Using aftertouch readings to "augment" high velocity performance

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I just had an interesting idea, if I was a business person, I probably should patent it first instead of throwing it out to the web, but whatever.

I've noticed that one thing separating even the best weighted controllers from a real piano is that it's doesn't take that much power to reach maximum note velocity and stay there during a performance. But on a real piano, you can always "lay in" and always give it just a little more. I've also noticed that when I play extremely heavily on a controller, my aftertouch (mono pressure) shoots up at the same time. Well... why not analyze the aftertouch increase at the time of a note strike, and use that to trigger notes/samples louder than you would have at normal velocity 127? Ideally, this could be built into the hardware controller itself, and be able to use the aftertouch as a part of the velocity sensor, before the analysis is translated into MIDI velocity data. I believe this would make for even more naturalistic piano performance.

As a poor-man's version, I could set this up in Max/MSP and see if it would work. My only concern is that mono pressure controller output might be a little slow on some units, and wouldn't be fast enough to take an accurate reading before the note should be output, but it's worth a shot.
 

happyrat1

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Implementation with existing technologies would be a nightmare to program into current hardware and software and truth be told not all keyboards have the same number or resolution of velocity curves.

Not to mention even fewer keyboards possess channel or note aftertouch.

It could probably be done but would end up being far too expensive to implement in most consumer or professional keyboards.

Personally I floated an idea for an optronic keyboard controller a few years back replacing the flexible failure prone rubber membrane switches with IR LEDs and photosensors to create a reliable, worry free contact.

Further investigation led to my discovery that this technology had already been tried in the 80's and was way too expensive to implement and found only on one or two synths way back when.

Personally I still think it would be a great technology to use today but as of yet no one seems to have taken up my posts on EEVBLOG to heart.

Gary ;)
 
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Part of the problem is in the manufacturing process. Typically the keybeds are made independently by a different factory or company than the rest of the controller. It's all done piecemeal, and for this technology to work, you'd have to at least get the prrssure strip developers to work with the keybed decelopers, which likely circumvents the current process. If it could be built entirely into the keybed processing even before it sends voltage to the main processing unit, that would be ideal, and least complicated.

I don't agree that using poly aftertouch would be necessary. With some decent timing algorithms, it would be pretty easy to detect which notes are receiving the "push" from impact, without multiple sensors. Chords wouldn't be a problem because pianist never play heavy notes in chords at the same time as softer notes. If you pay attention, you'll notice that the softer notes are usually delayed slightly, this could all be accounted for.

But you're right, this would be difficult to implement, and probably not worth it, but just food for thought.
 

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