Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Roland DP10 pedal - is it actually 'continuous'?

I recently bought Roland FP10, just as a controller for Pianoteq and connected Roland DP10 so-called continuous pedal. It has switch allowing to choose '0-1' mode or 'continuous'. When I connect it to FP10 and then use it with Pianoteq, even in continuous mode it sends 3 velocities: 0, ~64, 127.

With Korg Grandstage and DS-1H pedal, I am able to get full range of velocities for sustain.

I'm wondering, is DP10 not actually 'continuous' and sends only 3 velocities, or Roland FP10 is limiting it and sends only those 3 values by MIDI? I cannot test DP10 with Grandstage currently so I would appreciate information from you guys.

I was using my DP10 temporarily, while waiting for a Yamaha pedal, as an expression controller on my MODX.
When assigned to controlling the superknob, it appeared to work the full range.....if that helps.

Deltajockey has it right. I tested it as an expression pedal once and behavior sounded continuous.

On a second thoght, it also looked continuous on the LED bargraph of RD2000 zone.

DP-10 is definitely continuous for me on my FP-90.

So it seems it is FP10 limitation. It's strange: would Roland implement it in a way, that only 3 values are being send? I understand, that internal soundengine might use only 3 values, but external MIDI communication should not be limited. I've reported a bug to Roland, hope to hear from them soon.

OMG. If you hear back from Roland, please tell us about it! It will be an "event"!

Why? They don't like own customers?

I have an official ticket entered and logged into their trouble ticket system. It is 323 days old and I have never gotten one update on it from Roland even though the ticket has my contact info on it including email address, and I confirmed the ticket was in the system.

You are welcome to interpret this if you like.

When you said "event" did you mean "miracle"?

Dexibell, who are basically ex-Roland Italy, tend to respond very quickly for all kinds of questions and issues. I had the same serivce quality with Casio and Korg as well. I've never had to deal with Yamaha, Kurzweil or Kawai. If what you guys are saying about Roland support is truth I wil be probably left with 'plug-unplug pedal and do the same with USB cable' as my only possible fixing attempt. Or I will just send FP10 for 'warranty' repair as 'half pedalling' is clearly stated in specs (and it currently works as 0/64/127 velocity switch, not proper half-pedalling). I could have bought FP30..

😂


Yeah, perhaps you need some sort of stratagem or argument for exchanging your FP10 for an FP30. The FP10 is a real beginners keyboard. You hardly seem to be the complete beginner if you need proper half pedalling.

I don't care if they target it as 'beginner' or 'Pro'. I like its action more than RH3 in Korg Grandstage and need it only for VSTs. Also, it's super compact. Let's wait for Roland to respond

I don't understand this. I'm thinking your pedal works as advertised, but are you saying it does not?Isn't that "64" the half-pedal point?

Roland DP10 is a 'continuous' pedal in theory, able to send range of 0-127 velocity levels for sustain. And it apparently does, when used with FP30 for example. When connected to FP10, and then FP10 via USB MIDI to laptop, only single values 0,64,127 are being transmitted.

MacMacMac is raising the technical and nomenclature point: Is "half"-pedaling just a single half-way point, or is it a range of values?

This depends on the piano. Yamaha's lower end pianos also have a limited set of MIDI values for the pedal.



Note that the pedal itself doesn't send MIDI values. It just sends voltage readings that are adjusted by a pot. The DP reads the voltage and then decides what MIDI values correspond to it, whether, 0, 1, 2, 25, 64 or 127. So some DPs "support" only one or 2 half-pedal values, others might output a continuous range 0-127. The pedal itself though, can output a continuous voltage "curve" so if you plug it into another DP that supports it, you could have different MIDI behavior from it (more or fewer half-pedal values).

I looked the FP10 up on Roland's French site. Under the 'tech specs' it says:
in English rather than French!
- Pedals:
- Damper (capable of half pedal when optional pedal connected) br />Optional pedal DP-10 (capable of half pedal)

for the FP30
(not in English this time - very odd!)
- Pédales
- Accessory pedal
- Pédale fournie : Sourdine

- Optional pedals
- Damper (capable of continuous detection)
- Pédalier optionnel : Sourdine (à détection continue), Douce (à détection continue),
- Sostenuto (fonction assignable)

Site: https://www.roland.com/fr/products/fp_series/fp-10/
The model numbers are near the top of the page, and the specs can be found by scrolling down to 'TECH SPECS'
it would appear that the FP30 is capable of continuous pedal operation but the FP10 does half-pedal.
It's a problem I came across in trying to interpret DP specs on a French site that I look at regularly (I'll really buy a new DP one of these days, honestly) - sometimes by 'half pedal' they mean continuous, other times literally half-pedal.

Maybe FP-10 recognizes 0-127 from the pedal as 0-127 for the internal module but transmits only 3 separate values through midi out or usb port? MIDI implemetation chart isn't really helpful or I can't find that info
https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/LX_HP_KF-10_GP_DP_RP102_FP-10_MIDI_Imple_eng04_W.pdf

Can you get different "lengths of decay" on FP-10 when half-pedaling or is this just one value for specific place of the pedal travel?

That is certainly a possibility, but in the few times that situations come up where it could be the case (across numerous DPs), it turns out that the DP handles it internally exactly as the MIDI data would suggest.

Well, I've got response from Roland: 'With the FP-10 that is all you can do.'