Where's aftertouch on most keyboards? Don't you guys use it?

[Pando]

Kurzweil Midiboard is the absolute king of poly aftertouch keyboards. The sensor design is extremely well done, and there are pressure curves plus a front panel slider to adjust it precisely to your feel.

At the most sensitive setting, the keys start sending out pAT data at the very slightest key pressure. All keys are very consistent as well. When playing chords with a pAT capable synths like Deckard's Dream and Xerxes, the keyboard feels alive under your fingers; it's an amazing experience.

The implementation is also very unique; the sensor is a squishy part of the hammer that also triggers the note and measures velocity. It's extremely reliable, aftertouch on a 30-year old instrument still feels like it's new out of the box.

When it comes to aftertouch capable keyboards, I sure wish there is something similar to a Midiboard available today, but you'll have to keep an eye on Craigslist and eBay to find one. But it's oh so worth it.

[zerocrossing]

I just bought an Ensoniq TS-10 to use as a poly-aftertouch keyboard. For a while they were stupidly expensive, but now the prices have come down to reasonable levels. One word of warning, the rubber bushings of the old boards feel stiff. Looks like you can buy replacements, though. Maybe next year I’ll try to find a keyboard tech who can refurbish it for me.

[zerocrossing]

Just wanted to necro this thread to complain that polyphonic aftertouch is not in anything affordable or new.
It's in the ROLI stuff (basically) along with MPE. I have a seaboard block. It's too small, and too expensive for how small it is, and it's unique, and I use it, but FFS...

Tried the linnstrument. Neat, but no.

I learned mostly on an old Korg X3. FFS... it had polyAT. Decades ago. So I have to go and get an old crap keyboard that may or may not have fully functional keys off Ebay to get polyAT... or spend 10 grand on a neat (VERY NEAT) ROLI or Haken, which are *not* keys. They're great controllers, yes. But they're not keys. "Piano mode" doesn't send polyAT.

FFS.

I'm so angry about this. There are other things I'm more angry about, and I did something about them. Oh dear. Here come the police.

Because the world is full of idiots who don't know how to use polyphonic aftertouch on a keyboard... You people.

You shoddy, disgusting, putrefactive strands of ejecta.

Lighten up, Francis.



I’m in agreement, though... well, about most of it. When I bought my TS-10 in the 90s, I was like, “Oh, of course. This is the way it should have always been.” Little did I know that we were experiencing a brief moment of progress and soon we’d fall back into a dark time where troglodytes just run sequences into keyboards while they tweak controls and call that “expression.”

Anyway, what I disagree with is your take on the Roli instruments. Quality costs money, and I shudder to think what I paid for my TS-10 back in the day compared to what it would cost today. When you buy a Roli (I have the Rise 49), you are not buying a keyboard. It’s a “Seaboard.” It does not have keys. It has “waves,” or as I like to call them, “bumps.” The only thing it really borrowed from keyboards is the basic layout. Other than that, it’s really a completely different thing, and should be looked at as such. So, while I love my Rise for a lot of things, I still shelled out for a poly aftertouch enabled keyboard. Not because the Rise wasn’t satisfying. In a sense, it is miles better... for some things. For other things, no. So, that’s that. I’ll also use software to do pitch to MIDI on my guitar, because that’s something different too, and something I like. Each thing forces you to approach your playing in a different way. That’s a good thing, IMO.

[himalaya]

Speaking of the Seaboards...they do not provide 'aftertouch', be it 'poly' or 'mono'. The Seaboards provide 'continuous pressure'. Very different thing.
Having said that, the 'afterouch' response can be faked by using specific expression curve shapes. A shape that starts with a dead zone (flat no-modulation zone) and then followed by a steep exponential curve will get us something that works like 'aftertouch' (on a Seaboard).

[Aleatoriac]

Everybody, thanks, truly. Thank you. You seem to be missing the points though.
1) No one makes *keyboards* with polyphonic aftertouch anymore. A seaboard ain't it. And I love the seaboard. It's just that it ain't a sodding keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch. Liquidy fun, squealy natural pitch bends, double-stops, bliss all day - yes. The seaboard is a frickin' GOAT GOD

2) The only polyphonic aftertouch keys around are ANCIENT AND BROKEN ebay relics that cost more than the highest-dollar hooker you're ever going to find, making the entire thing pointless.

Sure, this is not a major thing to be upset about. I'm having a manic episode (one that's lasting for decades), sure, probably.

I'm still right.

[JCJR]

Only poly at I had was ensoniq eps. I wasn't skilled enough to get reliable results and left the feature turned off most of the time.

Problem seemed to be weak fingers vs strong fingers. For instance maybe hold a big chord and try to add the same amount of vibrato or brightness, one finger at a time. Add vibrato to thumb note and release, then add vibrato to index finger and release, finally getting around to adding the same amount of vibrato only to the pinky finger chord note. Some fingers "too strong" others "not strong enough" for even predictable control.

Better skilled would do better and maybe there are "easier useful tricks" for poly at I didn't ever think up to try.