Foot Pedal devices that work for "Foot Out"

Help
1

I would like to find a relatively inexpensive bluetooth foot pedal to use for the ‘Foot out’ function to end a song. I purchased one made by Lekato that doesn’t work with StrumMachine. It seems to work well with text input apps to add a space character or return character. I have a Bluetooth keyboard that works well to implement the ‘Foot out’, so it’s not StrumMachine. Does anyone have experience with a Bluetooth footpedal that works? I’d appreciate hearing.

3 Likes
2
3

Yes, I too would be interested to hear from other users as to what devices they’re using as a foot pedal with Strum Machine (and/or which ones didn’t work). It’d be a good thing to have documented.

The two main foot-pedal brands that I know of are PageFlip (which I have) and AirTurn (like @MauroDanielRossi is using) which are both solid offerings, but a little pricey, closer to the $100 range. Also, the cheapest PageFlip (the Butterfly) cannot be configured to emit a space or enter key, so it’s out of the running.

There’s also the Vidami pedal, which is a cool device from a cool company that I plan to support in the future, but it requires some custom coding that I haven’t gotten around to yet.

Then there are a whole bunch of cheaper devices (mostly on Amazon) which vary in quality and compatibility. And it seems that some of them are advertising themselves to the operating system in an unusual way (i.e. not emulating a normal Bluetooth keyboard) which makes them incompatible with Strum Machine. But I don’t know how you’d be able to figure this out without trying it.

So far, the incompatible devices I know of are:

  • Lekato Page Turner
  • Irfora Cube Turner PRO
  • PageFlip Butterfly (no space/enter emulation)
4

Hi Luke, I am trying to use an PageFlip Butterfly with Strum Machine on my iPhone. No success yet. Do I need to set up custom switches?

5

Well…I think I’ve found my problem. The Butterfly is limited to three options: PageUp/PageDown, Up/Down, and Left/Right commands. Looks like the Dragonfly, Firefly, and newer versions of the Butterfly are reprogrammable. My old version of the Butterfly may be beyond hope.

6

Ah, that’s right… the Butterfly is too limited. I forgot about that. I’ll update my post above.

Note, in 2026 we’ll have customizable keyboard shortcuts, and once we do you should be able to bind the PageUp/PageDown keys to any command, so the Butterfly should be an option then.

7

Hi there, one more mention for foot pedal:

JOYO Wireless Page Turner Bluetooth Music Page Turner Pedal for iPad Tablets Android IOS Phones Keyboard Foot Switches Turner (SP-01)

This is <$30
It pairs functions automatically, but only start/stop a tune works. The other functions - up/down, side to side, scroll etc. do not pair or, if they do, don’t work.

Probably not the pedal’s fault per se, but more of a compatibility issue with command/shortcuts. It cannot be programmed to match the interface.

I am using it with an ancient iPad.

8

Luke I see that the + and - keys will raise and lower the speed by one bpm. Is there a comparable shortcut for the auto finish setting. If so AirTurn can be instructed to execute that shortcut.

9

Hey, Martin!
It was great jamming with you and the others at the Boba Tea Shop.

I have had success assigning a button on my Boss RC-600 to send a MIDI signal to my laptop (CC#01) to press “Space” on my laptop using a software called CoyoteMIDI. This is not a very portable setup, however. It requires either plugging my pedal to my laptop with a MIDI cable or a wireless “WIDI”, which costs $60 by itself. However, there is a better option.

I did some research and found some inexpensive battery-powered MIDI controllers that connect to your phone with Bluetooth. Does your foot pedal look like any of these?
https://imgur.com/a/Pxj41hq

The $29.99 one seems to be the same as the others, just a longer shipping time.

Hopefully, we will have that feature available soon, a “MIDI Learn” feature on all devices, and keyboard shortcuts like Luke has mentioned.

Thank you,
Evan Campagna

10

Thanks Evan. I’ve already ordered the Joyo mentioned earlier. If that doesn’t work, I’ll return it and try the one you listed. Hope to see you in the upcoming Saturday or Tuesday jams.

9/19/2025 - Well, the Joyo arrived and it works for all functions in my iPad text or pdf apps as advertised. However, it DOES NOT work with the ‘foot out’ function in StrumMachine :frowning:

11

Not exactly… although if you go into the top-left menu > Advanced Settings, you’ll see an option for a “Foot out” feature (referenced in the initial post) which changes the spacebar’s function to “put your foot out” to signify that Auto-Finish should end the song at the end of the current rep.

Going to be working on keyboard shortcuts within the next few months, and will be investigating a “MIDI Learn” feature when I do so.

1 Like
12

It appears that the footpedal keyboard input in both of the devices I tried do send out ASCII 32 and 13 characters. Both devices work with my computer and Fire tablet. The problem is with iOS. I used both CoPilot and ChatGPT to go thru the iPad configuration (multiple combinations) without success. This is the summary:
Why StrumMachine Ignores Pedal Input Outside Text Fields on iPadOS

  • iPadOS sandboxes keyboard input unless the web app explicitly listens for global key events.
  • StrumMachine may only be listening for keydown or keypress events when a text input is focused, rather than attaching listeners to the full document or window.
  • On desktop browsers and Android, this isn’t a problem—those platforms pass HID input more freely.
  • On iPadOS, if no input field is active, the OS may suppress or reroute the key event, especially for space and return, which are often reserved for system-level actions (e.g., scrolling or form submission).

If others are having success, it may just be my iPad (10th gen) and or my iOS version 18.5

13

Well the foot out slider in advanced settings didn’t work exactly like I had hoped. I’m using the spacebar command on my AirTurn to start playing and then the other pedal to cause strum machine app to slide off to the right and out of sight. With the foot out slider enabled, when I hit the “play” pedal play starts but the foot out is activated also. Was hoping the song would repeat until I hit the space bar a second time. Would be great if the foot out could be delayed until after a designated number of reps or else have its own keyboard shortcut.

14

My iPad works with my AirTurn pedal. Page turn works right out of box. Wanted to use “slide over” function to start and hide SM. To accomplish this I had to remap globe key to one of the keys that the AirTurn app would recognize.