CV-Midi conversion...

[Prime Mover]

Hello, I have an old Alesis QS8.1 keyboard. For some reason, it no longer interprets voltage from external continuous controller pedals correctly, and I have a lot of live material that uses wahs and things like that. For a workaround, I was wondering if there are any simple units that have a voltage in (1/4" jack) and translate that into MIDI continuous controller data. Of course, to work correctly, it would have to send MIDI data omni, so all channels can react to it.

[James Steele]

Hello, I have an old Alesis QS8.1 keyboard. For some reason, it no longer interprets voltage from external continuous controller pedals correctly, and I have a lot of live material that uses wahs and things like that. For a workaround, I was wondering if there are any simple units that have a voltage in (1/4" jack) and translate that into MIDI continuous controller data. Of course, to work correctly, it would have to send MIDI data omni, so all channels can react to it.

I really don't know. Forgive me if I'm wasting your time, but if you have a MOTU firewire interface, is there anyway something like this might be useful to you:

http://www.motu.com/products/software/volta

[bkshepard]

Would something like this work?

[James Steele]

Would something like this work?

Wow... that looks kinda cool, huh? I'm glad we have so many smart people on this board!

[bkshepard]

You know, I've gotten so much great advice and help on this board, I always feel a bit humbled. It's nice to be able to contribute something helpful now and then.

I've been a fan of the MIDI Solutions interfaces for some time. They come in really handy when you need something like a simple footswitch trigger, but don't want to lug around an entire synth just to have a MIDI pedal.

[Prime Mover]

Yes, that might just work. The only question is whether it can be set to send on ALL MIDI channels (omni). They actually have another pedal here http://www.midisolutions.com/proddfs.htm, which is a two-pedal version of the original, and that the documentation DOES state that it can send on all MIDI channels. I suspect that the 1-pedal converter does the same, it's just not explicitely documented (I can contact them).

But these things don't run cheap, at $150 for the single-pedal version, and the price unlisted for the dual-pedal version, it seems kind of overblown. This is exactly what I'm looking for, though. I would just have thought that there'd be a lot more options to choose from out there. Especially with all the MIDI keyboards out there that don't have Voltage Controller inputs.

[bkshepard]

Yeah, they're not cheap. Another possibility is if you Google CV to MIDI Converter, you'll get a whole bunch of DIY project diagrams and instructions in addition to the commercial products. If you've got the electronics chops, that might be a less expensive solution for you.