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The Yamaha CLP 230 has a Damper with half pedal effect whereas the CLP 220 has the damper but without the half pedal effect.

What's the difference and is it really important?

Half pedal allows you to have different levels of sustain depending on how far you press the pedal. A damper without half pedal effect is essentially an on/off switch.

Once you get used to using it, it's a nice feature and I'm glad I have it. However, I could live without it.

it's important if you're a serious player, because half-pedal is the simulation of any acoustic piano's damper effect. half-pedal simply means the pedal has continuous damper effect according to your foot pressure. without it, the pedal is just an on/off switch with one single preset sustain level.

right now, all new Yamaha models, even entry ones, have half-pedal functionality, which simply makes those older models without half-pedal outdated.

"Half-pedaling" is a non-issue, in my opinion.
I had many yrs. of classical lessons as
a child, and I've been playing for more
than 30 yrs., and I never heard the term
"half-pedaling" until I joined these forums
in 2005. I played only acoustic pianos
as a child and I never "half-pedaled"--
whatever that is--on them, as far as I am aware.
(The nearest I can figure is that "half-
pedaling" is simply a term to justify
sloppy pedaling.) Since 1989 I've been
playing only digitals. My first digital,
bought in 1989, didn't have "half-pedaling,"
and I never noticed that I was missing
anything. My next digital, bought in 2005,
didn't have it either, and I didn't notice
anything missing. My current digital,
bought in 2006, has it, and I don't see
any difference between it and the
other two digitals that didn't have
it--whatever it is. This is a total
non-issue, in my view.

The issue of partial pedaling is one of long-stating repute. The damper pedal on an acoustic piano lifts the dampers off the strings so that they will resonate longer. Because the pedal is an analog device, it's possible to govern how far the dampers are lifted by controlling how far down one presses the pedal. This, in turn, affects the duration of the resonance of the strings.

By leaving the dampers just slightly touching the strings you can shorten the resonance making the sound a little crisper while still getting a longer sustain. In general the use of partial pedaling is a matter of training your ear.

Some people like to have lots of resonance and a long sustain while others like very little. In part it's a personal preference. However, for some pieces it becomes a more substantial issue. If a piece is to be played legato but there's no way you can hold the keys down and make a stretch a little partial pedaling can help, especially if full pedaling would blur the notes.

Ed

LOL, half-pedaling = sloppy pedaling. Good one.

Half-pedaling is a very legitimate technique, and a fine feature to have on a DP. Those that use it (us sloppy folks) tend to use it frequently. My teacher, who has fantastic pedaling technique, half-pedals all the time and encourages me to as well.

for a serious player having half-pedal capability on a DP is mandatory. You can't play Debussy and Ravel properly without it and the technique is used often in other music as well to get specific tonal effects. If you're still not convinced you might take a look at "the Pianists Guide to Pedaling" by Joseph Banowetz. it will be an eye opener in what is possible using advanced pedal technique. While you can't replicate everything on a DP, you should have a DP allow you to do as much as possible

when someone is saying 'half-pedal' is non-issue, the first question comes to mind is whose opinion is that, an amateur/not-that advanced player, or a professional/advanced pianist. since no pro or advanced pianists would ever dismiss half-pedal as a non-issue, we can pretty much draw our own conclusion and ignore such a comment.

WHAT?! Quite the contrary! You've just lost my respect.

Half-pedaling is a precise technique that enables a little bit of sustain without blurring all the notes together as with a full pedal.

Sometimes you need full pedal. Many times it sounds much better with varying degrees, which we call "half." I couldn't live with an on/off pedal.

The on/off full-or-not pedaling is what is sloppy, and it comes out in the music!

I think we've had this half-pedaling argument with Gyro before, IMHO his opinion is just as wrong now as it was before, but he is certainly entitled to his opinion. Anyone care to guess what my classically trained concert pianist wife who is also a piano instructor has to say about half-damper, etc.? Short answer is, yes, it is most important. I guess my wife and I will just remain in the "sloppy pedaling" group!!
Clyde

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote: I played only acoustic pianos
as a child and I never "half-pedaled"--
whatever that is--on them, as far as I am aware.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that really says it all doesn't it?

It may be that half pedalling is only effective on expensive instruments, along with a lot of other things which may label a guy`s talent almost as according to his wallet . . .some stuff`ll never sound good on a run of the mill upright; it would only be a technical exercise at best.

On my DP, I'm pretty sure the half-pedal is not a continuous adjustment. It's strictly 0%/50%/100% (or whatever the middle number would be). Otherwise I think the feature would be boldly labeled "continuously variable".

We've observed in testing with MIDI instruments that basically all DP's that feature half pedal send a number of different MIDI levels for partial pedaling: 0, 15, 30, 45, etc, for example. The hardware is definitely capable of (more or less) continuous adjustment.

However, you may be correct in thinking that the onboard tone generator (and perhaps even software pianos) are not capable of usefully using these tones beyond 0/64/128. In fact, there was some discussion a while ago about annoyance that Ivory and Galaxy had half pedal kicking in at a different MIDI velocity. That makes me think they, and probably many other instruments, are just as you describe, despite the MIDI values and hardware supporting more.

BUMP!
Up to date views, s'il vous plait. Including--is there a half-pedal capable pedal available for, say...Roland FP30?
I see the M-Audio SP-2 advertised as having "acoustic type sustain"... not sure what that means--is that one half pedal capable, or not? (Looks as if I might get one anyway--looks more useful and less liable to escape one's foot, than this...flat, oblong thing that came with the DP...)

....I blame the honourable member from Sofia for this new thickfingers idea...I'd never heard of " half-pedalling" until very recently. If it could be of use to a Jingle Bells novice like me, I'd sooner start out with it than have to adapt later. I must admit, I do find the "on-off" of the FP30 bundled pedal a bit sudden, sometimes....

I guess you refer to me Half-pedaling is IMO important mostly for classical music, especially romantic repertoire which (in my very oversimplified view) includes a lot of (semi-arpeggiated) chords that blend into each other, sometimes over the same bass or even over an arpeggiated bass, etc. including trills and other stuff like that. Half-pedaling allows for you to kind of "clean-up" a bit the mess from the current chord into the next one without however cutting it off fully which would be too abrupt.

I can't explain that in a better way since that all is now so internalized into me I rather do it subconsciously But half-pedaling is of utmost importance at least to me.

Both the Roland KDP-70 (which I have) and the DP-10 support half pedaling. Both work with the FP30.

For FP-30 you would need either the Roland DP-10 (or the old DP-8?) single pedal or the KPD-70 triple pedal bar.

And of course your imagination is the only limit for usage scenarios. Maybe staccato doesn't quite work? Playing legato is difficult or impossible? Full pedal would be too muddy? Use half pedal.

Or you can press it down gradually while repeating some chord or pattern for an artistic effect.

It might also be useful to not learn a bad habit of always stomping the pedal fully down and releasing it all the way and lifting your foot off from it as that might sound pretty bad (mechanically) on a real piano.

Thanks very much, fellas. Razbira se, CG!
Sooo...looks like I may need a DP10, then (don't need or want the triple pedal). Can't determine whether this would provide half-pedalling on the FP30, though...I've seen reference to "half-pedal capable keyboards", but no reference to the FP30 being thus capable. Does a "capable" pedal provide H-P on any piano, then?

The nearest I've seen to evidence is the DP-10 "capable" pedal being sold (bundled) with the FP30, but that's all.
Short version Sloth--when you say "both work" with the FP30, does that mean both provide the feature for the FP30? Thanks.

yes