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PEDAMIDIKIT product experience

Building organ consoles for use with Hauptwerk, adding MIDI to existing consoles, obtaining parts, ...
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brucerosen

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PEDAMIDIKIT product experience

PostThu Jun 10, 2021 8:44 pm

I'm new to Hauptwerk and the VPO world. At the moment, I'm using my digital piano as a MIDI controller for Hauptwerk, and looking at midiworks' piston-less keyboards when they are back in stock. I'm also using JG3 Tech 24 pedalboard, which is fine for getting started (I'm a beginning organist as well), but I clearly need a bigger pedalboard and one more suited for playing classical music. So, I've come across the PEDAMIDIKIT products (https://www.pedamidikit.org/), which seem like an economical way to get a full organ pedalboard.

I'd appreciate any feedback or user experience folks have had with the PEDAMIDIKIT products, i.e., the quality of the products and of working with the vendor.

Thanks very much.

- Bruce Rosen
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larason2

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Re: PEDAMIDIKIT product experience

PostThu Jun 10, 2021 8:48 pm

I haven’t bought any directly, but I’ve seen other users go with them and they appeared to have quite liked them. The price is quite reasonable, but the shipping from Italy may not be! I like the idea of the wood core keyboards, and apparently they use an Arduino based Midi solution that works quite well.
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brucerosen

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Re: PEDAMIDIKIT product experience

PostSat Jun 12, 2021 4:41 pm

Thanks for the reply, @larason2.

After posting here the other day, I did see other users' experience posted here on the forum ... all apparently positive ... and I just got a very positive review from a user on the FB Hauptwerk group. Yes, shipping will be pretty expensive, but the cost of the product is such that it is still fairly economical.

So, I will probably go ahead with an order sometime next month.

Thanks again -

Bruce
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larason2

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Re: PEDAMIDIKIT product experience

PostSat Jun 12, 2021 8:29 pm

No problem! I believe the person who runs pedamidikit apprenticed with a pipe organ builder in Italy. That explains the good quality and the reasonable price! I’d love to get a 3 manual stack from them with wood naturals, but I’ll have to wait a while before I can afford it!
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kaspencer

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Re: PEDAMIDIKIT product experience

PostTue Jun 22, 2021 5:20 pm

I have just noticed this post asking about PedaMidikit.

I have both the 30-note pedalboard with two expression pedals, and also a set of three wood core Baroque style keyboards.
Allessandro Alfieri (I may have mis-spelled his name there, apologies) answers emails quite readily, and is a professional supplier. However, working at such a distance does cause some issues. Here is my account of my experiences.

1. I didn't find the transport to the UK from Italy a problem nor too expensive.

2. Mine parts were custom made to my specification, but there was an unusual pedal spacing between E-F and B-C which was not strictly RCO. (For those elsewhere than the UK, RCO was adopted in the USA in 1905, and there, it became the AGO standard). I didn't send any parts back to have that corrected, although I could have done. The pedalboard is driven by an Arduino Nano controller - a very very low cost option indeed for quite an expensive organ pedalboard!
One comment, in addition to the one about odd key spacing: The pedalboard leads are too short!

3. The keyboard stack looks good although it is not as well made, nor a visually perfect as the Laukhuff keyboards. However unlike the Laukhuff, they do have built in MIDI. This uses an Arduino Mega under the mocoLUFA USB-MIDI system - a very very low-cost system in a keyboard stack that will probably cost you thousands! The keys are a bit noisy, some more so than others. AND they are VERY difficult to adjust, as much dismantling has to be done. I would now pay more and get Laukhuff if I were starting again.
I have 37 illuminated thumb pistons on my keystack. However, a silly error in the software means that most of the LEDs do not have the same MIDI Note Number as their switches, which complicates their setting-up quite a bit. I could have returned the Mega to Italy for re-programming but that would have left me with no organ for a long time probably.
I asked for the source code so I could correct it myself (I have been a C Programmer since 1986 and have built a lot of functions into my console with Arduino controllers) but Alessandro said he couldn't let me have it for various reasons.
Sometime after I have upgraded my organ to HW6 I will re-wire the thumb pistons to hardware-correct the LED<>SWITCH mismatch as I cannot do it in software without the source code.
At the same time I will strip down the keyboards, adjust their keys speech points and silence those noisy keys! Then it will be perfect. Given the cost of the wood keyboards it is a pity that adjustment is so so difficult!

Maybe that helps.

Do a Google search for "KASpencerUK" - my YouTube channel, and go to the first Google item and you can find two video tours of the organ to which my commnets refer: my OPUS II organ.
If you visit my website at my-music.kaspencer.com you will also find details of my Core Component Kit for giving your organ console Automatic Electronic Stop Labelling. I will shortly be working on a kit of components for the control system and TFT displays which you will see in the videos, which that organ OPUS II also uses.

I hope that helps!

Kenneth Spencer
Last edited by kaspencer on Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kenneth Spencer
Music Site: http://www.my-music.mywire.org
Project Page: http://www.my-music.mywire.org/opus_ii.htm
Books on Hauptwerk and Computing; Novation Launchpad overlays: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kaspencer
YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/kaspenceruk
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brucerosen

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Re: PEDAMIDIKIT product experience

PostTue Jun 22, 2021 5:24 pm

Thanks for the detailed response, Kenneth.

- Bruce

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