I just got a new Yamaha MO 8. I have an Mgear pedal that I’ve been using for a while now with my other instruments. When I plug it into my Yamaha MO8, it sustains all the time. That’s an easy fix; I switch the polarity and it works fine for a minute or so.

After about minute of playing, it randomly stops sustaining. It just flat out doesn’t work for about 10~20 seconds.

Everything seems to be fine if I keep it in the wrong polarity. It will sustain notes when the pedal is not depressed and stop sustaining when the pedal is depressed (i.e. it works in reverse, as expected, but it never stops working altogether). But when I put it in the correct polarity, it only works the way it should for a short amount of time, after which it just doesn’t work at all whatsoever for 20 seconds.

I’ve tested this on my other pianos and the pedal works just fine on the other two. It’s only on the Yamaha where I have any problems.

It’s the only pedal I have so far. I will have two more in about a week, but I need to use the Yamaha this weekend, so I was wondering if there was a way to get this one to work.

Yamaha recommends the Yamaha FC4 for your MO6/MO8.

You should contact the maker of that pedal if they advertise that it will work with Yamaha keyboards - do they make that claim? Not sure what to tell you to make that pedal work beyond that. It is typically just a matter of the polarity as the MO6/MO8 just require a momentary foot switch - if your pedal is supposed to be able to switch polarity and it only works temporarily, that sounds like a problem with the pedal.

Obviously the Yamaha polarity is the opposite of your other keyboard, check that the switch is working properly. The thing about all foot pedals is they tend to get kicked around - nature of their fate being on the floor and all…

Let us know.

After some testing on multiple Yamahas, I was able to determine that this problem with the Mgear pedal happens with any Yamaha MO and Motif. So for whatever reason, Mgear pedals are not compatible with these types of Yamahas (but the Mgear pedal works just fine on some other yamaha keyboards and digital pianos).

I was able to borrow some money to buy a new pedal today, which is a Yamaha FC4. This solved the problem; my MO8 works perfectly fine with the Yamaha FC4 pedal.

I have two M-Audio SP-2 Sustain Pedals which I use for a variety of my keyboards; Yamaha/Roland/Korg, etc, with no problems at all.

At £20 retail the M-Audio SP2 is an excellent alternative to the more expensive £35 retail Yamaha FC-4 Sustain Pedal, and is of excellent quality.
They both work exactly the same, with selectable polarity.

M-Audio SP2

I prefer the rounded end to the pedal, the same as a real Piano (The FC-4 has a squared-off tip)!

Paul...MO6 + MM6.

I have a Korg DS1H pedal which I have been using with my Trinity Pro, I tried using it on my new Motif XF8 WH, when you plug it into the sustain port and step on it doesn’t work....you pull out the jack and put it partially in it starts to sustain without control, any help on this?

Fiyin - 22 October 2014 06:09 PM

I have a Korg DS1H pedal which I have been using with my Trinity Pro, I tried using it on my new Motif XF8 WH, when you plug it into the sustain port and step on it doesn’t work....you pull out the jack and put it partially in it starts to sustain without control, any help on this?

The Korg DS1H has the wrong switch polarity (it’s normally open, while Yamaha requires normally closed), as well as the wrong plug (TRS versus TS of the Yamaha). I’d suggest that you get a Yamaha pedal, or at least one that’s compatible.

By the way, please post future XF-related questions in the Motif XF forum:
http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/index.php/viewforum/161/