Ah ok this is a weird issue. MIDI Monitor was the key to trouble shooting this issue for me. Upon opening that window, you will see all the midi input (play the keys, turn the knobs etc. this panel will display in real time what functions are being activated). By using this, I realized that my sustain pedal was being unresponsive. I simply unplugged it (M Gear pedal) and plugged in another pedal (a second M Gear, so that pedal DOES work, but it might be picky), and now it works.