CFIIIS and S6 acoustic grand pianos all have different characteristics - and the “models” as recreated in the CP4 Stage mimic this behavior.

How long a note lasts will vary from piano to piano… incredible simulations of pianos try to target things that occur during the normal play of the instrument – how many seconds a held note lasts, beyond a certain point, may be of some kind of scientific value, but mostly beyond that mileage will vary greatly. How long is long enough? This depends on what you are doing, what you are playing and the MUSICAL purpose of what you are trying to accomplish. By the time the average level of a musical performance dips 9dB, the majority of your listening audience stops paying attention (they will assume the performance is over).

When adjusting envelopes on any sound it is important to know how a traditional synthesizer attempts to recreate volume (amplitude) changes over time. The “Attack” is how a sound comes in, in terms of loudness. The “Decay”, or more properly called "Initial Decay", is the portion of the envelope that describes/defines this as a percussion sound. Percussion sounds are initially loudest (at the attack point) and die down immediately to the Sustain Level - sustain level is maintained, or not, based on this second Decay Level parameter - on any percussion family instrument, including the piano, sustain is never infinite - it is, in fact, always finite - based on the instrument being hammered, struck or plucked - size, in this case, length of the string has much to do with how long it lasts before disappearing. The second Decay level is always 0 on percussion instruments... “always 0” means that a percussion instrument will stop vibrating eventually due to friction, gravity and other forces acting against it continuing to vibrate. You do not get a second DECAY Level control for this very reason.

If you increase the “DECAY” parameter to +16 the piano sound will sustain for quite a very long time – perhaps not as long as your acoustic – but you would have to be straining your ears in either case and staring at a watch… meanwhile the audience is either applauding or is wondering what you are doing! Also in play in all of this is “how long” it stays loud… the fade down curve, which, as mentioned, can vary from piano to piano.

The “Release” portion of an envelope is how quickly the sound disappears when you release either the KEY, or the PEDAL (the KEY and the PEDAL play the same role here); the PEDAL simply takes the place of you holding down the KEY. The Release portion takes over as soon as you release the key or pedal... it does not come into play, at all, as long as you are holding the Key or holding the Pedal. it only comes into play when you let go (if any audio level is left to influence when you finally do let go). Make sense? So changing the RELEASE to get longer sustain while holding a Key is simply doing nothing to influence longer sustain. It influences what happens when you let go, only!

You have access to Amplitude Envelope Generator via the given Offset parameters in the CP4 Stage's PART Edit area. You are applying OFFSETS to the pre-programmed envelope within the audio. The Attack portion in the piano engine VOICES are not able to be offset, however, you can adjust the Decay and Release. This, coincidentally, is the same as in the Motif XF. In the AEG of the piano data, the audio is literally turned On at a preset value rather than applying an “up-from-zero” approach. The critical feel of response dictates that with hammered events the INITIAL LEVEL is closer Maximum (not 0, as is the case in many other instrument sounds).

The envelopes on Yamaha synthesizers offer an “Initial Level” setting that allows audio to begin at a set level (other than 0). If you do not set an Initial Level, then the envelope will apply a 0 level at the ATTACK point and allow you to set a “time” value for the audio to reach full. The difference is subtle, to be sure, but that is what this is all about. The CP4 Stage pianos follow this Initial Level option – which negates you “breaking” that portion of the model. It ensures that the audio begins as intended.

Can someone give me some tips?

Let's use the CFX piano as an example.
Press [EDIT]
Navigate to 02: PART
Navigate to 02: FILTER/EG
Set the DECAY to a positive value to increase the length of time notes will last while held

The degree to which you can maximize or minimize this, is whatever it is – you are applying an offset value to the original audio analysis data. I word that carefully because you are not editing the physical modeling data directly (that is not the focus of this product). The sheer amount of number crunching in manipulating a physical modeling engine is not a casual amount and would shift the entire focus of the product to edit in detail. You are applying overall offset to the data in what is determined to be the most useful manner (that is, without ‘breaking the model’). This is true throughout the Spectral Component Modeling engine – you are given access to what are considered an “essential” range of parameters, designed for performers (not rocket scientists, if you get my meaning) – Offset but not the full complement of parameters.

Alternate Method: Changing the response box
By this I mean you can influence the decay in sound by adjusting the parameters that control the acoustic frame of the piano… the spruce soundboard is responsible for amplifying the vibrations of the strings. In the piano engine is the “Damper Resonance” INSERTION EFFECT – which can be adjusted to increase the influence of the piano box itself while notes are being held. It can be biased to the Sustain pedal but can also be applied fulltime. Drop into edit on the “Damper Resonance” Effect – you do not want to necessary make it too spooky, like a haunted piano, but you will find when you tweak the parameters available in this effect algorithm that you can greatly influence the reverberations that happen within the acoustic chamber of the piano as an instrument. It is entirely different from reverb (as would be applied “outside” of the box), as you will hear. This is the reverberation INSIDE the piano. Notice how on your acoustic piano that both the reverberations inside and the room acoustics outside the instrument influence your perception of the overall sound.

You will also find this resonance musically useful (versus the science of a stop watch) – in other words, the behavior of the “Damper Resonance” during performing a musical piece, has more musically useful results versus just using a clock to time how long the tail end of a note lasts.

Navigate to the INSERTION EFFECT A (typically assigned to INSERT A) – the shortcut to this screen is to hold the INSERT A button down for 2 seconds. This will take you directly to the Effect processor Edit screens. Explore.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for the detailed response.

When playing a slow intimate piece on the keyboard, there is not a nice even sustain from one note to the next with the pedal fully pressed. It is hard to describe, but it is almost like the pedal is only half way down even though the pedal is fully pressed. It makes the piece sound choppy. I don't know how else to explain it.

I will try adjusting the decay again, but I believe I already have it set at +16.

We assume you are using the FC3 Pedal that came with the instrument.
Make sure your SUSTAIN parameter is set for the type of pedal you are using.
Press [UTILITY]
Select 03: CONTROLLER
Navigate to the SUSTAIN parameter
"FC3 Half On" allows an FC3 plugged into the Sustain jack to control the length of sustain Half-Dampering
"FC3 Half Off" set the FC3 to behave in a standard On/Off manner
If you do not have your FC3, set this to FC4/5