Hi,

How many of you guys are using a "four pedal foot controller", "foot switch 1" and/or "foot switch 2" with your KN keyboards?

I know I have asked this question before, but in addition to trying to stimulate forum conversation, I am really interested to hear how others of you out there assign and use your foot controller pedals.

After much trial and deliberation, I set my foot controllers assignments for my KN5000 as follows:

Foot Switch 1: Sustain
Foot Switch 2: Panel Memory Increment
Foot Controller 1: Fill-in 1
Foot Controller 2: Fill-in 2
Foot Controller 3: Intro/Ending 1 or 2
Foot Controller 4: Sustain

The reason I have "sustain" assigned to both "Foot Switch 1" and "Foot Controller 4" is because when I take my keyboard out for gigging I don't have to take a separate sustain pedal as it is incorporated in the 4-pedal foot controller board.

I only use "panel memory increment" because I design all my songs so each section of a song is stored incrementally in suceeding panel memories. This incremental ONLY panel memory approach avoids confusion during performance. I assigned this "panel memory increment" function to "Foot Switch 2" and have this pedal positioned to the left of the 4 pedal controller board as to avoid pressing it unintentionally.

The fill-in assignments to Foot Controller 1 & 2 are great for adding spontaneous fills which add drummer realism to the song.

Finally, the Intro/Ending assigment to Foot Controller 3 makes triggering the ending of the tune really easy. This way you can pre-assign your favorite ending and not have to worry about remembering if your favorite for your ending for your tune is Ending 1 or Ending 2.

I assign MOST ALL my songs to the SAME foot controller assignments to maintain consistency which avoids confusion.

I am currently experiencing some annoying problems as my pedals tend to slip around the floor when playing. Anyone else experience this? What are your solutions? As a temporary solution, I have had to tape the pedals to the floor using double-stick carpet tape. I am currently working on a better solution, building a pedal holder from a 1/4" thick sheet of plywood which the pedals can sit on with a raised lip at the front, back & sides which will keep the pedals in place. The plywood piece will sit on the floor and be anchored to the keyboard stand via a couple of blocks of wood, which should keep the plywood from moving away. I'll let you know how it works after it's completed. I'm really interested in hearing other solutions to this problem.

I look forward to hearing from other Technics Keyboard Players who are using the foot pedal controllersand how you are utilizing the KN keyboard's cutomizable foot controller pedal assigments.


- Scott

I two have FootSw 1 & 2 and a 4-Sw Controller. I place the FootSw 1 and 2 on opposite sides of the 4-Sw. My settings for the 6 choices are as follows:
Foot SW 1 - Fill-in 1
Foot Sw 2 - Fill-in 2
4-Sw 1 - Intro & Ending 1
4-Sw 2 - Rotary Fast/Slow
4-Sw 3 - Techni-Chord
4-Sw 4 - Panel Memory Incr

My choice of Rotary Fast/Slow is because I use the Digital Drawbars a lot and there is no easy way to change the vibrato without this setting. Everything else should be self-explanatory.




------------------
Jim Henderson

Hi Scott,
I use the 2 floor switches with the 4 switch box. I also use a 4 leg stand rather than the "X" style. I cut a piece of 1" x 4" the correct length with notches in the back corners of the 1 x 4 to fit the keyboard stand legs. I then cut notches in the front side of the 1 x 4" to fit the switches with a saw curf out the back of the notches for the lines coming out. I set mine up: L to R: fillin 1; fillin 2; technichord; glide and Exp pecdal. I set all panel memories in the same order. I left some room between switch 4 and the exp pedal in case I want to add the other two. I'm not a piano player so I don't use sustain.
For a music rack I cut a piece of 1/4" plywood the size I like (about the same height as the wire job but longer) and painted it black. I attach it to the regular little wire thing they give us as a music rack with large size "binder clips". The "handles" on the clips, when turned down, also serve to hold the music in place if I'm in a breezy spot - like outside! I also attach small lights (from Home Depot) on both ends of the "new" music rack - the old eyes ain't what they used to be!
Walt

Hi Jim & Walt,

Very interesting to hear we all set our foot controller settings a little differently to meet our own indiviual styles of keyboard playing. Thanks to both of you for sharing.

The 3/8" thick 27" x 6" plywood foot controller holder I contructed is working out great with my Quicklok X stand.It is very lightweight (easily transportable) for quick gig setup/brekdown. No more slipping foot pedals.

Walt, can you possibly give a little more information regarding your music stand. You say you attach the plywood to the wire music stand that comes with the KN5000. How about the plastic music rack? Do you continue to use that? Does the plywood piece sit on top of the plastic rack? My plastic music rack continually pops off the wire metal frame. Also, which pair of holes on the KN5000 do you insert the wire music frame into? The upper or lower pair of holes? Lastly, can you tell me more about the lights from Home Depot? Halogen lights or? Home Depot /brand name/product number? Website?

Thanks so much for your valuable feedback,

- Scott

Scott,
I didn't realize there was a plastic rack until you mentioned it - I have had no problem with it. I just took a look and discovered that it will come off. I set the plywood directly on the plastic "L" part and use it to contain the plywood and my music.
I use the "upper" holes to attach the wire rack. The rack is spread a little so it fits in snugly.
The small lamps that I use have no brand name that I can find. A "GG9644" is stamped in the plastic clip. A small sticker attached has "E107841" and "portable lamp issue #BG-60,847" on it. It uses a 25 watt reflector type R 14 lamp. I use two of these, one on each upper corner of the plywood. Works well for me.
Have a Happy New Year. Walt

Hi Walt,

Thanks for the information regarding your music stand lights.

In the meantime I discovered a great lightweight and bright halogen light from 'Littlite' which I HIGHLY recommend.

Littlite Webpage: http://www.caeinc.com/littlite/

This tiny little light includes an infinitely adjustable goose neck so you can aimn the lamp head directly where you want it.I purchased the optional 12" long goose neck (standard is 6") and also the optional "clamp" which allows you to clamp the light on to to either the music stand or the music book (if it is thick enough).

On the subject of the music stand and the plastic rack, please check out the following thread for additional comments by others on this board:
http://www.synthworld.com/ubbs/Forum25/HTML/000040.html

Happy Keyboarding to all in the new millenium 2000,


- Scott

Hi Scott
I've had a LittleLite for years. Bought it maybe 15 years ago before they were more widely available. I paid a lot for it (close to $100) and really liked it. I say past tense, because the bulb burned out a few times and I had trouble finding replacements. Then the transformer burned out and it was basically shot. I still have it in a drawer somewhere - maybe I should try to rejuvenate it.
Tom
PS: They are very cool lites. I used mine inside my stereo cabinet so I could see the amplifier buttons better.

Hi Scotty,

Easy fix for the slipping pedal problem. Go to Wal-Mart or some similar store and pick up some no slip material from the kitchen department. It's used to keep things from slipping on shelves, etc. Cut out a piece for under your pedals and toss it in you gig bag. When you play where the floor is slippery put it down and your problem should be solved. I too tried several different things including the tape but found this works best.

To address the problem of seeing in those dark dance gigs I found the following works well for me. I got a sheet of clear plastic about 1/8" thick and cut it large enough to not only hold music but provide a place to attach a small "itty bitty book light" (available at Costco in our area for about $10.00) It's as wide as the music rack and is about 12" high. To keep it from falling off I put a couple of velcro strips along the bottom to stick it to the rack. Works great.

Have a Happy New Year!



[This message has been edited by Richard Peck (edited 12-26-1999).]

Scott-
I assign different functions to the pedals for each song! For some songs, I use the fill-ins a lot; others require a fade-out ending; others require incremental movements in the panel memory! So, I set up the entire keyboard and then save those settings to a song-particular file on disk. Then, I mark up my sheet music with colored squares to indicate which pedal to hit when. (I used the colored stickers that came with the pedals - blue is 1, yellow is 2, green is 3 and red is 4.) This only works, of course, if you are playing from sheet music. Memorizing this all would be next-to-impossible!
I don't have a hard disk (yet!), so I save my song settings in one of 4 categories, each of which has 20 diskettes; for instance, "All of Me" would be on disk Jazz-A, while "Billie Jean would be on "Rock-B" and "Getting to Know You" is on "Broadway&TV-G" - it makes for QUITE a collections of "floppies"! Then, once I have put a show together, I create a disk just for that show, in sequence, with a matching binder of sheet music with clear "disk instructions" on top. It cuts down on spontaneity and the ability to take requests, that's for sure! However, I discovered that almost all my "embarassing moments while performing" were caused not by hitting the wrong keys, but by hitting the wrong BUTTONS! My system has cut down on the "whoops!" moments, that's for sure!