is buying and configuring a sostenuto pedal worth it?

[miden]

Just wondering if other folks here have used them on stage pianos and synths, and what their experiences were.

[timwat]

Just so we're using the same terms, on a 3-pedal piano from left to right:

 

Left: Una Corda (soft)

Middle: Sostenuto

Right: Damper (sustain)

 

And so you're talking about sustaining only those notes that are held down whilst depressing the Sostenuto.

 

I've never really used sostenuto in my piano playing, as I didn't encounter in during my classical music training (only took 8-9 years of private instruction as a kid), and only have one keyboard with a three-pedal unit (PX-S3000). On that piano, I use the Una Corda (soft) pedal a lot, in comping. Releasing it for solo work seems to provide usable contrast in timbre and dynamics, given the compromises we're already making using a DP to begin with.

[CEB]

Depends on the player and their repertoire. I use it because I play Grieg"s Lyric pieces and some of the pieces call for sostenuto. It could cool on a synth for pedal tones combined with two handed parallel lead lines.

[Tom Williams]

I use the sostenuto pedal all the time, and not just for piano sounds. As CEB said, it's cool for holding pedal tones -- or even chords -- while I do something else on that keyboard or another. I'll often set up a pedal point on my Privia with the sostenuto, then play varying chords on it while I noodle leads on another keyboard -- next best thing to having a pipe organ with pedals.

 

I also program alternate controller behaviors with the sostenuto. On a guitar patch, f'rinstance, I let the sostenuto sustain whatever keys are down -- but while it's down, subsequent keys trigger an octave harmonic (think intro to Roundabout). Kurzweil did something similar with some of their orchestral string + wind patches, in which you could both sustain the strings and switch subsequent notes to just (unsustained, thus non-muddy) woodwinds.

[mate stubb]

I used to program one of my Chroma pedals to Latch mode when the patch needed it - similar...

[Dr Mike Metlay]

Some plug-ins can make very good use of sostenuto in a way that's not overbearing. Finding good triple pedals (including the ability to half-pedal on the damper) that aren't dedicated to a particular piano seems to be a bit of a hassle -- are there any good generic ones out there?

 

I am actually looking at getting two 2-pedal units and combining them into a 4-pedal array; Modartt Pianoteq supports all three standard pedals plus a fourth one called the Harmonic Pedal, which is best described as a sort of cross between the damper and sostenuto - when you press it down, all dampers are raised, but playing a note drops the damper while allowing all other strings to ring in sympathetic resonance. The one place I know of where this is offered on a real live piano is the Feurich Pédale Harmonique.

 

I find the Harmonic Pedal fabulously musical! When I have a limited number of available pedals, I quickly sacrifice the una corda and sometimes even the sostenuto in order to keep it. Most of my handmade software controllers in MIDI Designer offer a bank of four buttons for momentary and toggled use of all four -- I have them right under the pitch and modulation sliders at all times. Can't live without them! (By the way, on Pianoteq the default CC for that pedal is 69, and it's the second from the left, leaving the una corda where it sits naturally under the foot.)

 

This fourth pedal and its intent stand in sharp contrast to the other and perhaps better known fourth pedal, the "half-blow" pedal on the Fazioli F308, which lowers the hammer travel for a softer tone. It's offered as an alternative tonality to the una corda pedal... something I find a bit ironic, since the half-blow mechanism was popularized in cheap uprights because it was a cheaper way to put softer dynamics into pianos without actually shifting the action.

 

Sorry, I'll shut up now.

[miden]

Thanks for the replies. Yes I want to use it more for being able to sustain an underlying chord while doing some impro. With just the sustain pedal, it CAN get a bit "dense" haha!

[felis]

I use it a lot. For certain things it's almost a replacement for release velocity.