Question about footswitch

[tritono]

Hey ,

I'll buy a midi controller, the VMK 88 Plus (I cant spend more than that). I want to learn to play piano (I dream about play Scott Joplin music, rag in general and classical pieces of Mozart, Beethoven, etc) and because I love strange sounds from librarys. Im a guitarist myself but I love all instruments and I want to include some piano/synths/strange sounds in my music.

However, I have a question. The VMK 88 Plus midi controller includes a footswitch: the PS 100. From the look I can see that it differs from the traditional piano sustain pedal. I need to know if this footswitch will do the work or if you recommend to buy other footswitch for some reason.

Thanks for the information

 

[The Y_man]

It depends on how "serious" you are .... For hacks like me, something like the PS-100 is fine.... BUT, for the really serious players, a momentary foot switch (note terminology - not "pedal") is really "on/off" - and doesn't allow "progressive" or "gentle" application of the pedal - it's really hard to explain unless you have played on pianos - but it is a very tactile thing.

I guess simplest way to explain is that the foot switch hase next to no travel in the movement (a centimetre?) where as something like the VFP1-10
http://www.fatar.com/Studiologic/Pages/OPTIONALS.htm
would likely have a closer "feel" to the real thing. It also comes down to weight - a small switch can get kicked around and go "missing" mid performance!

Incidentally, even between acoustic pianos, there is a difference between the models - eg between uprights and grands - due to the differences in mechanisms and weights.

The Y-man

 

[delaware dave]

... BUT, for the really serious players, a momentary foot switch (note terminology - not "pedal") is really "on/off" - and doesn't allow "progressive" or "gentle" application of the pedal - it's really hard to explain unless you have played on pianos - but it is a very tactile thing....

The keyboard's software would also need to support the progessive/gentle application and most do not. In may cases the sustain function reads a 0 to 64 midi message as sustain off and a 65-127 midi message as sustain on. Typically only expensive keyboards have software that can support half dampering.