DIY MIDI Pedals
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- I always loved seeing artists like Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Masayoshi Yamashita (Loudness), Mike Rutherford and others play Taurus Pedals while playing the guitar or bass. Unfortunately for me, a used set of Moog's famous pedals will set you back a few thousand bucks.
Since there are plenty of ways to recycle, I figured I would contribute as well. I bought a set of old Hammond organ pedals on eBay, and had a broken MIDI keyboard I could use the parts from. After trying my other set of pedals first, I tried for a couple of weeks on and off to get them to work. I finally figured out they are wired incorrectly, so I switched to the Hammond pedals. Within an hour they were wired and ready.
Check out my interview series with Rush’s keyboard tech, Tony Geranios (aka Jack Secret). Lots of MIDI related stuff in there plus Rush tour and equipment info!
Thanks for your support,
Terry (twocargar)
Yes, you want polyphonic pedals, which Hammond tone wheel organs had. Often spinet organs had a monophonic pedal board where it was one in-series make/break contact on each pedal, so you only got one contact and one common ground. The Hammond, Conn, and Wurlitzer BROWN PRESSED STEEL PEDALS were all made by the same company. These are the most durable. I do know Conn and Wurlitzer were monophonic. So best bet is to get the Hammond pedal board. I play guitar sitting at my 25 & 32 pedal boards.
I would really like to see more about the specifics of the wiring you did at the circuit board side of things.
This is awesome. I made my own 'taurus pedals' when i was playing in a Rush cover band by a long time ago by making keys on hinges out of 1 x 3" sticks of wood with push switches below them on a wedge shaped wood box. I wired it directly to the keyboard matrix of my CZ 101 keyboard (which is not touch sensitive so the keys are just on/off switches). The only challenge was learning about using diodes in the keyboard matrix so it all wouldn't short out.
That's great. I also had the same idea and put two old organ foot pedals together for a two octave board, but that is as far as I got on the project. I'm also a brass player so I wanted a foot board controller, hands free.
This is great. I took mine off of an old Thomas organ but my soldering kills are awful. As soon as I can find a pro to solder those switches together properly..i'll be back in business
I updated the info on this video with a link to my website with links I used and photos from my build.
You could use a Yamaha or similar keyboard with onboard sound and MIDI and solder the wires from the Hammond pedals to it then shove all of that into an enclosure. That way you could play them through the keyboard's speakers or plug it into an amp. It would just take some trial and error to find out which wires went with which notes on the keyboard. That's what took me the longest time to figure out.
Thanks for posting!!! I think I'm going to do this... Just so happens I have a set of organ pedals laying around at my house... :)
Would kill for such electrical engineering skills. Sadly, I'm just a musician. I've been wanting to add aftertouch to a keyboard I actually like the feel of (since the two never come hand-in-hand for me), but it looks like it's not going to happen. Wish ya lived next door. :P
Love the acknowledgment of Mike Rutherford! You should play some Apocalypse in 9/8 and Dance on a Volcano on your Frankentaurus.
"Taurus pedal sound" was disappointing
@duttasanjiv Please see our online forum at midipedals(dotkom) and I believe a similar question has been answered there.
Thanks for the feedback!
Update: midipedals.com has closed. There was a point where I was selling CV to MIDI adapter, but I am no longer selling them. The project in my video lasted a few years until it stopped working, I'm not sure why. I replaced the brain (the keyboard guts) with one of my MIDI adapters and that has been going well for quite a few years.
To answer some of the questions, the way I figured out the wiring was by taking a bare wire and shorting out the keyboard connections on the circuit board until I found out the correct combination.
Since then, I have found things like this that helped me figure out how keyboards are wired: www.midikits.net/midi_piano_accordion/switches_bass_chords.GIF
Good luck!
-TCG
You could look and see which keyboards you have give you the best bass sound. I remember getting a great sound from our old Yamaha keyboard which ended up being the "Tuba" sound. The Mac I use has a few great bass sounds, so you could try some virtual synths on a computer.
U are a genius!
Congrats for this innovative & brilliant work and thx so much for sharing it over youtube to inspire us. I have a YAMAHA Keyboard without aftertouch, and I primarily use it with Ableton or reason.
Can I add 'aftertouch' using a foot controller in my PC? My requirement is simple : for long notes in a wind instrument or violin I want velocity(volume) control & modulation. Kindly suggest.
This is awesome! How does it hold up, is it still working??
Hey, did you hook up electrical power to the pedals or was all the power from the keyboard or midi parts? I ask because I have pedals made by korg that just have a midi out but it’s also self powered. Also I asked a midi keyboard guy and he did say that pedals would need power, only I don’t see any on yours. Thanks.
I had power and MIDI out connected. Yes, they definitely need power. Good luck with your pedals!
Thank you.
how did you determine which wires to solder on the synth keyboard connector ? The pedal has 13 wires ....but the keyboard connector of the Synth would have more. How did you figure it out , trial and error ???
hi man..brilliant pedals.are they velocity sensitive though.?.....i also have a question. im trying to do this with drums/piezo's wired to the keys of a midi keyboard ....but im guessing it wont be velocity sensitive...any ideas on how i could do it so it is..without using a module/or arduino etc.....cheers rob p.s rush brilliant band...big fan.
hey this is great- it might be just what i am looking for- my situation is this- i am in a trio-acoustic guitar, pedal steel and drums and cannot find a bassist at all! i def. have old crappy organs and crappy keyboards laying around in my moms basement. can i basically saw-off or remove the pedals and then create something like you've made but not necessarily so synthesizer-sounding.i am hoping to make something that just sounds like a simple bass guitar. any advice?
Hey thanks twocar,now where abouts did you solder your wires at into your midi? and did you need a pinpoint soldering gun ? I only bought this hammond for $40 out of a flee market i felt bad i tore it apart,it was in exellent shape,keyword WAS,lol,but i priced the hammond 125 XL's used before i tore it up to make sure it wasn't worth alot more then what i paid for it,turns out the tube models are the expensive ones,which this is transistor,i'm a John Paul Jones fan but a guitar player,lol
I have a set of pedals and a hacked up keyboard just sitting here waiting to be soldered but I have no idea WHERE to solder. I am skilled at soldering cables and connectors but my board soldering is amateur at best. The keyboard is a 2 octave M Audio and I am not sure out of the two pads per key, which one is the note on/off and which is velocity.
i am doing the same thing right now and have the same question
edwin kuykendall Let me know if you get this answered, I'll do likewise if I figure it out first. I have a schematic of sorts that a friend of mine gave me. He builds fighter jets, so in other words, the schematic is over my head.
hey there,i bought a hammond 125 xl just for the bass pedals so i can play guitar and bass at the same time, i took the whole organ apart to take all the electronics out and put them in a smaller like guitar amp sorta box and now it don't work at all,lol..any ideas and ways to get this bass pedal to work using something like an yamaha midi keyboard or anything with an amplifier built into it..thanks