Using foot pedal

[marto]

Hallo out there,

Well, just got myself a new foot pedal(sustain?) but have no idea how to use it! Plugged it in but how do I get the thing to work?

Marto

[Styxx]

You step on it. :D No, no, just kidding. I couldn't resist. Are you using it with GPO? A little more info please.

[etLux]

You step on it.
Almost fifty years playing the piano -- and finally, FINALLY! -- someone tells me what to do with that fool pedal.

All this time, I thought you were supposed to get down there and jack the thing up and down like the dingus on a barber's chair -- so you could raise up the whole piano.

I probably sent back six Steinways by now because it never worked.

D.
.

[RichR]

I thought the "thumping" sound you get when you stomp on the foot pedal was for keeping the beat!

[Skysaw]

The one on the left is the clutch.

[RichR]

I never paid any attention to the clutch under the piano or in a car for that matter (griiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnndddddddd!):D

[etLux]

The one on the left is the clutch.
Yeah, but the brake pedal in the middle on mine doesn't work at all.

Tried to stop for a school bus the other day, and had to stick my foot out to do it.

[rwayland]

Hallo out there,

Well, just got myself a new foot pedal(sustain?) but have no idea how to use it! Plugged it in but how do I get the thing to work?

Marto

Well, on the Kontakt player, just below the LOAD button is a small bar, options. Select that and on the menu that appears, you will find some choices for your pedal. If that does not get you going with the pedal, you will have to make sure that you have a pedal which is compatible with your keyboard. To determine this, it would be necessary to know the model of the pedal and the keyboard you are using, and possibly, what software.

Richard

[rwayland]

I thought the "thumping" sound you get when you stomp on the foot pedal was for keeping the beat!

Did you play in the cocktail lounges in San Francisco?

Richard

[RichR]

Yeah, but the brake pedal in the middle on mine doesn't work at all.

The middle one on my piano must be broken too. It makes just one note stick and the rest are all choppy sounding.


Did you play in the cocktail lounges in San Francisco?

No, I backed some of the best Chicago had to offer back in the early '70s but that was on sax and clarinet.

Marto:
What Richard has to say is what you were probably looking for. The rest of us were just having some fun about pedals:eek: :cool: .

[etLux]

Rich and I should team up.

I'm really good at the thump-thump part, and he can do the playing.

David.
.

[RichR]

Hey, we could get a waltz going...
thump...thump...screeeeech
thump...thump...screeeeech
thump...thump...screeeeech

Nah. PDQ probably already did it!

[etLux]

Hey, we could get a waltz going...
thump...thump...screeeeech
thump...thump...screeeeech
thump...thump...screeeeech

ROFL...

Rich, ya gotta let me get outta the way, will ya... screeeeech.

D.

[Nickie Fønshauge]

Well, on the Kontakt player, just below the LOAD button is a small bar

Did you play in the cocktail lounges in San Francisco
CHEERS ;) :D

[Styxx]

Christ, did this poor guy get a straight answer? Who started this fiasco? :D

[caher]

For some strange reason, this thread brought back unpleasant memories of my piano technician days (30 years ago) adjusting the ^%$%^$ sostenuto (middle pedal, for non pianists) mechanism on Steinway grands. A real PITA.

All kidding aside, an overview of using the pedal in GPO would b e much appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

[Tom Crowning]

adjusting the ^%$%^$ sostenuto (middle pedal, for non pianists)


Aah, the brake pedal....

[marto]

Blimey!

Who? what? where?....it was such a simple little question! Obviously a fair few Paddy Hopkirks out there. So basically when I press the pedal its meant to go "BRUUUUUUM" Shall try it.......nope no ignition. Er, I am using the kontakt player through logic express if that helps any? Still pressing nobs and dials and things but no joy yet...

Marto

[etLux]

Blimey!

Who? what? where?....it was such a simple little question! Obviously a fair few Paddy Hopkirks out there. So basically when I press the pedal its meant to go "BRUUUUUUM" Shall try it.......nope no ignition. Er, I am using the kontakt player through logic express if that helps any? Still pressing nobs and dials and things but no joy yet...

Marto
Now that I and others have shamelessly totally trashed this thread... lol:

Forum:

CAN ANYONE HELP MARTO ON THIS?

(Sorry, it was just irresistible.)

Best,

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[RichR]

Okay let's give Marto a helping hand. To refresh all as to the question it was this:

Well, just got myself a new foot pedal(sustain?) but have no idea how to use it! Plugged it in but how do I get the thing to work?


Marto,
I'm not sure what you are connecting or wanting to connect the foot pedal to. Are you using some sort of midi controller or keyboard. We need to know to what the equipment the pedal is being connected.

Here is my setup:

I know that on my Kurzweil PC88 there are a bunch of quarter inch plug slots on the back. I have 4 continuous control pedal slots (never used those myself) and 2 switch pedals. My foot pedal is in switch pedal slot #1 and it controls the sustain of the keyboard i.e. when pushed it sustains the sound.

[marto]

Ooops, sorry pardon,
Yeees, spose a bit of info concerning attachment would be of help.
I am using a evolution midi keyboard plugged via usb into the mac. The sustain pedal is plugged into the back of the keyboard. It is responding to my pressing down on it as the midi signal 127 is coming up on the control bar in logic but no apparent change of the instrument is coming to my ears.

[Markleford]

If you're using it with GPO or JABB, the default behavior is that a pedal press engages "legato mode". This omits a small bit of the beginning of the note sample so that notes flow together as if strung in a longer phrase (otherwise, the sharper "attack transients" such as tonguing, bow scrapes, glute chiffs, etc can be heard, all of which break up the line).

So it's not likely you'll hear much of a different note to note, but try this:

* Play a continuous line of notes, like a scale, with a bit of overlap between each.

* Then, try the same line, only after you play the first note (and before the second), press down the pedal and hold it for the rest of the line.

The connections between notes should be "smoother" in the second case.

- m

[RichR]

I might add this to what Markleford has said, make sure the polyphony is greater than one (1) in the Kontakt Player or it won't work. The polyphony setting is in the rectangular are to the left of the knobs and in the middle. It is right underneath where the word "CPU Usage" is in that rectangle. It should be displayed as 0/2 when nothing is being played the first number will go from 0 to 1 to 2 as more voices are actually being played. As I understand it, for slurs to work you need one note overlapping the next so that the wave samples of each are meshed together without the initial attack a player would make if they were tonguing the note. Boy, I hope that makes sense.:)

Good Luck

[Nickie Fønshauge]

And above all, make sure that in the Kontakt Player's Options, Sustain/sostenuto pedal mode is set to either MIDI cc, MIDI Switch or Pedal + MIDI Sw for legato playing, and Normal or Pedal + MIDI sw for piano playing.

[Tom Hopkins]

I might add this to what Markleford has said, make sure the polyphony is greater than one (1) in the Kontakt Player or it won't work. The polyphony setting is in the rectangular are to the left of the knobs and in the middle. It is right underneath where the word "CPU Usage" is in that rectangle. It should be displayed as 0/2 when nothing is being played the first number will go from 0 to 1 to 2 as more voices are actually being played. As I understand it, for slurs to work you need one note overlapping the next so that the wave samples of each are meshed together without the initial attack a player would make if they were tonguing the note. Boy, I hope that makes sense.:)

Good LuckActually, . . . for winds in GPO, only if the polyphony is set to "1" (the default) will the legato mode work as designed. Higher settings will disable the mono mode that is required for the tongue/slur feature to work. In JABB, the full versions of the horns are set to "8" because mono mode is accomplished in a different way - and is non-defeatable. The higher polyphony setting accommodates the additional layers for things like air flow sound and key clicks. The "lite" JABB instruments work the same as GPO: Tongue/slur works when the polyphony is set to "1." Higher polyphony settings can be applied if the user wishes to use a single instrument to play polyphonic parts (at the expense of the tongue/slur function.)

Now, having said that, slurred notes *do* need to be overlapped so that the mono mode function can make the proper connection between notes. Conversely, tongued notes, in the vast majority of situations, should have at least some separation between them. There are special-case exceptions to the application of tongued and slurred positions of the sustain pedal that have to do with variations in attack, legato "tonguing," and uses in conjunction with pitchbend data during larger interval skips, but that is an advanced subject for a future tutorial.

Tom

[RichR]

Actually, . . . for winds in GPO, only if the polyphony is set to "1" (the default) will the legato mode work as designed. Higher settings will disable the mono mode that is required for the tongue/slur feature to work.
oops!:o :eek:

I will have to check my music and see what the difference is. I could have sworn (I know -- don't swear) I read somewhere in the forum that you had to increase the polyphony to get slurs to work!

Sorry for adding any confusion.