From jake92028@yahoo.com Sun Jun 25 05:10:39 2006
Subject:VK8M Rotary On/Off?

I'm trying to set my Roland VK8M module up with my Casio PX '88 piano
that's also playing a Kurz ME1 for piano. Using a MIDI Solutions
Mapper, which they don't make any more, but I still have the simple
program tool for - I can get it to swap cc64 sustain to cc80 rotary
on. Well this is weird because as soon as I turn the VK8M on: Rotary
is on fast all the time, except while stepping down on the sustain
pedal which switches it back to slow only as long as I keep the
pedal depressed. As soon as I let up, it goes back to full speed. So
I took the Roland sustain pedal I was using, opened it up and
switched/resoldered the wires on the internal switch. I felt this
was pretty clever until.. I plugged the polarity-reversed sustain
pedal in and got exactly the same result! (Yes, I checked my
connections again afterward :)

I tried all my sustain pedals, looked in all my old gear bags, no
luck with any of them, same result. What is really strange is I can
plug a 1/4" phone plug patch cord in the sustain socket, then plug
its other end into a female stereo adapter that terminates in a
right and left RCA plug: By touching the tips of the RCA plugs
together I get fast rotary, and when I break that connection I get
slow rotary. Now what could I plug into this crazy socket to get the
same result? ..especially since reversing the polarity on the same
sustain pedal didn't work. That's reaally* weird.

Any tips, suggestions, mad scientist solutions will be gratefully
appreciated. I'd like find out how to switch the rotary on/off from
a sustain type or other simple floor switch, which I've always been
able to do with my other clone gear. This is the way I like it =
step on it to speed up, let up to go back to chorale, since I'm
ramping up and down constantly just like a Hammond/Leslie switch on
its console, flippin' it back and forth all the time. Help!

TIA ~ Walter j