piano sustain pedal

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

I'm sure this has been brought up before, so forgive me if I'm rehashing an old topic. I plan on eventually building a pedal that operates exactly how a sustain pedal for a piano works. I'm aware it's not electronic in the piano's case. Also, I've heard the Freeze pedal, which I didn't think was exactly what I'm looking for.

I want a pedal that (when pressure is applied) will sustain anything being sent through it at that moment in time (and after), indefinitely, with little to no decay.  So, I could push down on the pedal and play every note on the guitar in whatever timing or order I can think of (not that you'd want to  ) and they would just keep ringing out until I release my foot.

How hard would this be to do analogue? My other option is digital, like have something sample each note and drone it. Any other thoughts on how I could do this?

[samhay]

I assume you want this to be a reasonably clean? If you want indefinite sustain, then you want to go digital.

[pappasmurfsharem]

I'm sure this has been brought up before, so forgive me if I'm rehashing an old topic. I plan on eventually building a pedal that operates exactly how a sustain pedal for a piano works. I'm aware it's not electronic in the piano's case. Also, I've heard the Freeze pedal, which I didn't think was exactly what I'm looking for.

I want a pedal that (when pressure is applied) will sustain anything being sent through it at that moment in time (and after), indefinitely, with little to no decay.  So, I could push down on the pedal and play every note on the guitar in whatever timing or order I can think of (not that you'd want to  ) and they would just keep ringing out until I release my foot.

How hard would this be to do analogue? My other option is digital, like have something sample each note and drone it. Any other thoughts on how I could do this?

You either want a looper with a really short time, or the EHX Freeze as you stated. That's pretty much it.

[Mike Burgundy]

Try a Strymon timeline. Not DIY-able, and expensive, but worth every penny IMHO.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

That is a COOL pedal! I might invest in one of those! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVe368m6vpw I thought this guy did a great demo. He was playing like actually songs rather than a barrage of blues licks or endless shredding. (which is cool but, can get repetitive after about the 10th pedal demo )

So, yep I'll be doing it digitally, do you guys know any resources where I can get more information on how digital pedals work? Thanks for the help.

EDIT: Hmmmm, now that I think about it, I might be better off modding a freeze pedal. Since it's digital, do you think it'd be easier to make this pedal from scratch or mod the freeze to what I want?

[Seljer]

The closest thing you can get to what you want in a reasonably simple way is to take a delay pedal that can do [almost] infinite repeats (like you regular rebote delay) and then fade in the delay with a volume pedal, observe David Gilmour doing it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPL3O7NmgpI (he starts doing it at 0:50). You'll need some kind of splitter and a mixer or run two seperate amps for the dry signal + delayed 'sustain'.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Nice performance, that kinda seems like what the freeze pedal would do. The thing I don't like so much about the freeze pedal is, IMHO, it sounds kinda synthy when it's sustained. Is there a way to make it sound more... realistic. Or is it just me?

[WaveshapeIllusions]

Sample & Hold circuit? A few of those in series would be pretty similar to a BBD line.

Perhaps something like a Wein Bridge Oscillator?

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

That's a pretty good idea but, how would the sound quality be? How long could I keep the note going if I went that way? Could I add more notes later, as long as the pedal is engaged.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Perfect!

"Freeze pedal mod...
The electronics is awesome. It takes a little practice timing-wise to use it like a sustain pedal for the guitar. But it works. And it's awesome. The reason why I'm not giving it a 5-star rating is because it uses the worst switch you can image. Why would they use a switch that is so small and so loud? I could hear the switch clicks from across the room. Why does it have to make any sound at all?

Here's what I did with mine (although it probably voided the warranty): Drill a 3/8" hole on the side of the case opposite the power supply. Install a 1/4" mono jack and wire the two contacts to the original switch (no need to disconnect the original switch). If the red light flickers on and off when you plug in the power it means the wiring is backwards or the positive signal is touching the case. Fix the wiring and close up the case. And then I just plug in a nice piano-like sustain pedal. Make sure you get a pedal with the contacts normally open (N.O.). To be safe, get one with a polarity switch. The M-Audio SP2 is a good pedal for this purpose."

Taken from this link, http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archive/index.php/t-817426.html.

[Jurassic]

That sustain pedal mod is really nice. I modded my friends Freeze just like that and he loves it. He uses it with a rhodes electric piano, so using a piano pedal with Freeze was an obvious choise. I modded my Freeze with an arcade button, but now I feel that the sustain pedal is even better. Anyway, I really don't understand why EHX doesn't use better switches. I recently bought the EHX chill switch and it has the same problem.. Nasty 'clicky' footswitch that is really annoying. Other than that I can really recomend the Chill switch. It's a momentary bypass looper, but the switching is silent: no audible clicks or pops in the audio signal. It's a really nice product, but the switch is useless.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Yeah, the switching was what originally turned me off from the whole pedal! The other thing that bothers me is it sounds kinda synthy/metallic to me, do you know of anything I could combine it with to make it sound less ambient, more like my guitar. My idea is to wire this pedal to the other two (EHX freeze/ piano pedal) so the effect only comes on when the freeze pedal is used.