Anyone use a foot-operated keyboard?

[KrisH]

Such as the Roland PK-5A or the Studiologic MP-113/117? What do you primarily use it for? What genre of music do you think it's most suited for?

I ask because I'm considering getting one (midi controller type) to fill in simple root note basslines when I do an occassional solo in my trio. On the way to making up my mind, I discovered a wide array of synth plugins that open up a slew of possibilities. But like a kid in a candy shop, I'm afraid I'll gorge myself until I (and everyone around me) gets sick of it.

What's your experience???

[PJSShearer]

You mean what us old-timers call Bass-Pedals? :-).

[davkane]

Me too,

I am wondering about this as well. I have a Zoom B9.1UT where you can use the pedals to play bass synth notes, but it is not laid out like a keyboard, and you only have 8 notes available to you at a time (A full Major or Minor scale, but only half of a chromatic notes), but I would like something that is laid out more intuitively.

[Step]

I use an 'Elka' bass register, which is laid out like taurus but only produces a sine wave at 2 different octaves, which makes for a very LOW rumbling sound, good for intros and such
however I find that a basspedal is too cumbersome to play fast

plays nice

EDIT: as a small addendum, I play in a two-piece bass and drum doom band and I use it mainly to provide texturing during delay/chorus psychedelic stuff or maybe as the root note for a solo. However, I play with lots of distortion fuzz and I find that, when played cleanly, the bass overlaps the sound of the keyboard. of course when using a soft-synth via midi-controller things will be different

[judas jedermann]

Got this last week

[maxgrant]

Originally Posted by judas jedermann

Got this last week

Jealous!

I have made do with an octave pedal. I use the Zoom B2 to give me lower fundamentals, and I am very happy with how boomy and thundery I am. I often mix the signal with a rocker pedal to get both notes, or sometimes just drop the real note out and let the lower octave sing by itself.

Between that and singing I still have a hell of a lot to do on my side of the stage. I can't imagine adding an additional row of NOTES to play with my feet. I'd be fiddling constantly.

[KrisH]

Originally Posted by judas jedermann

Ooooooooo-oooooooooo-oooooooooo -- that is sweet!

Originally Posted by PJSShearer

You mean what us old-timers call Bass-Pedals? :-).

Precisely! Problem is, if you search for "Bass Pedals" nowadays -- well, you know what you'll get . . .

[Jared Lash]

To me, ALL keyboards (and pianos) are foot operated.

I'm often not invited back to people's homes.

[sloasdaylight]

Originally Posted by Jared Lash

To me, ALL keyboards (and pianos) are foot operated.

I'm often not invited back to people's homes.

/thumbs up.

[sloasdaylight]

Originally Posted by judas jedermann

Got this last week

What is this and where would one buy one?

[theunknowndude]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

What is this and where would one buy one?

moog taurus,... last time I checked it was a pre order thing only but I guess check moog?

[judas jedermann]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

What is this and where would one buy one?

Moog Taurus III. Only 1000 units made and most of them were pre-ordered like mine. So be quick
http://www.moogmusic.com/taurus/?sec...oduct_id=21299

[PJSShearer]

Originally Posted by KrisH

Ooooooooo-oooooooooo-oooooooooo -- that is sweet!



Precisely! Problem is, if you search for "Bass Pedals" nowadays -- well, you know what you'll get . . .

There was a time when if you were a keyboard player (we called them organists then!!) you were expected to play them - "do you kick pedals"?, was the question we'd ask (and if you were a bass player, NO was the answer you were looking for!!).

There's a Jazz player in the UK called Mike Carr who plays a Hammond B3/C3 with the fuill 2.5 octave "church" pedalboard thats the full width of the organ - Hammonds were originally church organs - and his Bass solos are worth watching as well as listening to.

[Fishyfan]

i use a set of Taurus 3's like Judas's extensively in my band. they have their own amp in my rig and they shake the floor at ALL volumes. they have freed me up to do anything i want in terms of bass guitar or any other instruments seeing as i dont need to keep the bottom with anything other than the Taurus pedals.

[ric stave]

I have a set of the original Taurus, and a set of Elka Midi Pedals (1 octave version). For most things these days, the 'real' Taurus stay home, but the Elka midi'd into a synth or sampler can do much more.

~Taurus/Bass synth sounds
~String or higher synth lead sounds
~Program chords into the right synth and you can play a whole backing, different chord on each pedal
~Trigger samplers for hits, phrases, intros or sound FX (ex- one of my bands used to play Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" - I sampled all the synth hits and triggered them with the pedals; Wind, Thunder, Explosions, etc; in my band Initiation, we had songs where I triggered sound FX and voice-over stuff throughout.)

Many different possibilities.

[T. Alan Smith]

Originally Posted by ric stave

~String or higher synth lead sounds
~Program chords into the right synth and you can play a whole backing, different chord on each pedal
~Trigger samplers for hits, phrases, intros or sound FX

.

This always made the most sense to me.

[KrisH]

Originally Posted by ric stave

I have a set of the original Taurus, and a set of Elka Midi Pedals (1 octave version). For most things these days, the 'real' Taurus stay home, but the Elka midi'd into a synth or sampler can do much more.

~Taurus/Bass synth sounds
~String or higher synth lead sounds
~Program chords into the right synth and you can play a whole backing, different chord on each pedal
~Trigger samplers for hits, phrases, intros or sound FX (ex- one of my bands used to play Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" - I sampled all the synth hits and triggered them with the pedals; Wind, Thunder, Explosions, etc; in my band Initiation, we had songs where I triggered sound FX and voice-over stuff throughout.)

Many different possibilities.

Thank you! This was the type of input I was looking for. For playing intros and other passages -- do you sync the drummer with a click track? Or is your setup less automated? And what program/plugins do you use to trigger polynote chords with one pedal trigger?

[ric stave]

Originally Posted by KrisH

Thank you! This was the type of input I was looking for. For playing intros and other passages -- do you sync the drummer with a click track? Or is your setup less automated? And what program/plugins do you use to trigger polynote chords with one pedal trigger?

For certain things I've done in the past, like backing sequences for a part of or a whole song (ie: middle part of Whitesnake's "Still Of The Night" or The Who's "Baba O'Rielly" or "Won't Get Fooled Again") the drummer has had a headphone line, but for the most part, we've just made sure it's up enough in his monitor to not get off - for shorter bits and intros, it's not much of an issue.

For chords, what I've done has been to create the parts for each note via transposition and zoning on a multitimbral synth, such as a Roland Fantom. It takes some planning and work, and reuse of zoning to get say 8 full 3 or 4 part chords out of 16 parts, but it can be done. The other option is to go the sampler route and sample each chord for each pedal, OR use a synth that has '1-finger' chordal capability.