Guitar Effects with Sustain Pedal.

[Kev Lambert]

I'm trying to play my guitar and use my sustain pedal for effects, but I'm having trouble setting it up.  Is it even possible?  I tried Chatgpt, but it led me to a dead end.
I just want to use my sustain from my keyboard controller as a footswitch for effects on my guitar, which is plugged into my Scarlett 2i2

[Kev Lambert]

Maybe I should clarify, my sustain pedal is going to my keyboard controller.

[reginaldStjohn]

If your keyboard controller sustain pedal produces a midi message then you should be able to, on many VSTs, right click on the button you want to control and it will have a "midi learn"  function you click. Then you step on your sutain pedal and the button will be assigned your sustain pedal midi message as its control.

However, a sustain pedal only produces on and off states so all you can really do is have something turn on when you are stepping on it an off when the pedal is off.

Edited May 1 by reginaldStjohn

[Amberwolf]

Some effects, like the Lexicon (somethingorothermodel) I've got in the rack, have a footswitch input that can be used directly with a pedal like a sustain pedal.  On mine it's a TRS plug, and supports two switches for controlling different things (it comes with a dual switch), but a single switch like a sustain pedal can be used. 

 

Some effects, like the Digitech (somethingorothermodel) a friend of mine used to use for onstage effects, had a footswitch input *and* a "CV" input, which is for a pedal that has a potentiometer in it that allows variable control of something.  On most keyboards that's volume by default, but is often programmable in the keybaord (or sound module) for different things; same for effects boxes that support CV (expression) pedals.  

 

Random article from google search on "CV pedal"

https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/expression-pedal-cv

 

 

[Promidi]

Can you please confirm.  Does your sustain pedal switch between two discreet values (o and 127) or is it an expression pedal - one that produces many values between 0 to 127 as you depress the pedal?

To get the sustain pedal to control an effect that is on the effect rack of an audio track (or Simple instrument Track), you need to do the following:

· On the Guitar effect (I am assuming VST effects here), enable “Enable MIDI input” (On the VST windows toolbar. If this setting is greyed out this choose a VST effect where the “Enable MIDI input” is not greyed out)
.  Create a separate MIDI track that has its MIDI input set to the keyboard controller that has the sustain pedal attached.  Make sure input echo is enabled. Move or press the sustain pedal to confirm MIDI activity. 
·  On that separate MIDI track, set its MIDI input to the Guitar effect where you enabled “Enable MIDI input” in the first step.  The effect will appear on the drop down list.
· Open up the GUI of the Guitar effect and, with its learn feature active on the parameter you want the sustain to change (method depends on effect), Move or press the sustain pedal.
· This should create a mapping from the sustain pedal to the respective parameter.

Now when you move or press the sustain pedal, the parameter you mapped above should change.

Once you have confirmed that all this is working, save as a Track Template.