You guessed right. The damper pedal is an on/off switch that plugs into the back of the piano.
I don't think there's any doubt that the Yamaha P85 is a midi keyboard, probably one of the most common piano keyboards around. Google it. You'll find many references including the owners manual that includes midi technical info in the appendix.
I don't understand why you feel it strange that damper pedal events need to "feedback" into the keyboard. The damper is a crucial part of a piano performance. However now that you mention it, it does seem that the pedal should be on its own channel. I mean, if I record the left hand on one track and the right hand on another track should the damper pedal be recorded on both tracks? That wouldn't make sense. It raises a question I haven't even considered. That is, Is it possible for one instrument to play the output of multiple tracks at the same time? Wow, this blows my mind. Maybe it's not possible to do what I'm trying to do.
My understanding is that in a midi recording setup each instrument has it's own track. But what happens when you have two tracks that use the same instrument. Should that be an error? Qtractor doesn't prevent it. I'm very interested to hear what you have to say about that.
Finally, regarding channel numbers. When creating a midi track in Qtractor what does the channel setting do? Qtractor recognizes my keyboard no matter what input channel setting I specify. I don't even know what channel my keyboard is using. But it doesn't seem to matter. Qtractor recognizes it anyway. Also, what's the "Omni" checkbox for? I assumed that means the track should accept input from all channels. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether that box is checked or not.
You guessed right. The damper pedal is an on/off switch that plugs into the back of the piano.
I don't think there's any doubt that the Yamaha P85 is a midi keyboard, probably one of the most common piano keyboards around. Google it. You'll find many references including the owners manual that includes midi technical info in the appendix.
I don't understand why you feel it strange that damper pedal events need to "feedback" into the keyboard. The damper is a crucial part of a piano performance. However now that you mention it, it does seem that the pedal should be on its own channel. I mean, if I record the left hand on one track and the right hand on another track should the damper pedal be recorded on both tracks? That wouldn't make sense. It raises a question I haven't even considered. That is, Is it possible for one instrument to play the output of multiple tracks at the same time? Wow, this blows my mind. Maybe it's not possible to do what I'm trying to do.
My understanding is that in a midi recording setup each instrument has it's own track. But what happens when you have two tracks that use the same instrument. Should that be an error? Qtractor doesn't prevent it. I'm very interested to hear what you have to say about that.
Finally, regarding channel numbers. When creating a midi track in Qtractor what does the channel setting do? Qtractor recognizes my keyboard no matter what input channel setting I specify. I don't even know what channel my keyboard is using. But it doesn't seem to matter. Qtractor recognizes it anyway. Also, what's the "Omni" checkbox for? I assumed that means the track should accept input from all channels. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether that box is checked or not.
Thanks again for your time and consideration.