Kawai VPC1 intermittent pedal sustain with Pianoteq

RichD88 wrote:

I have a Kawai vpc1 which appears to have an issue when using the sustain pedal with Pianoteq. Occasionally the sustain pedal when fully depressed is showing as up on the Pianoteq interface. This isn’t happening often but is very annoying when it does. I am using the F30 pedal unit which I’m aware has some issues. I am trying to get it replaced under warranty by kawai. If anyone does have a kawai VPC1 can you use a Single sustain pedal with a polarity switch instead of the provided F30 unit that it comes with. Are there any adjustments I can make to the pianoteq pedal settings to help with this issue. Many thanks

well the original f30  pedal made by fatar is terrible . I had at least 3 faulty units . This is why Kawai  engineered their own  pedals , F10H ( single pedal) and RFP3 ( triple) with optical sensors which are the best by far of any other pedals available . Now coming back to your problem , the cheapest solution is to keep the F30 for Una corda and  sustenuto , buy  a Roland DP10 , there is a switch  that configure the pedal either as on/off switch or continuous , use conitinuous , and change the polarity ( is inverted compared to the
original VPC1 pedal) using the tick box ✅ option in pianoteq , by right clicking on the pedal . The Roland pedal is ok’, its a bit noisy in terms of of midi , as it doesn’t filter values when you fully depress the pedal and send a lot of values close to 127 as soon as your foot pressure varies a little bit ) the best technical option is to buy an audiofront midi expression Quattro pedal interface and buy 3 or 4 Kawai F10H optical pedals . They last
forever are extremely sturdy and extremely smooth and precise . Now they need power(3.3V )  to work. The audiofront  accepts these pedals and power them . Having 4 pedals is great with pianoteq as you can have the standard 3 grand piano pedals + thunder , sordino, , harmonic , Mozart rail etc …

RichD88 wrote:

Pianistically wrote:

well the original f30  pedal made by fatar is terrible . I had at least 3 faulty units . This is why Kawai  engineered their own  pedals , F10H ( single pedal) and RFP3 ( triple) with optical sensors which are the best by far of any other pedals available . Now coming back to your problem , the cheapest solution is to keep the F30 for Una corda and  sustenuto , buy  a Roland DP10 , there is a switch  that configure the pedal either as on/off switch or continuous , use conitinuous , and change the polarity ( is inverted compared to the
original VPC1 pedal) using the tick box ✅ option in pianoteq , by right clicking on the pedal . The Roland pedal is ok’, its a bit noisy in terms of of midi , as it doesn’t filter values when you fully depress the pedal and send a lot of values close to 127 as soon as your foot pressure varies a little bit ) the best technical option is to buy an audiofront midi expression Quattro pedal interface and buy 3 or 4 Kawai F10H optical pedals . They last
forever are extremely sturdy and extremely smooth and precise . Now they need power(3.3V )  to work. The audiofront  accepts these pedals and power them . Having 4 pedals is great with pianoteq as you can have the standard 3 grand piano pedals + thunder , sordino, , harmonic , Mozart rail etc …

The idea of keeping the f30 and purchasing a single sustain pedal seems like an economical option. You mention the DP10 pedal from Roland , I have a friend who uses a m-audio sp2 sustain pedal which I believe has a polarity switch. Would this be worth trying as I could borrow it or is the Roland a better option. Would the single pedal be plugged in to the damper/sustenuto jack on the rear panel. Excuse the questions I’m not that technically minded I’m afraid.

the m-audio SP2 is not a good option . It is not a continuous pedal , just an off/on switch .  DP10  and inverting polarity in Pianoteq is the cheapest option that allows you to  do half pedalling. It will be even better than a working FP30 fatar pedal .

RichD88 wrote:

Pianistically wrote:

the m-audio SP2 is not a good option . It is not a continuous pedal , just an off/on switch .  DP10  and inverting polarity in Pianoteq is the cheapest option that allows you to  do half pedalling. It will be even better than a working FP30 fatar pedal .

I will purchase a Roland DP10. Can I confirm that it connects to the damper/sustenuto jack on the VPC1.

it does yes, it is a standard  1/4" pedal , plug it in the damper entry in the VPC1. Invert the polarity in pianoteq and you are good to go . You can still use the soft pedal of your F30 if you leave the jack connected to soft, You will lose sostenuto function as the entry is shared with the sustain . It works well with Pianoteq but many other piano libraries don't give you the possibility to invert the polarity so if we want to use other libraries  you will need    a MIDI USB Adapter such as the Audiofront device to control the pedal at computer level and bypass completely the VPC1 pedal entries. The audio front adapter's software allows you to calibrate the DP-10 and invert the polarity.