I am using a M-Audio SP-2 - Universal Sustain Pedal. I have been able to use it successfully as a sustain pedal when plugging directly into a midi keyboard. But when i plug it in to the hapax and turn on “apply sustain”, nothing happens. but i am able to use it as a trigger to launch commands in the CV/Gate/Pedal options of the hapax.
The hope was to use this pedal as a traditional “sustain” pedal, to be able to activate sustain on any track/channel/synth the hapax is focused on, but it’s seemingly not working.
I have tried changing the settings for Apply Sustain, Tip/Ring Pedal settings, Gate Polarity, and changing the polarity on the foot switch. Again, I have no trouble using it to launch commands via the tip/ring settings, but the traditional ‘sustain’ escapes me.
“Apply sustain” actually uses CC 64 (default for sustain in the MIDI spec) rather than the pedal input.
Basically it means any notes played whilst CC 64 is high will be held, whether or not the target synth responds to CC 64 or not (in fact, I think it stops that CC from being transferred to the synth at all)
So with Apply Sustain engaged, and your sustain pedal plugged into a MIDI keyboard or synth, pressing it will hold notes within Hapax (also useful for engaging the internal arp, as this is the only way to hold notes for the arpeggiator without actually holding down the keys physically.
The pedal input on the Hapax itself is for Hapax-specific functions, as you’ve seen it work, not for transmitting any ‘hold notes’ function within the sequencer.
It does! Thanks for getting back to me. I came to the same conclusion but wanted to ask here to be sure I didn’t miss anything.
In my current setup, I don’t have the ability to plug the pedal directly into my master keyboard. The new iteration of it is in production and includes the sustain pedal option. I preordered it, so once it lands, I’ll use it with that keyboard and call it good.
Do you have another keyboard you could plug the sustain pedal into?
You could be really sneaky and have the master keyboard and that secondary one plugged into each input of the Hapax, and I am pretty sure it’ll merge the inputs of both into whichever track you are playing out of (or use the same channel if you are doing MIDI thru)
Then play the keys of your master, and the pedal from the secondary.
