Volume/Control Pedal with Front-Back and Side-Side motion

Started by vanceg-fgn, April 27, 2010, 12:30:40 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

vanceg-fgn

I saw this when I was looking at the post Elantric made about the "Easy Expression Converter" cable earlier today.

http://dbinstrumentamp.com/drupal/content/m440se-stereo-expression-pedal-old-dog

http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/olddog/m440se

The Old Dog M440SE volume pedal allows for both front/back and Side/side motion of the pedal and outputs two sets of control signals.  Super cool.  Sort of like an X/Y pad for your foot.

I know Morley had a two way volume/pan pedal at one point, but I've never seen this pedal. LONG ago - at Recombinant Media Labs we built a pedal system which actually had Pitch/Yaw/Roll control; so it sent out three control messages from one pedal. But it was fairly hard to control since the slightest pressure in ANY direction caused the pedal to change values. Still fun to use. Prohibitively expensive, unfortunately, as it was made out of individually machined parts.

This OldDog pedal looks like a great alternative.  I haven't figured out where to purchase one yet, but I do have a note into the company.

On a related note: Does ANYONE out there know of a volume pedal which is spring loaded and returns to it's centered position when you lift your foot off of it?   Sure, sure, sure I am positive I could build one.  I was just wondering if such a device exists in the marketplace. It would seem likely as center detent - spring loaded controls are so useful for things like pitch bend on keyboards.

Elantric-fgn

Re Spring loaded volume pedals - I recall  Yamaha used to offer one like that  - many Organ volume pedals have that feature.

Also at one time Bigsby and Fender each made Volume pedals with a rotating Tone function - mechanically similar to the Old Dog M440SE

1953 Bigsby


1963 Fender


Not the first time Leo Fender copied a design element first introduced by ?Paul Bigsby
1948 Bigsby
. . . the future ain't what it used to be . . .

vanceg-fgn

Yeah! I remember that Fender now;  someone I played with in college had one...

Thanks for the tip about organ volume pedals: that seems to be the ticket. I have found several models that have a 'return to center' feature.  Though every one I've found so far is pretty large. I'm looking  for something much more compact... like an FV-50 or smaller...maybe the size of that old DOD volume/wah pedal... Still on the lookout.