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Hi Everyone,
I have a question for experienced MIDI users and engineers. I started building an arduino MIDI controller that is currently controlling two connected Keyboards "B" & "C" where I can make changes on the third keyboard "A" such as (transpose and scale change, pitch bend, ribbon and modulations) I did that with great success and many hours of programming and thanks to Chatgpt and KIMI K2 (was amazing).
One of the MIDI ports I have built I want to use as the following:
I want to have an ON/OFF foot switch to where when I press it, the Keyboard A will pass Notes ON/OFF to a fourth sound box "D", and at the same time send a signal back to keyboard "A" to lower the volume for the Upper 1, 2, 3 (Channels 1,2,3) to volume 1.
Also when I remove my foot off the pedal I want to turn off passing the MIDI notes to the fourth sound box "D" but (and here is my problem) I want at the same time to bring back the channels 1,2,3 on keyboard "A" back to the same volume they were in before the initial press down and lowering the volume.
This way I would toggle the sound engines of two devices (keyboard A, and a MIDI sound controller) on the fly with a foot pedal switch. I can easily build the program but my problem is that I don't know how to inform the Arduino of what was the volume of the channels 1,2,3 before they were lowered, so I can have the program fotware to put them back to their initial setting after pulling the foot OFF the pedal. Are there any dump requests that can be done to achieve what I want to do which is to pull the volume value of the channel of the Keyboard A (which is a KORG PA5x)?
By the way KORG did not publish a MIDI implementation chart for the PA5x yet!!
Thanks
Posted : 14/11/2025 7:21 pm
As an alternative, perhaps you might investigate setting the Korg Pa5X to "Local Control Off" mode.
Here are the Korg Pa5X manuals. A MIDI Implementation Chart appears in the "Pa5X/User Manual (English)" PDF file on printed page 1933 (PDF page 1953 of 1956), and various MIDI connections and settings are described in Chapter 23 "MIDI" on printed pages 567 to 618 (PDF pages 587 to 638 of 1956).
The MIDI Implementation Chart shows the Korg Pa5X does not respond to the "Local Control On/Off" MIDI message. But perhaps you can set Local Control off using a menu setting on the Korg Pa5X itself. If so, then once you have set up the Korg Pa5X in "Local Control Off" mode, you might be able to program your Arduino so that pressing the footswitch will toggle between (a) echoing messages back to the Korg Pa5X (echo the messages that are sent from the Korg Pa5X's MIDI OUT port back to its MIDI IN port) and (b) not echoing the messages back.
You might also need to add some extra checks to make sure there aren't any active notes or a sustain pedal pressed down when you switch the messages between the Korg Pa5X and the sound box. If there are, you might want to send appropriate note off and sustain pedal off messages so notes don't remain stuck on.
Posted : 15/11/2025 10:09 am
