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Sustain Pedal Project - Option of having a 'latched' AND 'momentary' switch - ???


seratone1

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I'm in the process of building a custom sustain pedal that will have momentary functionality like a regular sustain pedal and also a 'latched' functionality, so I can press a foot switch and 'Hold' a pad chord on my Mox 6. I play keyboards and guitar, often at the same time. I'd like to be able to hold a string/pad chord without having to keep my foot on the sustain pedal. (which I'm doing now).

I use a Yamaha Mox6, an E-MU Vintage Pro with a MIDI controller and a Nord Electro 4d.

I was hoping the Yamaha would allow me to plug and configure a latch pedal in to the 'assignable FS' jack, so I would essentially have two sustain pedals, one for Momentary and one for Hold. - but this isn't possible. I exhausted the question on various Yamaha forum's. (the moderators couldn't understand for the life of me why I'd want to 'hold' a chord, hands and feet free).

I want to insert a latch foot switch in a small aluminium stomp box enclosure between my sustain pedal and my sustain jack on the Mox. When I hit the stomp box, the latch circuit is closed and whatever chord or note I play is held, until I hit the switch again - then the circuit is open, the sustain pedal functions normally. I was going to make a passive A/B box I could plug two sustain pedals into - but I think that's overkill.

Has anyone ever done anything like this? I remember my old Korg Poly 800 had a 'Hold' button on top of the keyboard that was handy for this sort of thing.

I have an empty aluminium stomp box enclosure, a DPDT switch, three mono jacks, drill bits, some solder and a couple of old M-Audio sustain pedals. Other than trial and error - I'm not sure where to start.

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I cut the cable on one of my FS1 sustain pedals, stripped the wires, and tried various combinations on the DPDT switch while plugged into the MOX sustain pedal slot until it worked.

The I drilled out three holes the aluminium case, one for the switch on top and two little ones for the cables on the sides, made a rough diagram, tied knots in the cables on the inside of the box to prevent them from pulling off the soldered points on the switch, soldered the 4 connections, closed it all up, velcroed the box and the pedal to an 8" X 10" piece of fiber board I bought at an art supply store with my other two sustains - and voila!

Total cost 14$ (not including the three sustain pedals)...Now a nice touch would be an LED telling me if the HOLD was on or not, but that means powering the whole thing.

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Quote Originally Posted by Plink Floyd View Post
GAA! I drew this for nothing!

Latchbox01.jpg

Oh well. In case anyone else ever needs it, the $3 switch is Digi-Key # 451-1201-ND.
It latches: "push on - push off". It can't be momentary...

btw, it will only work for a normally open circuit pedal input.
*I* liked it!

Also, instead of cutting your FS1 pedal, next time do it the easy way (which is what I did):

79980.jpg

Plug your damper into one side, and make another pedal using the switch above and put that in the other and just set it next to your sustain pedal.

When you make your on/off damper, you can use something like this to mount the switch to:

409185_sk_lg.jpg
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Thanks for the digram Pink Floyd - I should have taken pics but I closed it up to quickly

I just can't believe something like this isn't available commercially. As well, a sustain pedal that sustains two keyboards at the same time. I used to do this with a series of Y jacks, but, depending on which order I powered up my boards - it got too unreliable live.

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Quote Originally Posted by seratone1 View Post
I used to do this with a series of Y jacks, but, depending on which order I powered up my boards - it got too unreliable live.
In a live situation, if I am using more than one keyboard, I use a midi pedal board (Behringer FCB1010 w/ UNO mod) and no individual pedals. That way, it's sent via MIDI and not a simple continuity thing. VERY reliable and it also allows you to have other things right at your feet, previously impossible otherwise.

-Mc
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Quote Originally Posted by seratone1 View Post
I used to do this with a series of Y jacks, but, depending on which order I powered up my boards - it got too unreliable live.
In a live situation, if I am using more than one keyboard, I use a midi pedal board (Behringer FCB1010 w/ UNO mod) and no individual pedals. That way, it's sent via MIDI and not a simple continuity thing. VERY reliable and it also allows you to have other things right at your feet, previously impossible otherwise.

-Mc
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