Would this be a good Steinway pedal option?

[Sonare Coeli]

I was looking though MIDI controllers on the Guitar Center website today, and stumbled across this:

http://images.guitarcenter.com/products/optionlarge/Behringer/240658jpg.jpg

I was wondering if this might be a good option for Steinway users, and I suppose anyone using any sort of sound sample library for that matter. All it does it send midi messages of various types, which you customize and program. Any one of those switches on the left can send a bunch of simultaneous midi commands.

The things that caught my eye were the two pedals on the right. It was expressed by Pingu in another thread that the problem with most digital pianos and midi controllers is that the pedals only send "on" or "off" messages, which wouldn't allow a user to take full advantage of the Steinway's proportional pedaling. As far as I can tell, these pedals have a full range of 0 - 127. The only thing I'm not really sure about would be whether the pedals return to a "zero" position by springs or some other mechanism, like normal piano pedals, which would be strange to get used to if they don't.

This could also be used with GPO or any other sample libraries to put a lot of commands right at your feet, so to speak. It could be very powerful for live performance, being able to send multiple midi commands per button, and also the buttons would work well as toe studs for the upcoming Garritan organ library.

I'll try to verify that the pedals actually do have a full range, and are not just on/off switches.

Just thought I would share it and see what you all think.
The links are here:

http://www.behringer.com/FCB1010/?lang=ENG (http://www.behringer.com/FCB1010/?lang=ENG)

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Behringer-FCB1010-MIDI-Footcontroller-101586097-i1125206.gc


May God bless you!

[bigears]

I don't have the pedal you are looking at, but the pedals on the right are expression pedals which don't have any spring back mechanism and while they will transmit controllers from 0-127 they won't return to 0 or off by themselves.
I am using the CME pedal, and once I got a few bugs worked out for my set-up, it has worked perfectly with the Steinway, both stand alone and through Sonar. I did the "una corda" or soft pedal treatment with it to the song "traumerei" in the listening room. This is the pedal that David at Plogue has been using and lists as compatible with the capabilities of the
Steinway and the Aria player. There was an earlier thread where Gary talked about the possibility of arranging a special buy for forum members. Good luck in your quest! John (bigears) :hp:

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll30/jtan232/gpp-3.jpg


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