Midi Foot pedal as a trigger

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sdrc

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Hello All!

New to the board. thought I would give a shot at a question here.

I use Adobe Audition 3. Have a midi foot pedal (Rolls MP128) that I want to use as a trigger to start/stop recording and playback. I connect it and configure Audition per the manual and it does not work. Wondering if it's a midi port problem I connected my Ensoniq keyboard to the midi port and it triggers everything just fine. Put the pedal board back and it doesn't work. Audition does register that midi data is being received. It just doesn't do anything with it. The difference between the keyboard and the footpedal is that the keyboard sends data until you take your finger off the key. the pedal send a quick piece of data with no sustain.

Anyway... if anyone has any good ideas I would appriciate it!
 
wow. neat pedal and midi powered also, have not seen that one before.

Anyway, if you want to set it up to punch in and out the easiest way would be to program one of the controllers pads as sustain (midi CC 64) and have audition respond accordingly
 
Interesting. I can see why the keyboard would work. Keyboards are set to have sustain. Ok... so do you have any tips on how to program the midi pad? I am not aware of a way to do that.
 
Maybe record the switches on the pedal on to a track and then go into edit mode and see what the switches are sending out. They could be sending out all kinds of MIDI data, and it's probably selectable.

If Adobe Audition 3 can start/stop by remote MIDI commands, there's probably a screen where you select what MIDI command does what.

So maybe you need to assign the correct MIDI messages. And maybe the pedal needs to be a on a certain channel, something to check.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Yes that does make sense. I have found the trigger config screen. Have it all set up. A Midi Keyboard works. Just not a pedal. I think that Altitude909 hit the nail on the head with the comment about the pad being set to send sustain data. That is what a midi keyboard does (i.e. when you hit a key and hold it the sound will continue). A foot pedal is designed to send a quick data point and that's it. I also notice that in the lower left corner of Audition that it lists the midi note being sent. Before it there is a n entry that says "Note:off". When I use the midi pedal this does not change. When I use the keyboard it changes to "Note:on" while the key is depressed and the trigger works. I think they key is that the pedal needs to be a sustain pedal. Now to find a midi sustain pedal. And the search continues....
 
sdrc said:
Yes that does make sense. I have found the trigger config screen. Have it all set up. A Midi Keyboard works. Just not a pedal. I think that Altitude909 hit the nail on the head with the comment about the pad being set to send sustain data. That is what a midi keyboard does (i.e. when you hit a key and hold it the sound will continue). A foot pedal is designed to send a quick data point and that's it. I also notice that in the lower left corner of Audition that it lists the midi note being sent. Before it there is a n entry that says "Note:off". When I use the midi pedal this does not change. When I use the keyboard it changes to "Note:on" while the key is depressed and the trigger works. I think they key is that the pedal needs to be a sustain pedal. Now to find a midi sustain pedal. And the search continues....
Click to expand...

I still hold out hope that it could work. MIDI data can be all sorts of stuff - not on/off, control changes, program changes, SYS EX... and maybe you need to (if possible and I would think it could) set the pedal to send out note on/off changes, or set Audition to whatever MIDI changes your pedal is setting out.

My gut feeling is that what you are saying is not true, and that your MIDI pedal would work. If it didn't, I'd be surprised and it would go against what I know about MIDI.

Any MIDI pedal I've seen could be programmed to be a sustain pedal, all you do is set it to Control Change #64, which is sustain pedal. I would be very surprised if your Rolls pedal couldn't be programmed to do that. You could program that pedal to do all kinds of things. Most likely your pedal can send out note data exactly like a keyboard too. It's all in what you program it to send out.

Before you give up, verify that Audition isn't just reacting to note on/off data and your pedal is sending out Program Changes... I think that's the problem.
:)
 
Dinti: Your comments sound spot on. I guess my first step is figuring out how to program the pedal. I am very good with recording and mixing etc. Midi is very new to me. You sound like you know your stuff so I'll follow your advice and go after it. If you have any pointers on programing a pedal please share.

Thanks!
 
Ok, I looked it up in the manual and it only sends program changes so it is not going to do what you want. There is something there about sending midi start/stop:

MIDI Start and Stop Commands
When program "00" is selected, the MP128 display shows an "ST" (which looks
more like an Sr), and sends a MIDI start command. This may be used to start a
MIDI sequencer. When program "129" is selected, an "SP" is displayed and a MIDI
Stop command is sent.

Although this is technically what you want, I am not familiar with how programmable audition is WRT to midi and since midi start/stop is a system realtime type midi message and not a continuous controller msg I seriously doubt you will be able to do anything with it other than what it is designed to do, namely start and stop the sequencer but wont do any good for punching in.

I would just use the sustain pedal on your keyboard since it has the right behavior. I.e. you step on it sends a on value, you step off it, it sends an off value
 
I actually found the pedal I am looking for.

http://www.cme-pro.com/products-list/product-gpp.html

Three buttons. All I want is start/stop recording, start/stop playback so this has one button too many.

The Rolls pedal is definetly not it. Here is the responce from thier support department. Not much on the ol' customer service.....

> From: info@rolls.com
> Subject: RE: Rolls Co Form Mail
> Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:56:51 -0700
>
> No and no.
> info
 
See if you have an input transformer on Audition.

On Cubase I would use that and change the Program changes to Control Changes, and you could use that pedal.
 
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24 hours ago

I wrote your answer yesterday, and Homerecording wanted me to enter my password again for some reason, and in so doing, it deleted everything I slaved over for you. Here, I'll try again, and be smarter about copying to clipboard before saving.

- - - - -

I am unfamiliar with your software, but you mentioned a couple of things that I will address.

First off, if your software is not an exhaustive MIDI package, as like Kurzweil workstations are, then you may not be able to trigger samples. So let me explain how this works for you, and it will be up to you to see if your software has the capability or not.

Your sustain pedal is an On/Off switch. The spring in it does absolutely nothing but emulate a piano sustain pedal "feel". So in this MIDI situation, your sustain pedal is sending an ON command which is truly a MIDI value of 128, which your software interprets as "on" because it exceeds the mid-point value of 64. When you release your sustain pedal, MIDI value 1 is sent, which is interpreted as "Off" (below 64). Remember, MIDI values range from 1 to 128, or possibly 0 to 127. Depends on the manufacturer.

Ok... proceeding.

To trigger a sound, we start within the Patch you wish to use. Within that Patch your software must have a MIDI program ability in its menu that looks something like this (I'm a Kurzweil guy so I'm going to show you the specs Kurzweil uses): Momentary/Toggle - Note Number - _______

Three fields. The first, you must tell the application if you want your foot pedal to trigger as Momentary (On, then off when released), or Toggle (On, then not off until you click the pedal down a 2nd time, which allows the switch to remain on continuously until you turn it off by depressing your pedal again).

Next, The field "Note Number" needs to be selected. Scroll through your menu to find such a command.

Third, Note Number. So you might select C2.

Now, let's say this Patch (Program) you are using is a Drum kit and the Kick Drum is on key C2. So now, whenever you press your pedal, the kick drum sound gets played.

Or, you might use a custom Analog sound with portamento, so that when you click the pedal, the note starts on C2 and slides up the keyboard to a higher pitch. Endless creativity.

There is also a Continuous Foot Pedal ability, which sends MIDI data from 1 to 128 based on where the pedal is positioned. I'll explain how I use this pedal to trigger a roaring car engine sound for the Eurythmics "Would I Lie To You":

As I press my continuous control pedal, it sends both On information to trigger the sample (programmed to the Note # I chose which is way down at the bottom end of my keyboard on a note that does not get played during a gig), and then the continuous controller (volume) controls the loudness of the engine sound, so it looks like a gas pedal during a gig while I'm playing.

With the information above, you should easily be able to figure out how to use your pedal's on/off ability to trigger the sequencer, which your software should have a menu looking similar to "Start/Stop".

Cheers.
 
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CME foot pedal combo

Apparently, that CME pedal you like is not being carried by anybody any longer from all the American music sites I just investigated. Plus, though, at $109, it was overpriced.


Take a look at these and see your other options:

A dual MIDI pedal (sostenuto / sustain) - actually, your software can make a pedal do anything you want it to, so having a programmable pedal like that CME is really kinda dumb.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KFP2M/

Here's a continuous control MIDI pedal, discontinued at Amazon, but it's available at a lot of music stores for around $45.
http://www.amazon.com/Kurzweil-CC-1-Continuous-Control-Pedal/dp/B0018T5YTO


And then of course, simple on/off switches like this very good and dependable Yamaha pedal for $14.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FC5/
 
I just read up on the pedal and it will only send program changes and MIDI song pointer position.

If you are using a Mac, there's a powerful free app called MidiPipe that would transform the program changes to whatever you want, and that would work.

Here's a blurb on it:
http://musicmusicmusic.cn/midipipe.html

I don't know if there's a Windows app like that... I would think that there is, but I'm Windows illiterate.
 
ok, ppl need to come to grips with the fact that this pedal only sends one message per foot press so you get one event per press, period. Now I aint one of those people that can kick off their shows and rock out a full organ pedal board with their toes but that's what it sounds like it will take to fill th OP's request..
 
altitude909 said:
ok, ppl need to come to grips with the fact that this pedal only sends one message per foot press so you get one event per press, period. Now I aint one of those people that can kick off their shows and rock out a full organ pedal board with their toes but that's what it sounds like it will take to fill th OP's request..
Click to expand...

sdrc, in his original post, said "I want to use as a trigger to start/stop recording and playback".

He could do that with one event per press.

I don't think he's trying to play foot pedal bass! :)
 
start and stop is two commands, you would need to press two buttons. If he wants to add start stop record that's four buttons..
 
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