assigning sustain pedals

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Level 1

8 points

assigning sustain pedals

Hi,

I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to get my head around Mainstage 3. I've got three keyboards and three sustain pedals and I'm having a hard time getting the pedals to act independently of each other, and I'm having problems assigning them.

I'm running a fairly zippy MacBook Pro with a usb hub. My main keyboard is an old Yamaha P60 going in on a generic MIDI/USB converter, my second tier is a Roland VR-09 (what a shame those drawbars don't send midi messages!) and I've also got an M-Audio Oxygen 25.

Each of the keyboards has a sustain pedal plugged into it, so that's three in total. My plan is to have the left-hand one (plugged into the M-Audio) exclusively as a patch changer, and the remaining two fulfilling various functions (tap tempo, rotary, sustain etc) according to what the patch needs.

For instance, on one patch I might want the right-hand pedal (plugged into the P60) controlling the sustain on the P60 keyboard and the middle one (plugged into the VR-09) controlling the rotary cabinet. I can just about manage that. But if, say, I want the right-hand sustain pedal (plugged into the P60) controlling the rotary on the 2nd tier, and the middle pedal (plugged into the VR09) controlling the sustain on the M-Audio tier, I run into trouble.

Basically, the P60 pedal seems to act as a sustain no matter what, and the middle pedal seems to affect the rotary even if I don't want it to. Plus, the pedals have a nasty way of grouping themselves together so one will operate one or both of the others.

On a similar topic, I can't find how to ungroup controls in general....maybe it's a related problem?

Can anyone offer sage advice?

Cheers

Richard

Posted on May 17, 2016 2:15 AM

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Answer 1

lifenoise

Level 4

1,019 points

May 18, 2016 1:48 AM in response to RSmith321

Let's start with ungrouping the pedals. Chances are they're still assigned to all in layout mode. First, select a sustain pedal on the layout. In the screen control inspector, select MIDI port. Your MIDI devices are displayed here(they are greyed out in the screen shot because they are not currently connected). Select the desired MIDI device for each pedal. You can also add text labels in the inspector.

In edit mode, at concert level, select each pedal and assign it to send to all>P60, VR-09, or Oxygen 25>sustain. You can override the settings later at the set or patch level. Note that in the previous step, I selected display parameter. Now , when I override the pedal assignment at patch level and send a rotor speed command, the display changes accordingly! You use override to send any pedal to any parameter on any keyboard. As for assigning a pedal to next patch, set it up at the concert level and don't override it. In layout mode>screen control inspector set type to press/release. This will insure that it only advances one patch per press.

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Answer 2

RSmith321 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 18, 2016 1:49 AM in response to lifenoise

Wow! Thank you - THAT was an awesome post. Touch wood, I'm totally sorted now it works fine.

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