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RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

Hi RRKdudas,

It is usually hard to find Pedalboards at a competitive price, and shipping alone can cost a pretty penny.


There are few options that you may try:

1. Head over to www.midiworks.ca and purchase one of their pedalboards. They sometimes have sales or free shipping offers, so you could potentially save a few hundred from the price. They ship to mostly anywhere in the world. Contrebombarde is supported by MIDI Works, just thought I would throw it out there for those that don't know.

2. You can try looking for used MIDI pedalboards at http://organ-classifieds.com. Depending on the seller, they might be able to set you up with shipping, or you can choose your own method and have it shipped by you instead. You might even get lucky and find someone selling a pedalboard close to your area.

3. The last option would be to purchase a non-MIDI pedalboard from the classifieds site or locally and MIDI-fy it instead. Pedalboards without MIDI are usually cheaper, but either you or someone knowledgeable with its wiring will need to install a MIDI scanner. MIDIWorks sells parallel or matrixed MIDI scanners, and of course there are other companies out there that you can purchase MIDI scanners from.


Was that helpful?


-Ray

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

Hi, Nord make a 27 note portable pedalboard. Mine cost me 1,400€. They come complete with a swell pedal. The only drawbacks are that they're not concave and the swell shoe is a bit flimsy. Hope this helps :)

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

After having a couple midi keyboards connected to a DAW in my computer, I said to myself "I might as well get a MIDI pedalboard, since I enjoyed playing both of the pipe organs I had access to in the mid 70's. I started a search. Since I had used a 32-note concave radiating pedalboards, I started my search there. I looks like the easiest to connect and program (if you have to, but most software finds and accepts these without having to reset much) were the Viscount models. I don't know where you are located (in or out of the EU), so you may have to add VAT into your cost and consider international shipping. You have the options of assembled (for a fee) or unassembled (how handy are you?); and finished (for a fee) or unfinished (do you have the time to apply and allow to dry the several layers of stains and varnish required to make these last); 27, 30 or 32 note; flat or concave; straight or radial. The options you choose will affect your cost. There are links to the options and a spec sheet for programming as links on the maker's webpage. This manufacturer in Italy can be contacted here:
http://www.viscountinstruments.com/midi-pedalboards-173-173.html

The firm in Canada (mentioned in the post previous to this replay), is were I ended up buying mine because shipping to the midwest US was fairly reasonable for this heavy item from that point of origin, the company had the model I wanted in stock, and the exchange rate was reasonable. They contacted me back promptly and shipped it out quickly for a heavy freight item.

There were some sites in the UK that I looked at, but the shipping wasn't favorable for me from there or the model I wanted wasn't in stock when I was shopping. Maybe this is a better location for you and they may have your choice of model now:
http://www.promenademusic.co.uk/midi-organ-pedalboards
https://viscountorgans.net/have-organ-will-travel/ (click on instruments, then Other Products, then MIDI pedalboards).

If you don't need the full pedal board and only need an octive or so, some of the rock or jazz organ pedals for modern electronic instruments may save you a bunch of $$$, but aren't exactly organ spec but should make music. I really would suggest sweetwater.com. Price is good, tech support the best and they have warranty beyond what the manufactures suggest.

Hope this helps.

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

Ha, that remembers me of the radial AGO-style 30-keys MIDI pedalboard that is still lying around in my basement. International shipment would be a pain I suppose, but if you're living somewhere in or near Germany, I would be willing to sell it for about 400 Euros. Feel free to drop me a private message if that sounds interesting to you.

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

I consider myself fortunate in this regard. I happened to be in the right place at the right time back in 1997 when a superfluous pedalboard from a Johannus organ was about to be scrapped by the local dealer. An instrument had been purchased by a client who specified a flat European-style pedalboard, but Johannus shipped an AGO pedalboard with it too. The pedals had magnets in the key ends, intended for activating reed switch contacts.

At that time Hauptwerk didn't exist. I designed and constructed my own reed switches, then hard-wired these contacts in parallel with the lowest 32 notes of an old Yamaha portable keyboard which had MIDI. This involved identifying all of the tracks on the circuit board - plus their return tracks - then drilling tiny holes into the tracks and soldering in a heap of wires, then terminating them in a number of detachable male-female plug sets so that the apparatus could be detached from the pedalboard if necessary. The result was a major success, and I used this to add pedals to a single-manual Viscount Cantorum III. A primitive MIDI sequencer program called "One-Step" running inside an old Mac Classic was used to drive a second MIDI keyboard. It was crude, but it worked.

This amazing contraption graced my school classroom from 1997 until 2001. I dismantled it when I left that school. I kept the pedalboard plus the self-built bench put together out of scrap timber as I owned those components, while the remainder stayed at the school as they were school property. The pedalboard and bench continue in use to this day in my current 4-manual Haupwerk console at home.

The message here - it's not necessary to spend top dollar to get a pedalboard. Organbuilders are always scrapping old consoles in rebuilds, and second-hand pedalboards aren't impossible to find. Refurbishment may well be needed, but in the end it's all within the reach of a competent home handyman. These days the notion of repurposing an old MIDI keyboard has been long since replaced with MIDI hardware from the likes of MIDI Boutique and Roman Sowa. I happened to be very lucky to find a pedalboard in good condition, but a refurbished old used pedalboard can end up being just as good.

My advice is - make calls, send emails and get to know your local organbuilders and electronic organ retailers. Sooner or later you could well strike oil as I did years ago. Supplies of felts, leathers and the like can be sourced from suppliers of piano repair materials and your local piano tuners could probably show you where to find these suppliers. You may find as I did that a pipe organ builder will point you in the direction of their suppliers. Check out the Hautpwerk forum for ideas from other DIY console builders.

Yes, new pedalboards (with or without MIDI) are large, expensive items and difficult to ship. However they can be dismantled and the bits can be stuffed into a sedan car then reassembled at another location. Take lots of photos before you start work and throughout the process - not only to allow you some "before and after" views but in case you forget which bit went where. Before taking anything apart, photograph it. Put screws into envelopes, labelled to indicate where they came from. As far as possible, try to put the same screws back into the same holes.

I could go on and on - but by now I think you've probably figured out my message. DIY organbuilding can be fun!

Good luck!

Andrew

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

A quick addendum to my previous post.

I don't know how to upload photos to the Forum (if indeed it can be done). By way of illustrating the story of my 1997 pedalboard project in the classroom where I taught at the time, I've added a photo taken shortly after completion of the project to my profile page here in the Concert Hall. It's the 3rd small photo down the bottom.

The main photo up the top shows the same pedalboard and bench, now on my current home setup.

The other small photos down the bottom show some of the cut-down MIDI consoles which I've created for my classrooms in more recent times - one using a Hammond MIDI pedalboard of 20 notes, and another using a 17-note pedalboard by StudioLogic. I also have two other setups (not shown here) using 13-note Hammond pedalboards.

I'd love to have 32-note pedalboards all round, but these setups were all designed to be dismantled at day's end and packed away quickly into cupboards.

I currently teach in 2 schools, and at one of them I am lucky enough to have a room where I can leave things set up - so I have 3 organs permanently set up there (with pedalboards of 20, 17 and 13 notes respectively) - and I have 3 licence keys which I carry with me. They are all driven by old Mac laptops which the school has pensioned off from general classroom work, but they are still of use to me. The other school has just 1 setup, with a 13-note pedalboard. I'd have preferred taking the 17-note pedalboard to that school, but cupboard dimensions decreed that it had to be a smaller one. All instruments have 61-note keyboards - most have 2, but the 20-note pedal instrument has 3. Yamaha FC-7 swell pedals are attached to most using MIDI Solutions Pedal Controllers, but the instrument with 3 manuals and 20-note pedalboard sports a Behringer FCB-1010 unit for its swell pedal control plus some toe pistons.

I apologise for taking this thread somewhat off topic - but in the end it all still goes back to the question of DIY organbuilding on a budget.

Andrew

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

Andrew,
THANKS A LOT for sharing that insightful experience and advice. I don't think this is "off topic" in any way, as you still referred to how to get an "affordable MIDI pedalboard for Hauptwerk" (or other VPOs)... ;)

DIY organ building is fun indeed. For me, it was a DIY bench and console rack...

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

I second the suggestion to contact an organ builder… When I was a student at the University of Oklahoma there were at least for unused pedalboards sitting in the back of the storage area in the pipe shop. Often times components get pitched simply because there’s no room to keep them and they are not going to be used on a new project. I will also add that there are a lot of old analog organs for sale on craigslist in the United States and you could pick up a perfectly good pedal board for a pittance that way, although you would have to add midi to it yourself. I see whole consoles sell for $300. Add in another $300 for a midi scanner and you are still coming out $1000 ahead.

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

You could check:

www.organeriamidi.net

They build AGO, BDO, concave-radial, concave-parallel, etc.

Best wishes

RE: Affordable MIDI pedals for Hauptwerk

I was lucky with obtaining my final pedal board. On "marktplaats.nl" I found a second-hand 30-note concave pedalboard that came from a Johannes or Roland organ and it costed me 60 Euro. But it was just the mechanics. At www.gino-midi I obtained the midification kit. See ttps://youtu.be/ydUhmmP9MMc