Korg Forums

[Cathy]

I bought the foot pedal and have gone back to just using two separate pedals.
It’s probably just me but when you can’t see your feet and as close as those switches are to each other I don’t see how people use them.
Sadly returning it doesn’t make sense, it only cost me $99.00 and with the shipping and the 20% restock fee what would be left?

Anyway, love this keyboard!

[Korghelper]

People used to have 12-24 'switches' at their feet and played whole basslines on them without looking! They used to be called bass pedals...

I know it seems difficult to start, particularly if you don't come from an organ or a guitarist with a pedalboard background, but just like getting used to not staring at your hands while you play, it comes with practice. And more practice. And yet more practice!

Choosing your layout well is also a big part of the pedal board not becoming a landmine waiting to go off! I tend to avoid putting functions to the pedal that can destroy a song (Start/Stop for instance!) and mostly go for the things like Variation Up/Down (with autofill ON) which uses two less switches than one for each Variation (and can be double/triple tapped to make bigger jumps) and bass inversion on/off, stuff like that.

Now you won't end up stopping in the middle of a song!

But stick with it... It doesn't take long to get used to, as long as you anchor the pedal so you can't move it with a kick. Consistently place it in EXACTLY the same place under the keyboard (like you hopefully do for the sustain pedal) and it won't be long before your feet adapt to it. But if it moves at all, all that muscle memory is wasted. Anchor it down!

If you come from any kind of piano background, you probably already know how frustrating it is to constantly stop playing the chords or LH to go push a button... The EC5 once familiar will help you get back to just PLAYING. And that's always a good thing!

[Cathy]

[DonM]

I have just about quit using the middle switches. I use the one on the left and the one on the right. I have neuropathy in my legs and very little feeling in my feet. It won't get better.
As long as I have the pedal board in the right place, and my stool about the same, I am able to use those two switches without looking. For the others I have to look. For a while I set the middle three all to Sustain, so if my foot landed in the general area, it was o.k.
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DonM

[pa4x_user]

I only use 2 independent pedals, but they can certainly slide around the floor.

I cut a mat out of gripper mat, which goes down on the floor before I set up my stand and keyboard. (Maybe ‘gripper mat’ is a term not used overseas, it’s that non-slip rubber often used to line cupboards)

Problem solved.
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[seaside]

Piece of smooth softwood 1"(2.5cm)18.5"(47cm)*7.5"(9cm),sanded corners,glued on with carpet glue,which can be prised off with a flat screwdriver if required in future.You could glue carpet gripper underneath.Take your left shoe off sock on,run your foot over the switches lightly too chose before pressing.If your foot is cold,put another one over it,but don't forget to take the extra one off in case your shoe is too tight.-Terry https://drive.google.com/file/d/1271KHUhekeEMm6URTItv4m4_tnESQumr/view?usp=sharing

[Cathy]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

[Korghelper]

If you are only using your keyboard at home, you should be able to mount everything solidly to a single sheet of plywood underneath the keyboard and everything is rock solid. Alternatively, if there is carpet under the keyboard, gluing some Velcro to the bottom of the pedal can make it pretty solid. But this really isn’t an option if you gig out and are trying to keep your load in as easy as possible.

The rubber shelf liner material is a good solution (it’s what I use), but it still won’t prevent all slippage, or if you accidentally kick the pedal. If you find yourself doing this a lot, you may have to look for a bulkier but more solid solution.

I like to place my sustain pedal considerably to the right, rather than centrally as it would be with the piano. This allows you more separation between the multi pedal and the sustain, without forcing your legs too wide!

You might also consider putting a switch into the control input, for start/stop, and putting that to the right of your sustain pedal so that you never stand the chance of accidentally stopping your performance while fumbling around on the multi pedal. As I said, avoiding combinations of functions that can ruin the song is the key. The wrong variation won’t ruin the song, but hitting start/stop accidentally sure can!

[Mitzie]

You can buy, direct from Roland, as a spares item, the pedal supplied for their PK-9 Bass Pedals, which is a volume/expression pedal with two auxiliary toe switches for about 50GBP. You will need to cut off the DIN Plug and meter out the separate wires and polarity that control the volume/expression impedance and the two (left and right ) ON/OF toe switches and fit jack plugs to them. (Note impedance is 10-12K ohm)

Using the toe switches for sustain and registration changes maybe?

Which is what I have

[Korghelper]

I would think that the toe switch a poor solution for sustain… A toe switch means a movement to the side rather than up and down. That strikes me as being ergonomically very uncomfortable over the long stretch, and on piano sounds you use it constantly..!

Have you actually tried this?

Variation up/down might be a good choice. I used to play organs with toe switches (usually only one) and in those days it was usually hardwired to Leslie fast/slow. Because of the twisting of your ankle, I don’t think I would like to have used it for sustain, but functions you only use occasionally would be cool.