Pedal control

Numula lets you control MIDI pedals (sustain, sostenuto, soft), including fractional pedaling. It also provides "virtual sustain pedals" which affect only a specified subset of notes.

All pedal operations on a Score must precede timing adjustments.

Software piano synthesizers typically provide access (via MIDI) to three "pedals":

• The sustain pedal lifts the dampers so that notes continue to sound after the key is released, and strings vibrate sympathetically.

• The sostenuto pedal lifts the dampers of notes whose keys are down at the time the pedal is depressed.

• The soft pedal lowers the volume and/or softens the timbre of all notes.

Some synthesizers (including Pianoteq) support partially lowering a pedal; for example, a half-lowered sustain pedal only partly damps the strings.

The MIDI pedal types are represented by:

PEDAL_SUSTAIN = 64
PEDAL_SOSTENUTO = 66
PEDAL_SOFT = 67

The class PedalSeg represents an application of a pedal.

from numula.nscore import *

p = PedalSeg(
    dur: float,
    level0: float = 1,
    level1: float = 1,
    closed_start: bool = True,
    closed_end: bool = True
)

Parameters:

• time: when the pedal is depressed (score time).
• dur: how long the pedal remains depressed (score time).
• level0, level1: the levels of pedal depression (0 to 1) at the start and end of the interval. The level varies linearly between these.
• closed_start: the pedal is applied before notes at the start time.
• closed_end: the pedal is lifted after notes at the end time.

A "pedal PFT" is a list of these segments. To apply a PFT for MIDI pedal to a Score starting at a given time:

Score.pedal_pft(
    pft: PFT,
    type: int = PEDAL_SUSTAIN,
    t0: float=0
)

These PFTs can be created using a shorthand notation.

You can also add a single PedalSeg to a Score at a given time:

Score.insert_pedal(
    pedal: PedalSeg,
    type: int = PEDAL_SUSTAIN,
    t0: float
)

If P0 and P1 are adjacent PedalSeg objects and there are notes that start at P1.time, the semantics are:

If P0.closed_end is set, the pedal is momentarily released, and all notes being sustained by the pedal stop sounding.

Numula provides a "virtual sustain pedal" feature, which is like the MIDI sustain pedal except that affects only a subset of notes. For example, a virtual pedal might apply to the LH but not the RH.

To use a virtual sustain pedal:

Score.sustain(
    t0: float,
    t1: float,
    selector: Selector = None
)

For each selected note starting at t0 or later: if the end time is before t1, change the duration so that the end time is t1.

You can control virtual sustain pedals using a PFT consisting of PedalSeg objects.

When such a PFT is used to control the virtual sustain pedal, pedal_type is ignored and level is 0 or 1. To apply such a PFT to a Score:

Score.vsustain_pft(
    pft: PFT,
    t0: float = 0,
    selector:Selector = None
)

t0 is the score start time, and selector specifies which notes are affected by the virtual pedal.