Half Damper DS-1H

khol · Post by **khol** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:02 am

Hi,
Must buy a half-damper pedal for the M3. I have a on/off pedal today, but it really does not make the pianos justice.

So... do you guys tried any other halfdampers on the M3 other than DS-1H ?

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:21 am

A Yamaha FC3 half-damper pedal can be modified (or used with an adapter) to work with the M3. The signal connected to the ring of the FC3's stereo plug must be connected to the tip for the M3. The ring can be left unconnected, and the sleeve remains connected to chassis ground. You could either rewire the pedal, make a stereo jack / mono plug adapter, or (as I did) build a DPDT switch into the pedal.

The FC3's potentiometer is connected across the tip and sleeve, with the wiper connected to the ring. The M3 just needs a variable resistor across the tip and sleeve.

Pianos sure do sound better with a half-damper...

df

Berend · Post by **Berend** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:21 pm

The M-Gear SP2 (M-Audio) pedal is good quality, affordable, good looking, works well with M3 and is likely to be available in Europe.

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:11 pm

The M-Audio SP2 is a switch on/off pedal, not a half-damper pedal like the Yamaha FC3 or Korg DS-1H.

df

Berend · Post by **Berend** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:52 am

I am afraid that dfahrner is ill informed.

The SP2 is an acoustic piano style sustain pedal with damper, expressive half-damper functionalities and polarity switching. Very sturdy metal housing, metal chrome pedal, solid rubber base and cable attached. I paid about USD 20.- about 8 months ago. Unbelievable quality for the money.

If you need proof

please check: http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOSP2
Or Google: M-Audio SP2 half damper

zorg · Post by **zorg** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:53 pm

Hmm. interesting ... On the same site (http://www.zzounds.com/productreview--MDOSP2) some user is questioning the 'expressive half-pedal capabilities'...

Berend, can you please tell us how does it work exactly? You switch it to one or another mode, I presume? Or, can it do both at the same time?

khol · Post by **khol** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 2:40 pm

Thanks guys

Think i'll go for the Korg DS-1H after all.

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 5:26 pm

Berend wrote:I am afraid that dfahrner is ill informed.

The SP2 is an acoustic piano style sustain pedal with damper, expressive half-damper functionalities and polarity switching. Very sturdy metal housing, metal chrome pedal, solid rubber base and cable attached. I paid about USD 20.- about 8 months ago. Unbelievable quality for the money.

If you need proof :roll: please check: http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOSP2
Or Google: M-Audio SP2 half damper

Before I made that last post, I measured one of my SP2s with an ohmmeter, and it reads several megohms OFF, and 0.1 ohm ON, which is a switch, and it doesn't provide the half-damper fuction with my M3...so now I opened the SP2 and it does just have a switch (a good quality, keyboard-type, but a switch, not a pot) and can't provide half-damper operation...web descriptions are mixed: some say it provides half-damper operation, some say it is "compatible" with half-damper inputs (?), "feels" just like a piano pedal, etc., and some say it's a switch...my SP2s have switches and aren't half-damper pedals...

khol: the Korg DS-1H is probably the easiest solution, and supporting the company is a good idea (got to keep these great instruments coming)...the Yamaha FC3 is a good-quality pedal that works fine and may be a little less expensive, but does require some modification...

df

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:14 pm

OK, so there are two of those key-type switches in the SP2: one above the pedal that is used when "normally-closed" is selected, and one at the bottom that is the "normally-open" switch. Some modifications could turn it into a half-damper pedal: a resistor (or two) could make it so that the output was say 10K ohms when the pedal was off (top switch closed), some intermediate value (5K ohms ?) when the pedal was halfway down (both switches open), and 0 ohms when the pedal was all the way down (lower switch closed). (There seems to be a resistor "built in" to the lower switch PWB: maybe the original intent was to make the pedal do this.) This mod would be more difficult than modifying the Yamaha FC3 pedal, but even cheaper...I'll stop talking about this now...

df

Berend · Post by **Berend** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:50 am

Hey dfahrner,

Thanks for your detailed clarifications. Great you actually measured the resistance values. Inspires me to make it work, experimenting with resistors when I have a moment. It is the reverb of the piano sounds that I use together with my more dynamic half pedalling technique (versus static half dampering) that never made me realise that the SP2 is actually just switching.

Cheers