What Does a Foot Pedal Do on a Keyboard?

The Pedal Three is a foot switch: three ribbed pedals on a curved steel basewith a captive USB cable. Plugged into a computer it does exactly one thing, it sends a keystrokewhen you press it. That is the short answer, but the question usually arrives with two differentkeyboards in mind, so it is worth separating them first.

Do you mean a music keyboard or a computer keyboard?

On an electronic piano or a synth, the pedal is part of the instrument. The common one is asustain pedal: hold it down and notes keep ringing after your fingers leave the keys. It plugsinto a socket on the instrument, and the instrument decides what it means.

A computer keyboard has no pedal socket, so here a foot pedal is not part of the keyboard atall. It is a separate USB device that the computer sees as a second keyboard. Whatever key it isset to send arrives exactly as if you had typed it, and nothing about your existing keyboardchanges.

What does a USB foot pedal actually send?

A key, a modifier, or a short combination. You program it once with the utility supplied forit, and after that it repeats the same thing forever. Most pedals are momentary switches: pressto send, release to stop. That is the behaviour you want for anything you hold rather than tap,which is why push to talk is the most common binding of all.

There is no driver left running afterwards and no software layer between the pedal and theapplication in front of you. A foot switch is a simple mechanical object with a lead on it. Thatis its main virtue and also the ceiling on what it can ever do.

What do people bind them to?

Transcription is the oldest use and still the largest. Typists have been starting, pausing andrewinding audio with a foot for decades, and the same logic carries straight over to dictation:put your push to talk key under a pedal and you can talk while both hands stay on the keys.

After that it is holding a modifier, accepting or rejecting what an assistant just proposed,muting a call, or firing a macro you keep fumbling. The rule of thumb is that feet are good atthings you hold or repeat and bad at things that need accuracy, so nothing precise orirreversible should live down there.

Is one pedal enough, or do I need three?

One covers hold to talk and nothing else. Three covers a small loop: talk, yes, no.Pedal Three at $69 puts its pedals close together on a curvedbase. Pedal Four at $85 is a wide flat plate with four pedals ina row and more space between them, which matters if you use it in socks or want to find theouter pedals without looking down.

What will a foot pedal not do?

It cannot tell you anything. A pedal is an input, so it has no way to report that a buildfinished or that an agent is waiting on you. It cannot type text beyond the keys you assigned.And it will not help with anything you do once an hour, because the whole gain comes fromrepetition.

If you are weighing the floor against the desk, ourmacropad versus foot pedal comparisonputs the two next to each other.