Poly Aftertouch WTF???

[kayvon]

felis, that link you provided is to the PCR-x0 series which don't even have channel aftertouch on the keys. They can probably send aftertouch via the mod wheel/knobs/faders or something.

[felis]

ha-ha. You're right. But did you look at it? Here's a for Edirol.

On page 178, the midi implementation chart shows it sends note on, note off, key and channel aftertouch.

I never trust those charts anyways.

[nathanscribe]

Call me thick, but what's the point of sending aftertouch via a modwheel? Surely if it's aftertouch, it's on the keys. I had a look at the manual, and AT is assignable to controllers, The PCR-x00 have keyboard channel AT.

Not that amazing, then. Oh well, I suppose a new, cheap, true poly AT controller is too much to ask... in fact, I don't know what there is out there for true poly AT. The old Ensoniqs, and IIRC some Fatar stuff...

[kayvon]

Nathan, I think it's for the benefit of synths/modules that have hardwired routings and also just for flexibility. For instance the only way to get filter sweeps on my JX-8P without using sysex is by using aftertouch I think.

[cbjlietuva]

Call me thick, but what's the point of sending aftertouch via a modwheel? Surely if it's aftertouch, it's on the keys. I had a look at the manual, and AT is assignable to controllers, The PCR-x00 have keyboard channel AT.

Not that amazing, then. Oh well, I suppose a new, cheap, true poly AT controller is too much to ask... in fact, I don't know what there is out there for true poly AT. The old Ensoniqs, and IIRC some Fatar stuff...

dang- sorry to get everyone's hopes up. you're right though- assigning the poly AT to something else other than the keys is retarded.

If you can find a Roland A-80... weighted keys and poly AT

[ndkent]

My understanding is that Ensoniq has the only patent to do poly aftertouch pretty cheaply. If you look at the few other units they all were pretty expensive. By the way the Roland A-90 uses some kind of software trick to simulate poly-AT but really doesn't have individual sensors. The Roland A-80 does. It's a nice and surprisingly heavy keyboard that has a heavier than average action. A lot of these units do tend to be physically a bit more tough to play. The T-8 had the best feel to it imho. The Kurzweil MIDIBoard has a nice feel but many if not all revs have design issues. While they have both release velocity and a very unusual repeat function that lets you "strum" a chord with poly aftertouch retriggering it has an unrelated design issue where soft playing unintentionally "dampens" notes cutting off notes rather than sustaining them. Later Kurzweils skipped the poly-AT.

As for what it's good for, if you are playing polyphonically you can emphasize any note at any time in some way.

Regular aftertouch is nice especially if you don't have an expression pedal, but what it does is more or less a variation on what an experssion pedal or mod wheel does to a performance. It helps as every expression conntroller does but everything being played with your sound will do the same thing.

here's an example

the lead sound that comes in at about 0:19 is the Arturia CS-80V software played with a MIDIBoard. (the rest is mostly CS-80V & Arturia Minimoog with the percussion from the Korg ER-1)



the same thing is here but better quality
http://www.myspace.com/ndkent
look for either the video or audio for "{hieratic}"

[felis]

....
Regular aftertouch is nice especially if you don't have an expression pedal, but what it does is more or less a variation on what an experssion pedal or mod wheel does to a performance. It helps as every expression conntroller does but everything being played with your sound will do the same thing.
...

Yes, channel AT is just another controller. Like the expression pedal, the main advantage to it is that it allows you to keep both hands on the keys. So while being able to assign AT to a mod wheel (or knob or whatever), is a workaround, it kind of defeats the original purpose if it makes you take one hand off the keys.