POn my Mac right-clicking on the pedals does not bring up a choice of 8 pedal parameters. How do I make this work?

You may need to change your Mac OS X System Preference: Mouse settings. Some people do not have their Macs set up to use right-clicking by default.

Philippe Guillaume wrote:

If you right click on any pedal, you will see a menu letting you choose among 8 types pedal, including one called Celeste... did you try it? It inserts a piece of felt between hammers and strings.

Oh wow! That's a hidden gem.. I got a three pedals for my digital piano, and couldn't recreate the sound I always had on my upright..
A question though, can we modify its intensity.. I mean make it more obvious?

Well, it's already quite obvious, isnt it? The pedal is progressive but no, you cannot modify its intensity at its maximum value (that is, when fully depressed).

If you right click on any pedal, you will see a menu letting you choose among 8 types pedal, including one called Celeste... did you try it? It inserts a piece of felt between hammers and strings.

Oh wow! That's a hidden gem.. I got a three pedals for my digital piano, and couldn't recreate the sound I always had on my upright..
A question though, can we modify its intensity.. I mean make it more obvious?

Philippe Guillaume wrote:

If you right click on any pedal, you will see a menu letting you choose among 8 types pedal, including one called Celeste... did you try it? It inserts a piece of felt between hammers and strings.

philippe, thanks, i didn't know about that, that's great! (works fine for me on mac 10.9). also, i did not realize the felt was between hammers and strings, but it does look like it on the photos on that web page. personally, i just remember a similar felt damper strip on my parents' upright which was way too strong in effect and sort of took the fun out of practicing...

I had that on my Kawai KS-3F upright. This was a practice device, made for quasi-silent playing...

Not sure what that means but I held down just the Control key while right clicking and that brought up the pedal menu. Just got it to work only moments ago.

I have a 3 pedal unit and assigned the middle pedal as the Celeste controller. Love the sound! I'm using it with the 1829 Besendorfer. Can't wait to try it on all the other instruments. Finally, the sound is what I am after in the closing measures of Chopin's Nocturne Op. 27, No. 1

Thank you again for your responses and help.

Robert

If you right click on any pedal, you will see a menu letting you choose among 8 types pedal, including one called Celeste... did you try it? It inserts a piece of felt between hammers and strings.

philippe, thanks, i didn't know about that, that's great! (works fine for me on mac 10.9). also, i did not realize the felt was between hammers and strings, but it does look like it on the photos on that web page. personally, i just remember a similar felt damper strip on my parents' upright which was way too strong in effect and sort of took the fun out of practicing...

Gilles,

Thank you for your response. My system is the same, 10.9.4 and a magic mouse.  When I right click nothing pops up. Are you holding down any keys like control + command?

Robert

No just right-click. Did you invert the right-left secondary click by any chance in mouse properties?
(Not sure if this is the english terminology, my system is in french.)

Thank you for your response. My system is the same, 10.9.4 and a magic mouse.  When I right click nothing pops up. Are you holding down any keys like control + command?

Robert

Philippe,

On my Mac right-clicking on the pedals does not bring up a choice of 8 pedal parameters. How do I make this work? I would like to try the celeste pedal parameter on some of the Kremsegg instruments.

Thanks!

Robert

Strange, it works perfectly for me (OSX 10.9.4 with a "magic mouse"). Be sure to click on each pedal and not on the background.

On my Mac right-clicking on the pedals does not bring up a choice of 8 pedal parameters. How do I make this work? I would like to try the celeste pedal parameter on some of the Kremsegg instruments.

Thanks!

Robert

I just stumbled upon this: http://www.juramargulis.com/msp.php

It's an endeavor to revive the sordino pedal which makes a soft felt strip slightly touch the strings to produce a soft tone with a unique timbre. For example on that website, the Moment Musicaux op. 94 Nr. 2 at around 1:40 nicely demonstrates it. It was apparently widespread up to the 1850s.

Sounds like an ideal target for a physical model to me ;-) At the moment we have 4 pedals. Clearly 5 is better than 4. Hint, hint... Also, it's quite lovely sounding.

If you right click on any pedal, you will see a menu letting you choose among 8 types pedal, including one called Celeste... did you try it? It inserts a piece of felt between hammers and strings.

That said, the moderator was a common feature of fortepianos, that's true. Though as far as I know it more often than not was not a 'pedal', or even a knee lever: it had to be operated by hand. Apart from that, history does not seem to be the strongest suit of Mr Margulis anyway, and especially a pianist should in my opinion know anyhow that e.g. the instruction 'sempre pp e senza sordini' as found in the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata does not mean the moderator. The whole technical description is also... misleading, to put it mildly. A moderator usually should not permanently touch the strings, because if it did, this would not just result in a 'softer tone' but rather in a very short tone...

Because the moderator is traditionally not a 'pedal', at least as far as I know, its usage is a decision usually made for the whole piece, not just for a few bars or even single notes. And a quite similar effect can be reached by changing the piano's voicing, e.g. by softening the hammers, which is a feature Pianoteq already offers.

It's an endeavor to revive the sordino pedal which makes a soft felt strip slightly touch the strings to produce a soft tone with a unique timbre. For example on that website, the Moment Musicaux op. 94 Nr. 2 at around 1:40 nicely demonstrates it. It was apparently widespread up to the 1850s.

Sounds like an ideal target for a physical model to me ;-) At the moment we have 4 pedals. Clearly 5 is better than 4. Hint, hint... Also, it's quite lovely sounding.