Bass Pedals (Moog Taurus-stylee)

[cameric]

I'm an expat Moog Taurus 1 owner who hasn't been able to haul his beloved bass pedal ensemble overseas. I'm having a crack at replacing that giddy thrill of hitting 'brown notes', and looking for midi control options that expand the possibilities of foot-controlled synthesis.

I've got a Moog Rogue (idential brain as the Moog Taurus 2), a Cheetah (rack-mount analogue synth with DCO's), and a Microkorg. So I'm into the idea of using a midi controller unit, such as the Kenton unit, or ones made by Roland or Fatar/Studiologic.

Do you know of any unit that can be programmed to achieve chords by pressing a single note? (Perhaps that's not possible for pedals alone). Any recommendations? Any strong value-for-money stories?

[bongomania]

Errr... Have you tried asking in a synthesizer forum?

[Sven Olaffson]

I think the Roland PK5 midi controller can achieve what you're looking for, but I'm not sure ... maybe you could check this item's user manual ?

[cameric]

Well, I thought I'd ask a forum where Geddy Lee, Mike Rutherford et al feature in the regular name-check list

The Roland unit looks very tempting, I must admit. Anybody have experience with these beasts?

[plasson]

I'm a PK-5 owner.
I don't think any bass pedal will ever allow you to program chords.
you must do that on your synth, but it's kinda hard to achive on most synths...
I use it with my MacBook and Logic, so I'm free to do whatever I want to...

[bassteban]

Someone has some kind of midi bass pedals in the FS section.

[cameric]

Cool, thanks guys. The PK5A looks quite good and should be available in the UK soon...

[bbocaner]

The easiest and most reliable way to do it live is to use a sampler and sample the chord to a patch you map to one note on the pedals. you can also sample little snippets of background vocals, little synth ostinatos, etc. this way.

[skb5string]

Originally Posted by plasson

I'm a PK-5 owner.
I don't think any bass pedal will ever allow you to program chords.
you must do that on your synth, but it's kinda hard to achive on most synths...
I use it with my MacBook and Logic, so I'm free to do whatever I want to...

+1 I own PK-5's also. Cant program chords. Your gonna need a Sampler and trigger samples via Midi for that. Some synths may have that option but alot of programming will go into it I'm sure. Try the sampler route. I use Logic Studio (Logic 8) and the sampler and synth plugins are very good!

[cameric]

That's a great idea! I've never used a sampler before, sounds kinky.

[tplyons]

I modified the pedalboard off a Hammond M-100 to function as a midi controller. Best $40 I ever spent. However, I do not believe the guts are available anymore.

[Joeykun]

I use the PK-5. It does the trick for me.

[nig]

I had a set of taurus pedals in the early 80's and sold em to the 'outfield'....can I buy them back please, now I have a roland midi module and a set of fatar midi pedals, job done.

[anechoic]

Originally Posted by tplyons

I modified the pedalboard off a Hammond M-100 to function as a midi controller. Best $40 I ever spent. However, I do not believe the guts are available anymore.

The "Midipeds" boards that Howard Cano used to sell on ebay by any chance? Too bad he stopped selling those. I have one of the later versions with the hold function built into a pedal board made out of heavy duty momentary pushbutton switches, which I find much easier to play standing up than organ pedals.

[tplyons]

Originally Posted by anechoic

The "Midipeds" boards that Howard Cano used to sell on ebay by any chance? Too bad he stopped selling those. I have one of the later versions with the hold function built into a pedal board made out of heavy duty momentary pushbutton switches, which I find much easier to play standing up than organ pedals.

Yep, those are the ones. I mounted them into some Hammond pedals and works great...

Darn shame he's not selling them anymore.

[Colonel Monk]

Originally Posted by tplyons

Yep, those are the ones. I mounted them into some Hammond pedals and works great...

Darn shame he's not selling them anymore.

Hey guys:

From another thread, somebody posted about the BASYN bass synth pedals, and they also have a MIDI synth board.

Not only that, but they are selling the MIDI board as a kit and apparently it's the same one which was made by Howard Cano!

I just ordered the kit to make my own for my Little Phatty!

Here is the link

CM

[bjlevine]

Originally Posted by Colonel Monk

Hey guys:

From another thread, somebody posted about the BASYN bass synth pedals, and they also have a MIDI synth board.

Not only that, but they are selling the MIDI board as a kit and apparently it's the same one which was made by Howard Cano!

I just ordered the kit to make my own for my Little Phatty!

Here is the link

CM

To follow up on this, yes we are producing a kit and a pedal controller based on Howard Cano's Midipeds. Info and ordering can be made at Basyn.com

We're working on re-releasing the Sonosaur as both a kit and pedalboard, but are currently awaiting some technical resolutions with the company producing the circuit boards.

[AndyLES]

About a few months ago, I sent two emails inquiring about the Basyn.com units to the link on the site, and got no response. Just clicked on the new link above, and the site is down.

Caveat emptor!

[smeet]

The link works for me...

Does anybody know how the BASYN synth sounds? And how well the pushbutton interface works? Looks pretty cool.

[bjlevine]

Sorry for the past problems. Turns out Zencart has a big security leak that is easily hacked, so we switched to another program. Both the MIDI kit and the Analog Bass Synth are available as kits to configure to your own pedals, or as complete pedalboards.

Basyn Info Page
Basyn Store


Basyn Analog Bass Synth Pedals


Basyn Analog Bass Synth Kit


Audio Samples
http://soundcloud.com/bjlevine/and-you-and-i-bass-pedal-demo
http://soundcloud.com/bjlevine/tom-sawyer


We also have MIDI Controller kits and pedalboards.