Roland FD8 not functioning on reset or firmware upgrade

[kurtus420]

No worries man, I definitely don't want you to jeopardize your settings but if you could remember to check next update that would be awsome. Hope your jam goes great!!

Hey gabriel1712, how does your hihat pedal funtion if you do a right key default reset or if you update your firmware? Still works? Thanks man.

I'll check the next time it comes natural to do either. I have a demanding jam coming up shortly and so I dare not 'provoke' my current setup.

[macca2004]

I'm not at home so I can't remember exactly which fw is installed on my megadrum or the level settings. I think my FD8 setting is something like 60-320 or thereabouts.

Have you tried changing the Altin setting as well as the physical switch? The default is no for low impedance pedals but you could try the opposite for effect.

Also you could adjust the highlevel downwards until the spurious message disappear then adjust your Openlvl setting to define when your pedal is transmitting fully open messages to the VST software.

The chart below demonstrates how messages are sent for the default megadrum settings.

Kurtus...I haven't ignored your PM i'm just sooooo busy at work at the moment.

[kurtus420]

Thanks for pointing this out like this for me, it is easier for me to see now how this should be mapped. If I set my hi level above 160 I start to send anonamous midi signals which I need to monitor in midi ox to see what signal is being sent. I'm not at home either till a little later then I'm going to mess with it some more to see what I can figure out. It seems to me that if I change it to alternate in yes I get no-op or if I switch to Hi impedance I get no operation. Do you remember if you had a working pedal the moment that you installed your firmware without making any config changes? Thanks for the update on my pm as well!! Do you mind giving me your pedal settings in detail at some point when you have a moment?
Thanks, Kurt.

[kurtus420]

Hey macca2004, do you have your all gains low set to yes?

[Red]

I've got this same pedal and I just cannot get it to work. I've played for hours and done tons of research on this site but have had no luck.

If I monitor the pedal from MIDI-OX or from MCT then I am able to get at least a small reaction from the pedal, but no matter what I set all the settings to it always gives only a very small change, and that is when I push the pedal down to around 98%. Everywhere else I get nothing.

Example settings:

(All Gains Low : Yes)
Type : F.Control
Reverse Levels : Yes <- Doesn't work if this is "No"
Curve : Custom 2 (default) <- Tried many variations
Alt In : Yes
Auto Levels : No
Low : 11 <- Tried many variations
High : 183 <- Tried many variations
Open : 8
Closed : 100
Short : 115
Long : 16

The above results in the pedal sitting at 30. If I press the pedal then at around 98% it jumps around between 30 and 31 and then when I release the pedal then nothing.

@Dmitri: On the 32 Inputs board there are 3 jumper pin sections. One is Pedal impedance, one is Pedal Polarity... but the third one is unlabeled.
Pedal Polarity : I put a jumper on pins 2 and 3 else nothing works.
Pedal Impedance : This makes no difference so far. I keep a jumper on pins 1 and 2 though (as recommended in this thread).
Am I doing this wrong?

Can one of you that have this same pedal please list all your settings or give some advice?

[dmitri]

I've got this same pedal and I just cannot get it to work. I've played for hours and done tons of research on this site but have had no luck.

If I monitor the pedal from MIDI-OX or from MCT then I am able to get at least a small reaction from the pedal, but no matter what I set all the settings to it always gives only a very small change, and that is when I push the pedal down to around 98%. Everywhere else I get nothing.

Example settings:

(All Gains Low : Yes)
Type : F.Control
Reverse Levels : Yes <- Doesn't work if this is "No"
Curve : Custom 2 (default) <- Tried many variations
Alt In : Yes
Auto Levels : No
Low : 11 <- Tried many variations
High : 183 <- Tried many variations
Open : 8
Closed : 100
Short : 115
Long : 16

The above results in the pedal sitting at 30. If I press the pedal then at around 98% it jumps around between 30 and 31 and then when I release the pedal then nothing.

@Dmitri: On the 32 Inputs board there are 3 jumper pin sections. One is Pedal impedance, one is Pedal Polarity... but the third one is unlabeled.
Pedal Polarity : I put a jumper on pins 2 and 3 else nothing works.
Pedal Impedance : This makes no difference so far. I keep a jumper on pins 1 and 2 though (as recommended in this thread).
Am I doing this wrong?

About the jumper placing on the Synthex's board you should really ask Synthex.
Pedal polarity selection jumper is to choose if the output from the pedal is on the tip or the ring of the jack.
Pedal impedance selection jumper is to choose if the pedal is low impedance (<~20k) or high impedance. if you set it to high impedance you also must set AltIn to Yes.

[Red]

Pedal polarity selection jumper is to choose if the output from the pedal is on the tip or the ring of the jack.
Pedal impedance selection jumper is to choose if the pedal is low impedance (<~20k) or high impedance. if you set it to high impedance you also must set AltIn to Yes.

Very useful, thanks.

Now if one of the other guys with this same pedal can give me some advice to get it to work properly.

[macca2004]

I've got this same pedal and I just cannot get it to work. I've played for hours and done tons of research on this site but have had no luck.

If I monitor the pedal from MIDI-OX or from MCT then I am able to get at least a small reaction from the pedal, but no matter what I set all the settings to it always gives only a very small change, and that is when I push the pedal down to around 98%. Everywhere else I get nothing.

Example settings:

(All Gains Low : Yes)
Type : F.Control
Reverse Levels : Yes <- Doesn't work if this is "No"
Curve : Custom 2 (default) <- Tried many variations
Alt In : Yes
Auto Levels : No
Low : 11 <- Tried many variations
High : 183 <- Tried many variations
Open : 8
Closed : 100
Short : 115
Long : 16

The above results in the pedal sitting at 30. If I press the pedal then at around 98% it jumps around between 30 and 31 and then when I release the pedal then nothing.

@Dmitri: On the 32 Inputs board there are 3 jumper pin sections. One is Pedal impedance, one is Pedal Polarity... but the third one is unlabeled.
Pedal Polarity : I put a jumper on pins 2 and 3 else nothing works.
Pedal Impedance : This makes no difference so far. I keep a jumper on pins 1 and 2 though (as recommended in this thread).
Am I doing this wrong?

Can one of you that have this same pedal please list all your settings or give some advice?

Red,

Try moving your curve onto Linear rather than Custom. On older firmware the curves were all zeroed whereas later firmwares populated them with typical settings. Should work fine on linear anyway.

Set autolevels and press down on the pedal a few times. Then switch autolevels to "No"

Make sure you are using a stereo TRS cable.

At this stage open/closed/long/short settings only determine which midi note number is sent for a specific pedal position. You need to get your pedal low/high settings correct first before worring about these settings.

Other than that there is no reason that your pedal isn't working so you might need to start looking for a hardware fault.