I just want to know if this damper pedal SHOULD be able to control "something". When I put it in the sustain pedal jack, it doesn't control the sustain either.
Hmm. We're going to have to trace the controller signal flow end-to-end. First off (if you're using Dimension Pro), check that the loaded patch has Sust/Sust set to On/On (in the Multisample editor). That'll prevent any CC#64 or CC#66 messages from getting to the patch. Another thing to check is whether there's any toggles associated with that jack in your transmitting keyboard. Here I can't help you, but there may be a spot buried in the KB operating system that deals with the control jacks and their functions. Sometimes, you may have to plug in the pedal before powering up; sometimes after power-up.
One quick diagnostic is to use DP's MIDI Learn. Right-click on any knob in any patch, and select MIDI Learn. Press on the sustain pedal, and you should see the control jump to full value. Right-click again, and you should see "MIDI Learn - CC#64" displayed (among other things). If the knob didn't jump to full throw, but CC#64 is displayed, try ticking the Reverse toggle under MIDI Learn. Make sure to "MIDI Forget" when you're done with this little experiment.
If you have a Cakewalk host app, there's an MFX MIDI Monitor that you can load in a track to see what's being transmitted through it. Go
here to TenCrazy.com, and download the donationware MFX PortDiag. Follow the installation instructions, and load it in a MIDI track. With one kind of pedal "polarity", you should see something like this, when pressing and releasing the pedal:
Ch. 01 Controller 64 -> 0 Hold Pedal Time:0
Ch. 01 Controller 64 -> 127 Hold Pedal Time:0 Your pedal may transmit continuous values instead of "On/Off switch" behavior. If that's the case, you'll see a load of CC#64 messages with values between 0-127. Under the opposite "polarity", the values after "
->" above will be flipped. This may be part of the problem, as some pedals are wired differently. In the same place at
TenCrazy, look for the MFX SustainFix plugin. It's meant to address this very issue. Even if this is the case, though, you should've gotten
some response out of the pedal, but with unexpected (reversed) results.
If you're using a host other than something from Cakewalk, I do have a link to a standalone MIDI monitor. Let's see if something else works first, because that one uses hexidecimal MIDI notation, and it can get confusing. I suppose another diagnostic would be to use the MIDI Matrix in DP with a destination that can't be missed. Setting up a line like the following will shift the pitch of your loaded Multisample up an octave:
CC#64 -> Pitch1 -> 1200 (cents) -> 0.0