KVR Audio

wetdentist · Post by **wetdentist** » Fri May 11, 2012 4:56 pm

i recently purchased a Roland GR-30 guitar synth for the sole purpose of using it as a means to play soft synths with my guitar in a live situation, and i am using my backup NI Kore device (Kore 1) as the MIDI/audio interface. so far so good, and it sounds great! now i NEED to find a way to get my Korg EXP-2 expression pedal (which i had been using as a sustain pedal with my m-audio keystation 61es with NO PROBLEMS) to work as a sustain pedal in this set up. when i plug the pedal into the back of Kore, nothing happens. getting this to work is very important because when i make a synth sound, the sound will die once the guitar string stops vibrating, and i need the sound to keep going until i want it to stop. i've tried fiddling around with Native Instruments Controller Editor, but to no avail (and i am inexperienced with MIDI beyond basic soft synth operation, so i'm not knowledgeable about MIDI CC#s). can someone successfully guide me through the process of getting this to work? if so i'll pay ya 20 bucks!

wetdentist · Post by **wetdentist** » Mon May 14, 2012 6:17 pm

ew · Post by ew » Mon May 14, 2012 8:35 pm

1) Have your pedal plugged in before you plug in the Kore controller. The controller initializes the pedal ports on power up/being plugged in.
2) Sustain is cc#64. Check and see if your GR-30's set up to recognize cc#64
3) Make sure your pedal's actually sending a value of 127 when fully depressed; if it has a scaling knob, make sure that you're sending the full range from 0-127. Most older synths need the full 127 value to turn on sustain, instead of a >63 value.
4) Why the expression pedal anyways? Why not use a momentary as is usually used for sustain? If you do use a momentary switch, use a Yamaha or Korg switch; Roland's wiring's reversed, and the Kore controller uses the Yamaha/Korg wiring scheme.

ew

wetdentist · Post by **wetdentist** » Wed May 16, 2012 3:19 pm

thanks ew for posting some suggestions. i will try to implement them. with regards to the choice of pedal i'm using, i'm just using what i got on hand, and also because it was working perfectly as a sustain pedal with my m-audio Keystation 61es. since i missed out on the world of MIDI during the 80s and 90s, i have NO experience with CC#s and how to set them up. with regards to this, would i be using Kore as a MIDI controller and NOT a Kore Controller?
once again, thanks!!! i will look into the momentary pedal for sure

wetdentist · Post by **wetdentist** » Thu May 17, 2012 11:02 am

figured it out! but the sustain pedal that is actually making the sounds on my laptop sustain, is the sustain pedal on the GR-30. part of me wishes that i was not up in Alaska during the 90s focused on my guitars, but rather somewhere learning about MIDI CC#s . . .

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Thu May 17, 2012 11:10 am

You have a gr30 and it still works? Save your pennies for an itar.
http://www.starrlabs.com/itar-ultimate-instrument. No missed notes no false notes no late notes no note drop off and no freaky velocity issues.

wetdentist · Post by **wetdentist** » Thu May 17, 2012 12:32 pm

looks pretty sweet! does it come in LEFT HANDED?????

polaris20 · Post by **polaris20** » Thu May 17, 2012 10:08 pm

tapper mike wrote:You have a gr30 and it still works? Save your pennies for an itar.
http://www.starrlabs.com/itar-ultimate-instrument. No missed notes no false notes no late notes no note drop off and no freaky velocity issues.

What does that have to do with the thread at all?

As for the GR-30 working, they work just fine. Quit exaggerating. No, they're not a ZTar. Neither is the iTar.

Roland GR-30 + NI Kore 1 Controller + Korg EXP-2 = SUSTAIN?????