I've been hoping to add pedal functions to my digital piano, and I am realizing that even though I just think of the device as a controller for soft samplers that the unit's functionality was constrained to match the capability of the hardware's built in sound engine, so it doesn't have built in inputs for all 3 pedals.
 
It occurs to me that I might possibly adapt a MIDI pedal controller and then use a MIDI connection to the digital piano's MIDI IN to provide pedal functionality for a damper/sustain, sustenuto, and soft pedal that goes thru to the soft sampler.
 
I guess my first question is will a MIDI IN signal work simultaneously with the piano's Keyboard input and combine on the piano's MIDI OUT so that the soft sampler gets the keyboard and pedal signals as if the piano was made to provide all that data in the first place? Does the MIDI IN replace the keyboard nput?
 
I know I can test the MIDI IN easily by daisy chaining another keyboard in for a quick test, and I will, but I wanted to bounce some ideas around and see if any one else has done something like this.
 
Thanks.
 
best regards,
Mike

At this point Sonar does not support multiple midi inputs to it's soft synths,  an armed midi track. ( note Cubase 7.5 just added this feature) So your left with figuring out how to get both input devices sending along the one midi input path. I have a MIDI merge box that allows this. Some controllers will allow throughput via the midi input to the output. 
Another option might be a USB footswicth. I use mine to control Sonars Transport with my feet. It might be possible to have it interact with the synths GUI. 
Read this. 
 
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/reviews/911117-pcsensor-footswicth.html
 
 
 

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/473924-best-midi-merge-box.html
 
http://www.midisolutions.com/products.htm
 
http://www.zzounds.com/item--MSLMERGER
 
 

Thanks for the info and links.
 
Now that you have reminded me of the term "merge", I guess that's what I was hoping would happen in the keyboard controller.
 
I'll read up on the links. 

Can't you just record it with the omni setting? Select none as the input?

I hadn't thought about the foot pedal being another separate controller until Cactus pointed out how obvious that might be.
 
I was still thinking about how the pedal merges with the keyboard in most units that have it built in.
 
Now my head is spinning. :-)

Hi Mike,
 
MIDI IN messages won't get to the OUT unless the keyboard offers an option to have the OUT work as a THRU, in which case messages from the IN should be merged with the messages from the keyboard as you desire.
 
So long as you don't ever use the keyboard's own sound module, (which I gather you don't if the IN is currently available for a pedal board) this should be okay. Otherwise you'd have to take care to use Local Control to play th onboard sounds, and never Input Echo back to the keyboard.
 
But this all assumes that the OUT can be configured as a THRU, which is not a super common feature on keyboards. Using the THRU would present the opposite problem that the messages from the keyboard won't appear there.
 
You could work around this by using two MIDI IN ports (maybe using USB for one or both) and having two MIDI tracks in SONAR - one to echo the notes from the keyboard and one to echo the pedal messages from the pedal board. But then you'd have to record both tracks, and you'd have related mute/solo awkwardness, etc.
 
I can imagine other Rube Goldberg solutions, but if the keyboard doesn't offer OUT=THRU, I would probably suggest you get a hardware MIDI merger (or multiport MIDI interface with firmware merging capability) and be done with it, assuming the pedal board itself doesn't offer this option where it has an IN for the keyboard and an OUT/THRU that can merge the data streams.
 
Cheers,
Dave
 
 

Thanks very much Dave,
 I can see where this is going, and now that you all have got me thinking about sending the pedal info directly, the idea of merging the keyboard and the pedal down stream makes good sense to me. Additionally, I am realizing that I already have merge capability on my MOTO MIDI Express so I am a lot further along than I would have had thought.
 
 Thanks very much everyone!
 
 best regards,
mike

In most cases a midi in is only designed to play the internal sound engine.
 
In many devices there is a midi thru that passes what appears at the input. In some cases you can define whether the midi out functions as an out or a thru. In some cases you can set things so that the out merges the in with the output, which sounds like what you want to do.
 
How does your device connect to your DAW, midi (what midi interface?) or does it have its own built in USB midi interface?

mike_mccue
Additionally, I am realizing that I already have merge capability on my MOTO MIDI Express so I am a lot further along than I would have had thought.

Yeah, I thought I recalled that you had a MIDI Express. That would be the best solution.
 
Incidentally, Johnny was mistaken in suggesting you can't echo two MIDI inputs to a soft synth. You can assign as many MIDI tracks as you want to a soft synth; you just can't make them all into a Simple  Instrument.