Really wish they made USB-1/4" MULTIPLE pedal interfaces

[Eric Barker]

I use 3 pedals, minimum, in my setup: One sustain, one wah/expression, and one incidental that I have program to cycle through patches in setups. It's a great workflow, and become my holy trinity of foot controllers. Unfortunately, not all keyboards these days have 3 pedal inputs, some only have ONE! But what I could work with is a simple USB interface that just had a number of 1/4" jacks to add more pedals to my setup. I wouldn't mind having a really cheap, 61-76 key controller like an Arturia Keylab Essential (the regular Keylab 61 has been quietly discontinued), just for simple setups or as a backup to my 88, but it only has one pedal input.

Another option would be a MIDI pedal interface with 1/4" jacks. Obviously they make midi and usb pedal boards, but they usually come with 8+ buttons and a rocker or two, but I like the simplicity of a decent sustain, a Roland FS-5U, and my Mission expression pedal.

Any company make anything like that? Iv'e seen SINGLE 1/4" to USB interfaces, but they're like $70 with only one port... and then I'd need to add a USB hub to my setup to make up for two of them, and the whole point of this would be simplicity.

 

[happyrat1]

Here ya go!

$80 bux!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Logidy-UMI3-MIDI-over-Controller/dp/B002YL81RW/

You owe me a beer

Gary

 

[Eric Barker]

Not exactly what I was going for, but I could actually make that work. It only has one input for an external 1/4" controller, I could use one of the three switches for patch changes, and I'd just plug the sustain directly into the board. Yeah, that would work. It's a little more involved than I'd imagined (I was just hoping for a little box with two-three 1/2" inputs where I would plug existing pedals), but yeah, that's a solution!

Honestly, the other option is, with my main working band I probably could ditch the patch change pedal in a pinch, as I also have buttons on my board. There's always the MIDI SOLUTIONS pedal interface, which has a single 1/4" in. That would be perfect, I just wish it had a second plug.

 

[happyrat1]

One thing you should check before buying is whether the switches are momentary contact or switch toggles. That would make a huge difference in the playability. I'd suggest posting the question on the Amazon Page and get the answer directly from the users.

Even then it wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker. The footswitches look pretty standard and could be swapped out with a little solder work.

Gary

 

[Eric Barker]

Actually, the interface I've built for my pedals (Max/MSP patch) has a selection for using either kind of pedal. In any case, I'm mostly musing for future projects, I'm not on the market for a small board just yet. good ideas though.

 

[happyrat1]

Actually inspiration came to me while I was surveying my kingdom from the throne room...

Why not just pull the switches entirely from the logidy and replace them with 1/4" jacks?

The housing looks roomy and simple enough to perform all sorts of hacks.

Gary

 

[Eric Barker]

That's a VERY VERY good idea!

Someday I need to DIY a USB (or even midi) modular interface that has all the components and controllers i want, so that I could just use the best keybed I could find without having to make considerations for it's amenities:

- 9 organ drawbars
- 2-4 standard sliders
- a couple nobs (I really don't use that many)
- Korg-style Joystick Controller
- ribbon
- 3 pedal ins
- a row of buttons and pads

That would be awesome, just remove the keybed from the equation, and have another unit that sits on top of it, maybe mounted with velcro or something.

 

[happyrat1]

The logidy's not even that expensive so hacking it wouldn't be a heartbreaker and screw the warranty.

Anyway, I've been typing all day and I'm calling it a night.

Yesterday I managed to cram a Linux install onto a miserable Acer UEFI machine and import all my settings and files, and today I've been reformatting and preparing my old machine for the scrapheap.

So now before I pull another stupid all nighter I'm gonna turn in and get to sleep at a decent hour.

Ciao mon...

Gary