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No ability for expression pedal input? I'll work around it!


pax-eterna

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I was warming strongly to buying a PX5s and in fact was about to order one when I caught a brief mention of this on another forum. 

 

The px5s has no ability to use a continuous pedal for expression (ie CC 11) to be able to assign to a zone (or even the whole keyboard)...and from what I read here, it seems it is true.

 

I don't want "work-arounds" or "fixes",  all I would want is the basic (been on synths and DPs for years and years) ability to plug in an expression pedal. 

 

So as the title says, no expression pedal, no sale.

 

And it was looking so good too!

 

 

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Seriously I can't say that I blame ya.  Perhaps when Casio starts to realize it's costing them sales they will address the most irritating bugs in their next big release.

 

Leaving out an expression pedal from the PX-5S probably would have saved them less than $10 a unit.

 

Gary

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I've owned dozens of keyboards since the early 70's. They have all had good and bad things about them.

You have to balance what you need from a k/b and what is available and what you can afford and what is practical to use.

I've owned Hammonds and Moogs an plenty of Korgs and Rolands a few Nords a Kurzweil a SCi and a few Casio's too, an probably some others that I cant recal just now.

I've had the PX5s for six months and have been gigging with it every weekend since the day after I got it.

Yes, it doesnt have an expression pedal socket. I wish it did. But it has so many plus points that make it the best gigging keyboard ever, So Far.

If you dont at least go and try one of these, you are missing out big time

Norm

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The PX_5S does have the ability for an expression pedal via MIDI with  the Behringer FCB 1010. Plug it into the MIDI port and set it to the right CC. Done and done. They  can do other things too, like program change up/down, trigger notes from the 10 switches... plus it has two pedals so you can use one to control filter, resonance, etc. so you can simulate aftertouch.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I bought the PX-5S with the secret hope that either someone clever on the internet would be able to make a simple mod to the pedal jack (to replace with a continuous one)...or perhaps even Casio would recognize this and provide a way to upgrade your unit.  (Actually, I'm even more secretly hoping it could just be a firmware update, and the pedal jack is already continuous.)

 

It's obvious the sound engine supports it…would be nice to have this functionality standard on the unit.  

 

Otherwise, I have absolutely no complaints about the PX-5S.  I bought my sight unseen, and it is truly an amazing sounding board.

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Sorry, but it's a hardware limitation. Sustain-type pedals are switches, with two connections (tip-ring or TR) while continuous-type pedals such as volume, expression, and sustain pedals that do half-damping are three-connector Tip-Ring-Sleeve or TRS. The former cause the keyboard to either see on or off, aka connected or not, while the latter provide power (some positive voltage and ground) as well as read a value caused by position of the pedal.

 

 

In other words, it's not possible.

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Sustain, damper and sostenuto pedals are all switched pedals.  Half damper pedals contain two switches.

 

Continuous controllers or Expression pedals contain a potentiometer and require an A/D converter to be properly read.

 

Casio saved themselves the price of a 60 cent chip by leaving out the ADC chip and another buck's worth of hardware for the associated jack when they left off the Expression Pedal Jack...

 

My Kurzweil has sustain, sostenudo and damper jacks as well as two CC jacks, but it still doesn't do half dampering.

 

Pobody's nerfect :D :D :D

 

Gary

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Yeah but you aren't selling a pair of Levi Knockoffs for $1000 a piece. :P

 

If Casio seriously wants to compete with the likes of Roland and Yamaha and Korg and Kurzweil in the stage piano market it's the attention to small details like this one that can make or break a sale.

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Sustain, damper and sostenuto pedals are all switched pedals.  Half damper pedals contain two switches.

 

Continuous controllers or Expression pedals contain a potentiometer and require an A/D converter to be properly read.

I had a Roland RD-700GX that did half-dampering, and it was a continuous pedal. I could plug it into the expression pedal jack on my Electro and use it, though the physical range of the pedal itself was too small. I could tell when it was plugged into the Roland that it did more than just off, half, and on. There were clearly a range of values it was doing.

 

Perhaps there are other keyboards that do it like you describe. I based what I wrote above on my experience with the Roland.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Correct Joe, a "half-damper" pedal is actually a continuous controller with values from 0-127. Which then begs the question, why one could not simply reverse the pedals? IE Place an expression pedal in the "damper" socket, and then assign it to CC 11, while simply having a "standard" sustain pedal in pedal socket 2.

 

But I can not see where one could "assign" CC11 to socket  1 in the manuals?

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why one could not simply reverse the pedals? IE Place an expression pedal in the "damper" socket, and then assign it to CC 11, while simply having a "standard" sustain pedal in pedal socket 2.

 

But I can not see where one could "assign" CC11 to socket  1 in the manuals?

 

Wait...what?    What are we talking about here?    The PX-5S?  

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:) I was only agreeing with Joes post....the other was just me extrapolating from what I was writing, that as the socket seems to be able to recognise a continuous type controller and on page 9 of the manual in the Using A Pedal this seems to confirm this - that page makes it seem that one can assign some form of volume control - and then on pages 34 and 35 which further indicate some form of volume control for a zone is possible?

 

Mind you, I have only had it for a day and onyl had it actually tuned on for about an hour ( night time intervened :D ) so I could very well be misunderstanding...

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Correct Joe, a "half-damper" pedal is actually a continuous controller with values from 0-127. Which then begs the question, why one could not simply reverse the pedals? IE Place an expression pedal in the "damper" socket, and then assign it to CC 11, while simply having a "standard" sustain pedal in pedal socket 2.

 

But I can not see where one could "assign" CC11 to socket  1 in the manuals?

 

 

This won't work because the "damper" ie pedal jacks (1 & 2) on the PX-5S are not continuous - they only read on or off. You need to run a pedal into the MIDI port in order for the PX-5S to read CC MIDI data.

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Okay then (imo) the information in the manual on page 9 and 34/35 is misleading (certainly not intentional)  Sorry

 

Especially when the ON Rate has 0-127, and then the OFF rate has 0-127....I now "get" that this is a fixed value only between those points, but this could have been better written. Again jmo.

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This won't work because the "damper" ie pedal jacks (1 & 2) on the PX-5S are not continuous - they only read on or off. You need to run a pedal into the MIDI port in order for the PX-5S to read CC MIDI data.

 

Yep I get it Scott  :D  - I just ordered a FCB it can double as a sustain pedal as well, as there is no half damping...

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Yeah, I finally thought that just missing this function was not enough to not get one. That and the last visit to the Ortho Surgeon - essentially not allowed to lift anything over about 12 kilos...so that rules out everything apart from one of the Casios, or a wally box.

 

I guess I should now amend the thread title :D  (oops - just checked, nope can't do that - not to worry)

 

Dennis

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