I have a Yamaha sustain pedal. If I plug it in before turning on the synth, it has no effect. If I plug it in after the synth is already on, then the “HOLD” buttons both engage and stay stuck on until I turn off the synth.
Maybe my pedal is not compatible somehow?
Sounds like it’s being detected.
Plug it in to the sustain pedal port, taking care not to press it. Then power on the synth. It should then detect the polarity, using the current state as the “off” position.
If it’s like other synths, you probably need to have the amp (and possibly filter) envelope sustain stage set to a non-zero value in order to hear any effect as I believe it holds the sustain stage of the envelope (same as holding down a key).
I tried messing with the sustain levels on my envelopes. Didn’t seem to help. I assumed that the sustain pedal should be controlling the “HOLD” signals (there are buttons that do this too).
What kind of cable are you using? TS or TRS?
Does the pedal function correctly on other synths?
It’s a TRS cable. Yamaha FC3. It works on my Yamaha CP-33 stage piano.
My guess is that it needs a pedal with a TS cable. TRS on a single pedal is for the sustain pedals that are capable of continuous values (for half-pedalling piano techniques) like the FC3 is; those with TS are just the simple on/off type.
The SG sustain pedal accommodates a single or dual pedal on the sustain socket, so I’d guess that TRS cable would be for a dual pedal and TS for a single pedal, where only the simple on/off pedal type is supported in both cases.
Does your pedal have a mode switch to disable continuous pedalling? If so, try that.