Hi all,
since the Pianoteq is what made me buy the GPP-3 in the first place, I thought it only proper to publish a link to my review of this rather unique yet unknown unit here
http://www.pethu.se/music/GPP-3_Review.pdf
Niggles aside, it has really added to my piano playing enjoyment.
(If anyone happens to have additional information about the polarity-switching issues mentioned in the review, please let me know!)
Great review! Very detailed and comprehensive. It also agrees with my own review here: http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi.../GPP3/10/1.
I've had the switching polarity issue once or twice--typically if I power up (or there's an electrical flicker) with my foot on a pedal.
Mac support, by the way, is nonexistent. It's class-compliant, so that doesn't much matter, but I had to boot up in Windows to install the firmware update as it's only supplied for Windows. My emails for support during some troubles were a waste of time.
Hi, Doug & Pethu.
Thanks for reviewing this pedal.
However, if their Mac support is poor and their updates are Windows-only, I wouldn't even consider them.
Any other options for Mac-friendly pedals?
Thanks.
David
Hi again.
I went to the CME forum, and just as the reviews above stated, there is no firmware update for Mac.
Worse, and restating what the reviews above said, CME offers zero support. As one poster wrote:
"Watch out, this unit has some serious power problems! Stops working in the middle of songs, not compatible with Yamaha and Technics keyboards, and the company doesn't give any support at all... Do a search on this forum and you'll see more people that have this 'crash' problem. No reply from CME whatsoever...."
Can users here (or someone at Pianoteq) offer some suggestions for other pedal options that DO offer Mac support and DO offer good customer support that would allow us to take advantage of all of Pianoteq's pedals?
Thanks!
Can users here (or someone at Pianoteq) offer some suggestions for other pedal options that DO offer Mac support and DO offer good customer support that would allow us to take advantage of all of Pianoteq's pedals?
Thanks!
Well, this seems to be a bit of a sorrowful aspect of digital piano playing. Unless you have a compact "home style" piano like from the Clavinova series (with continuous sustain at least), the pedal issue is difficult.
I recently tried this CME crap, but as one of you mentioned here, it just stops working after a while. You get hanging notes (sustain would stay where it was at the moment of the failure), and this is absolute trash, especially for live use. I should mention that I used it in MIDI mode, not its direct outputs. And that did NOT work. If this is the only 3-pedal solution, I think I can do without the middle pedal.
In addtion, its bulky size and weight are transport issues for live use (to me anyway -- I don't want to schlep another extra flightcase). Plus, the plastic-veneered MDF housing (brown at that, arrgh) might not look great after just 20 gigs. I vote for "bad buy".
My current solution is to connect two Yamaha FC4 to the jacks of my Fatar, so I have at least (on/off) sustain and una corda. I am looking for a graded switch. There is the Roland DP8. I may try it. It could be connected to the continuous control input (normally intended for a volume controller) and then mapped to sustain inside PTQ.
There also is the KAWAI F-20, a double pedal with "half pedalling" function. It is originally intended for Kawai ES 4, and I guess it has a single TRS plug transmitting both signals; but a bit of DIY soldering may convert it into something to be universally used.
I'll post my experiences here if I try something.
My current solution is to connect two Yamaha FC4 to the jacks of my Fatar, so I have at least (on/off) sustain and una corda. I am looking for a graded switch. There is the Roland DP8. I may try it. It could be connected to the continuous control input (normally intended for a volume controller) and then mapped to sustain inside PTQ.
I've tried the the solution with Roland DP-10 (successor to DP-8) connected to the volume input on a Fatar Studiologic 880, and it works - but not without some tweaks.
The problem is that the pedal only gives (translated via Fatar) output from 0-112, i.e. not full range. I think it is due to the fact that the potentiometer in a sustain pedal (at least Roland DP-10) only rotates approx 30 degrees, and as I believe gives somewhat different resistent values than a designated volume controller. I measured my DP-10 and it didn't go all the way down to 0 ohms and I verfied it with Roland support that it is nothing wrong with that; the Roland keyboards must take that into account when translating it to midi data.
However:
If you route the signal from the Fatar via the free utility MidiOX you can pretty easy remap the values so you'll get full range 0-127.
I think it's great, arrived Friday, just plugged it in to my PC via USB, added it to midid devicesm and away it went. Solidly made, and no problems so far.
Just for the record, mine died last night. I've got it apart to try to fix it but I'm not optimistic. You'll not see any more CME products at my house.
using mine for months no problems maybe its the luck of the draw
(on mac g5) keyboard yamaha p90
I use the Roland dp-10 pedal connected to my Kurzweil pc2x, and it works great. The pedal is very solid and accurate. As for the middle and the soft pedals, I use two simple on/off Kurzweil controllers, but it's possible to find cheaper pedals that work great (M-AUDIO for example).
here's a good link for the cme pedal
Hey guys, some of us are trying to get a half-damper pedal for use with our Ensoniq keyboards, but we need to know if the popular ones (DP8/10, FC3) are normally open or closed, if they have a polarity switch, and what their max resistance output is.
That info will help others too in finding a compatible pedal (or modifying one to work).
Can anyone measure theirs? Fytrius, you've measured your DP10, is it a 10kohm?