What ever works for your needs Don ....you been at the game long enough...enjoy!

Plenty of singing organists... I sing in my show. What has your voice got anything to do with your feet? LOL

You need to stop looking for roadblocks to why you CAN'T do something, Donny, and maybe TRY some of these things you keep saying can't be done!

I use a Roland sustain pedal (the one with the rubber heel flap) assigned for sustain and a Yamaha FC7 Volume pedal which is assigned to affect the three Right Hand voices only.

I learned how to use the sustain pedal with my left foot, so I can use the right foot on volume...I'm used to using right foot from back in the Yamaha/Hammond organ days.

Everything else is triggered by hand, registration changes, style fills/variations, SA control, turning style parts on/off etc.

Ian

I always dread having to make a choice... Do I play the correct chord, at the correct time, or do I trigger the fill and Variation change, at the correct time..?

It's amazing how often they are the same time!

Watch many people's arranger demos, and you'll often hear most flubs (if they make any!) when trying to make that choice. Generally, turnarounds and section ends are when there are MORE chords than at any other time. Bad news is, this is exactly when you are also changing Variations, hitting fills, changing OTS and a bunch of other stuff too.

When doing most of that is as simple as tapping a button at your feet, why would anyone WANT to take their hands off the keyboard?

If you can work a sustain pedal (Donny has often posted he finds this tough, too!), you can work a few footswitches, and let your hands do what they are SUPPOSED to be doing...

Playing!

lol I can do it and have done so many, many, times on stage thru the years with many pedals.. ...but I just dont like using them anymore and that is my comfort zone and my choice at this time,......does it effect my playing or singing not in the least. Do I see many players looking down at their feet while playing on stage to make sure they hit the right pedal while they are singing ? yes..

Plenty looking at their hands too...

I can't even SEE my pedals when I'm playing! As long as you make sure they don't slip and slide, you are good to go.

I don't think Donny is talking about not being able to play and sing at the same time. Most of us can do that.

A friend, years ago, said to me you can't be a great vocalist and a great keyboard player (and working pedals too) "at the same time." I puzzled over that for years, and finally I realized what he meant. He meant you can't be a "GREAT" vocalist and a "GREAT" keyboard player "at the same time."

You pick one and go with it. When I'm playing just music I can improvise great arrangements. But when I'm singing and need to stylize the song rather than just sing words, my "great arrangements" go to the bottom of the deck.

One either plays good background while spitting out the words to a song, or you sing like Josh Groban and bang out chords and a few fills behind yourself.

Mark

Actually, that has never been an issue, which is why I have never used a pedal for that function (fills etc.).

However, pitch bends are another matter, which is where a chord sequencer might come in handy for some situations.

But, since I don't have one, and never had one in a very long time (so I don't really miss one) I can make do pretty good all the same.

Yamaha's SA/SA2 voices, especially wind, like sax and clarinet, and some string sounds, are easily given bends, scoops and other expression by playing technique, not the SA buttons, although one can still use them if they wish. Having both is a nice option.

Also, the Tyros4's aftertouch can be assigned to various expressions per voice, which is also very handy.

The Tyros4 seems to have a mellower sound (which I like) than the T5, but still more detail than the Tyros3, so I'm very happy with the instrument I have...nothing from any other manufacturer, other than the Casio PX-5S synth/piano I mentioned on another thread, interests me in the slightest.

In any case, you seem to be happy with your pedal setup, and, of course, the one that is better, is the one that works best for the individual...mine works best for me. If it didn't, I'd have no problem in changing it.

But, thanks for the suggestions, nonetheless.

Ian

Hi - when using the pedalboards with many switches (such as the Behringer mentioned in this thread, or the Yamaha MFC10, I have a question. If using the "Function" to edit the foot controllers, you can (for each of the 3 footswitches you can plug in) controller what function it does, AND whether that function applies to L, R1, R2, and/or R3 in any combination.

I do this for my sustain pedal - for example, if I have a Piano sound in L and a sax in R1, I'll set it to have the Sustain pedal (#1 in my case) affect L but not affect R1. This can
be memorized into a Registration too.

Can this same thing be done with the bigger MIDI-based footswitches such as Yamaha MFC10 or the big Behringer? I can't see on the programming page where you could have a footswitch on one of these affect (or not affect) L, R1/2/3 separately.

I was thinking of replacing my 3 separate pedals (plugged into pedal inputs 1, 2 and 3) with say a Yamaha MFC10. However, then I may not be able to set one of its switches to Sustain AND have it affect only the part(s) (L/R1/R2/R3) that I want.

the video in the 2nd post explains how ...