Recommendation? Volume pedal with large range

[MooseGeorge]

I have a Roland RD-800 stage piano and want to add a volume pedal for some onstage dynamics. Roland recommends their EV-5 pedal. But I hate the EV-5. The problem is that the pedal has a movement range of about 1 whole inch. Which leaves me trying to move the pedal in 1mm increments to get small changes in volume.

I grew up on the old Lowrey home organs, and their volume pedals moved like 4-6 inches and you could really get some nice subtle volume control out of them. So the limited range of the Roland EV-5 is leaving me very frustrated.

Do any of you have some recommendations for other volume pedals? Thanks.

 

[happyrat1]

I believe you're stuck with the EV-5. I owned a Juno DS88 for a few years and never found a commercial alternative.

Honestly you might simply have to adjust your lead foot to use it properly.

Roland and Yamaha are the only 2 companies that use their own pedal designs.

Everyone else is universal.

Here's one that claims to work with anything, but the throw looks about the same as the EV-5

Amazon.com

Gary

 

[delaware dave]

If you can find one used, the Roland EV-7. Long sweep like a hammond pedal. They are also built like a tank, but even used they are somewhat expensive. The EV-5 is useless. Also as an alternative the Crumar EXP10 is a nice pedal. Finally, the Studiologic FP50 appears to be a long throw pedal although I never tried one.

 

[Chris Laarman]

I have a Roland RD-800 stage piano and want to add a volume pedal for some onstage dynamics. Roland recommends their EV-5 pedal. But I hate the EV-5. The problem is that the pedal has a movement range of about 1 whole inch. Which leaves me trying to move the pedal in 1mm increments to get small changes in volume.

I grew up on the old Lowrey home organs, and their volume pedals moved like 4-6 inches and you could really get some nice subtle volume control out of them. So the limited range of the Roland EV-5 is leaving me very frustrated.

Do any of you have some recommendations for other volume pedals? Thanks.

I wonder if you'd be on the right track by using a Volume pedal for "dynamics". I think (but I may be wrong) that the proper way to use dynamics on a piano is to vary the Attack (in MIDI: Velocity) you use in pressing the keys. That is the very improvement of the "piano-forte" ("soft-hard") over its predecessors. And over organs...

On the RD-800, you can set the Key Touch: p.29 of the manual.

 

[MooseGeorge]

I wonder if you'd be on the right track by using a Volume pedal for "dynamics". I think (but I may be wrong) that the proper way to use dynamics on a piano is to vary the Attack (in MIDI: Velocity) you use in pressing the keys. That is the very improvement of the "piano-forte" ("soft-hard") over its predecessors. And over organs...

On the RD-800, you can set the Key Touch: p.29 of the manual.

Chris, agreed about using attack for dynamics... except when I'm fighting my loud-a$$ lead guitarist... What I really need is a sound guy who moves my mixer volume up at the appropriate moments in specific songs!

 

[MooseGeorge]

If you can find one used, the Roland EV-7. Long sweep like a hammond pedal. They are also built like a tank, but even used they are somewhat expensive. The EV-5 is useless. Also as an alternative the Crumar EXP10 is a nice pedal. Finally, the Studiologic FP50 appears to be a long throw pedal although I never tried one.

Yes, that EV-7 looks like exactly what I want. On the Roland web page they even compare it to the EV-5 saying the EV-5 was really meant for guitar pedal boxes where as the EV-7 was meant for organs and synths.

 

[Chris Laarman]

Chris, agreed about using attack for dynamics... except when I'm fighting my loud-a$$ lead guitarist...

I can see that your way! - However, then something else might need improvement. Hard to say from here to pinpoint, so my shot may well be beside the mark:
If your band set-up features just every member with his (m/f/o) amplifier (active loudspeaker, whatever), you may have to find relative positions, such, that neighbors bother each other less. A lead guitar and a piano (organ even more) tend to use the same tonal range with similar intensity. Moving either of you to the other side of the drummer (and closer to the bass player?) may ease the problem.
If your band set-up features a common mixer and a shared sound system, then applying a (wider) stereo panning may help. Again: avoid interference. (Acoustically speaking!)
By the way, there is this concept of "headphone amplifiers". Not the current "guitar dongles", but like my old Behringer HA4400.

Elaborating on "panning": I spent quite some time creating my personal favorites in this respect when I recorded some of my own work in MIDI in 1990, and again a few years later when I created backing tracks in Band-in-a-Box. I think that I may have used half of the possible range.