New Keyboard Controller with polyphonic aftertouch

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braincell
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Post by braincell »

The problem is that most synthesizers don't support it. Why should they when almost nobody has it?
dawman
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Post by dawman »

I agree w/ Brotha' Man Braincell on this matter 4 sure.

But things will surely look good w/ Gigastudio 4 this Christmas. And also John Bowens synths might, though I am not sure, I will get back to you on that one.

But at the AES a forum member from here demo'd the new Pedal Steel Library and I believe that PAT is still a feature. If that's the case this will be a killer library to use w/ that controller. Imagine bending certain notes only while sustaining the ones still held !! I kinda had this happening years ago on an Ensoniq but the sound was quite lame.

These are the big sellers for the future IMO. Guys like me will never stop playing gigs. So I got all kinds of time to perfect some great performance features in PAT with these kind os applications.

I will see about which synths this could be used with that are currently available.
johnbowen
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Post by johnbowen »

My 2 cents - when we developed the T-8 at Sequential, I had my first experience with really learning how to play poly aftertouch (sure, I had tried it when the CS-80 came out, and loved it on that, but that was only for a few minutes at the tradeshow). To me, it was such a great feature to have - so very expressive and so on, to be able to individually add nuance to each note....just wonderful!
As I traveled around, doing demos of the T-8 and talking to many musicians, I started to get another kind of feedback, however. I heard that it was too hard for some keyboardists to adjust or learn the technique, especially since most were coming from a piano or organ background, where they didn't have any other control over expression other than velocity (and if they had aftertouch, it was a new technique they had learned, as 'mono aftertouch'). This was hard to believe for me, because I found the Poly AT so great, but I guess it was true, because I heard it often. The other thing was that it was very expensive to produce the T-8 because of the Poly AT keyboard. At that time, we had to adjust each of the 76 key's aftertouch response individually, using a special gauge to measure it (and also checking the velocity sensors, which was something else again), so the labor costs for the T-8 made it high. (As well, the long-throw, fully wooden key assembly wasn't cheap!). Great keyboard to play, though.

And now, 20+ years has past, and how many Poly AT boards are out there? Every once in a while we see one surface, but they are few and far between. The reality is that the expense in producing one (especially a really good feeling, responsive one) must be not worth it for most companies, and this has been true now for over 20 years....and I don't see it changing, as much as I would love to see it happen.

By the way - many synthesizers do support poly aftertouch, as far as I know. You can check in the MIDI implementation and find that the receiving of Poly AT is handled...it's just what you can do with it in the synth, etc. that may not be fully defined.

As for Solaris - I would truly love to have a Poly AT keybed to put in there. It would make it just that much better, but...and I've already said this elsewhere...I do not have an affordable source of such a keyboard. The Solaris will already be expensive enough (especially with the cost revisions I'm going over this week!), and adding much more won't be possible. If you want to buy a VAX 77 and use it as a controller for Solaris, I would love to support Poly AT, but it's also true I won't have any way to really test it. At least, let me ask the engineers if there's any problem with supporting it, and I will make a definitive statement when I find out. I would guess all we'd need to do is add Poly AT to the standard Mod Source list, and you'd have both types of AT in there.

cheers,
John B.
dawman
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Post by dawman »

Thanks JB,
I think it would be nice to implement, but I was more interested in it's uses for sample libraries, but it could be a great bonus for Solaris, but hardly a critical selling point.
I believe they are still unsure of it's design and marketability.
It would have been nice, but they have lost my interest.
Fuck it, I have 8 pedals to use w/ MIDI CC's, and a ribbon controller, I'll just bend the sampled strings w/ those. Either way it'll work.
Last edited by dawman on Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
pseudojazzer
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Re: New Keyboard Controller with polyphonic aftertouch

Post by pseudojazzer »

4 Jimmy - i remember how excited you were about his and just saw this:

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2009/01/ ... -keyboard/
:D
Enjoy!

peace
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Zer
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Re: New Keyboard Controller with polyphonic aftertouch

Post by Zer »

pseudojazzer wrote:4 Jimmy - i remember how excited you were about his and just saw this:

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2009/01/ ... -keyboard/
:D
Enjoy!

peace
oh - eine Klapphupe. Sorry - I don`t know if there`s an english expression for that. ;)
"Heaven is there where hell is and heaven is not on earth!"
johnbowen
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Re: New Keyboard Controller with polyphonic aftertouch

Post by johnbowen »

The real problem with this product (and I know several others who will agree)...the feel of the keyboard was too light, even with their 'heaviest' option.
(The only other thing was the magnesium - I had an engineering friend offer the comment, "it would be interesting to see what happens in a fire with all that Magnesium.")

-john b.
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braincell
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Re: New Keyboard Controller with polyphonic aftertouch

Post by braincell »

I tried poly aftertouch once and I love it. To me it is easier than mono aftertouch if you hold your hands down. I considered the Roland A8 keyboard controller but it was such a horrible feeling controller that I could not justify spending $400 on it just for that feature. Maybe I should have.
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