[LAU] Midi Sustain Pedals

hollunder at gmx.at hollunder at gmx.at
Fri Aug 7 15:16:31 EDT 2009


On Fri, 7 Aug 2009 17:37:20 +0200
Dominic Sacré <dominic.sacre at gmx.de> wrote:

> Hi Julien,
> 
> On Friday 07 of August 2009 08:26:26 Julien Claassen wrote:
> >    If you want that, you need an "expression pedal". The sustain
> > pedeals just do normal or sustain, no degrees. What should they
> > signify?
> 
> The sustain pedal on an acoustic piano does not act as a simple
> on/off switch. Pressing the pedal lifts the damper from the strings,
> but it's also possible to let the damper just slightly touch the
> strings by not pressing the pedal all the way down. For some piano
> pieces, this technique is even essential to play them properly.
> 
> There are sustain pedals which allow for this half pedal effect, but 
> they can't be used with all keyboards. I've only seen this feature in 
> digital pianos / stage pianos (88 keys with hammer action, etc.).
> I'm not sure if it's supported by any of the more simple MIDI
> controller keyboards.
> 
> 
> Dominic

Yep, I'm reasonably sure that my digital pianos sustain has only three
positions, off, on and something in between. I'm not totally sure since
I'm not really using sustain yet. It's a yamaha DGX-630. This should
definitely not be a recommendation, it has some annoying features, but
at least sustain (with the three pedal footpiece) isn't just binary.

Philipp 



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