Novation SL buttons and sustain pedal issue

[johnnyvenom]

Hi there, and thanks for this incredible piece of software. I've started to use it with my SL MkII, and am noticing an issue with programming buttons and the sustain pedal. For the buttons, whether momentary or toggle, the only setting that works is to set "Press" to 0 and "Release" to 127. If I reverse these so press value is 127 and release is 0 (which is what I would assume is correct for a momentary button), when it is uploaded to the keyboard it stays on 127, and when I dump that template on the keyboard back to Edisyn, the Press and Release values are BOTH 127. This is ok, as I can understand and program around it.

This effects the sustain pedal too. When I set "Press" at 127 and "Release" at 0, pressing and releasing sends 127, so the sustain pedal is always on. But I reverse it to Press=0 and Release=127, it sends 0 on press and 127 on release! Which is correct for the mapping, but backwards for the sustain pedal - e.g, sustain is on when pedal is off and sustain is off when pedal is pressed. I can solve this in the SL global settings by putting Sustain Pedal to "NormalCLOSED", but then it's backwards for any templates not edited in Edisyn.

A chart showing the mappings set in Edisyn (cols 2&3) and resulting button press outputs (4&5):

Control	"Press" val	"Release" val	when pressed	when released	Note
Momentary	127	0	127	127	🚫
Momentary	0	127	127	0	✅
Toggle	127	0	127	127	🚫
Toggle	0	127	rev state	nothing	✅
Sustain	127	0	127	127	🚫
Sustain	0	127	0	127	backwards sustain

[eclab]

Let me try to understand what you are saying. Let's put the sustain pedal aside and focus on the buttons. I believe you are saying: - For MOMENTARY and TOGGLE the only values for PRESS and RELEASE that have any effect are 0 and 127. Setting them to other values does nothing. - For MOMENTARY, if you set PRESS to 0 and RELEASE to 127, then when you press the button, it sends a 127, and when you release it, it sends a 0. But if you set PRESS to 127 and RELEASE to 0, then it doesn't work. - For TOGGLE, if you set PRESS to 0 and RELEASE to 127, then when you press the button, it toggles. But if you set PRESS to 127 and RELEASE to 0, then it doesn't work. Very odd. It may take me a while to dig into this. Before I do, you might be able to do some more testing before I do. Specifically: - If you edit directly on the SL, you can change the press and release values. If you set them to various values, does it work properly? What happens when you dump the template? What does Edisyn display? Can you intercept the sysex dump (with MIDI OX or with MIDI Monitor on the Mac) and provide it? - Are there any issues with "Normal" or "Step"? What if, in Edisyn, you set to Normal and set the PRESS value to, say, 5? Does that work properly for you? How about the various settings for Step? - I presume you were emitting CC. What if you emit other things, like Program or NRPN?

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On Mar 19, 2026, at 4:52 PM, John Sullivan ***@***.***> wrote: johnnyvenom created an issue (eclab/edisyn#111) Hi there, and thanks for this incredible piece of software. I've started to use it with my SL MkII, and am noticing an issue with programming buttons and the sustain pedal. For the buttons, whether momentary or toggle, the only setting that works is to set "Press" to 0 and "Release" to 127. If I reverse these so press value is 127 and release is 0 (which is what I would assume is correct for a momentary button), when it is uploaded to the keyboard it stays on 127, and when I dump that template on the keyboard back to Edisyn, the Press and Release values are BOTH 127. This is ok, as I can understand and program around it. This effects the sustain pedal too. When I set "Press" at 127 and "Release" at 0, pressing and releasing sends 127, so the sustain pedal is always on. But I reverse it to Press=0 and Release=127, it sends 0 on press and 127 on release! Which is correct for the mapping, but backwards for the sustain pedal - e.g, sustain is on when pedal is off and sustain is off when pedal is pressed. I can solve this in the SL global settings by putting Sustain Pedal to "NormalCLOSED", but then it's backwards for any templates not edited in Edisyn. A chart showing the mappings set in Edisyn (cols 2&3) and resulting button press outputs (4&5): Control "Press" val "Release" val when pressed when released Note Momentary 127 0 127 127 🚫 Momentary 0 127 127 0 ✅ Toggle 127 0 127 127 🚫 Toggle 0 127 rev state nothing ✅ Sustain 127 0 127 127 🚫 Sustain 0 127 0 127 backwards sustain — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.

[johnnyvenom]

@eclab thanks for the quick reply. I can definitely do some more tests and provide more info next week. 👍

[eclab]

@johnnyvenom Oh, also, what firmware are you running? That'd make a big deal.

[johnnyvenom]

Ok, a little time to do some testing this evening, so I'll go through your replies/questions one by one.

For MOMENTARY and TOGGLE the only values for PRESS and RELEASE that have any effect are 0 and 127.

I hadn't checked this before, but trying now and other values DO have effect too. See my next comments.

For MOMENTARY, if you set PRESS to 0 and RELEASE to 127, then when you press the button, it sends a 127, and when you release it, it sends a 0. But if you set PRESS to 127 and RELEASE to 0, then it doesn't work.

For TOGGLE, if you set PRESS to 0 and RELEASE to 127, then when you press the button, it toggles. But if you set PRESS to 127 and RELEASE to 0, then it doesn't work.

Correct. But now I've discovered the following for both MOMENTARY and TOGGLE types:
If PRESS/PRESS 1 is set greater than RELEASE/PRESS 2, the button will send the PRESS/PRESS1 value every time.

MOMENTARY example1: PRESS=5, RELEASE=4 --> 5 is sent on every press and every release 🚫
MOMENTARY example2: PRESS=111, RELEASE=112 --> 111 is sent on press, 112 sent on release ✅
TOGGLE example1: PRESS1=5, PRESS2=4 --> 5 is sent on every press 🚫
TOGGLE example2: PRESS1=111, RELEASE=112 --> 112 sent on first press (and button LED lights up), 111 sent on second (LED off), and so on. Nothing sent on release. ✅ (I guess maybe this is backwards actually - PRESS1 should be the "on" condition?)

I've checked this across all values and can confirm its always the same, that the second value has to be the larger for it to change.

If you edit directly on the SL, you can change the press and release values. If you set them to various values, does it work properly?

Yes, programming the above examples directly on the SL works properly:
MOMENTARY example1 --> 5 sent on press and 4 sent on release
MOMENTARY example2 --> 111 sent on press and 112 sent on release
TOGGLE example1 --> presses alternate between 5 and 4
TOGGLE example2 --> presses alternate between 111 and 112

What happens when you dump the template? What does Edisyn display? Can you intercept the sysex dump (with MIDI OX or with MIDI Monitor on the Mac) and provide it?

The dump reflects the actual behaviour of the SL. For example, I've set Button 1 (CC59) to MOMENTARY, PRESS=127, RELEASE=0. I upload to the SL and save in template. When I dump the template into Edisyn (and the dump output is attached here), the GUI from Button 1 shows PRESS=127 and RELEASE=127.

SLmkII_template_dump.txt

Are there any issues with "Normal" or "Step"? What if, in Edisyn, you set to Normal and set the PRESS value to, say, 5? Does that work properly for you? How about the various settings for Step?

Normal and Step types work correctly.

I presume you were emitting CC. What if you emit other things, like Program or NRPN?

NRPN has the same issue. with button type MOMENTARY, if PRESS>RELEASE the PRESS value is always sent.
Program always sends PRESS value on press, no matter what button type is selected.

Oh, also, what firmware are you running? That'd make a big deal.

1.3.12
I assume that was the last firmware for the SL but actually haven't checked or thought about it in several years....?

---

Final thing to add, in doing these tests and uploading/dumping back and forth, now MOMENTARY button presses are outputting different than originally. If PRESS > RELEASE it still outputs PRESS value for both. But if PRESS < RELEASE, it (correctly) outputs the PRESS and RELEASE values. When I had started, PRESS=0 and RELEASE=127 resulted in press outputting 127 and release returning to 0. I'm not sure what changed. But now, effectively all my momentary buttons are reversed and I have no way to make a momentary button function correctly (press 127, release 0).