61 Key Touch Sensitive Keyboard

[Azalee Rowling]

yeathat combo would be the ultimate for me! now for a minimalist screen pairing.

do you know if this particular keyboard would be hard to sync up with renoise? like would

you then have polyphonic pressure sensitivity out of the box? guess i just need to read about

the program that comes with it.

Contrary to velocity sensitive keys these measure how far you press the keys down and send values continuously which is more similar to MPE keys like the Roli board and this might not translate that well to tracking single hits. That being said it would be interesting to try and hopefully someday a simply velocity sensitive mechanical keyboard will be released as well.

Almost got this MIDI stuff all sorted out. I've been hunting around the net researching keyboards, and I'm not sure what the difference between Aftertouch and Velocity Sensitivity is. Also how do you tell a good Aftertouch / Velocity Sensitivity from a bad one.

Most synths/controllers allow you to set velocity sensitivity and aftertouch sensitivity to taste. One key difference between velocity, and aftertouch is that velocity information is associated with the note, while the aftertouch we are referring to (plain old aftertouch) is associated with the midi channel. That means that in normal use each unique incident of a struck note can have a different velocity value, but at any point in time, all notes that you are holding down are having the same aftertouch value (similar to how wiggling the pitch bend will affect all held notes).

Most mid to high end synths have aftertouch. The feel varies a lot from one keyboard to the next, as does what you can control with it. On a good synth aftertouch is just treated like any other knob, slider, or switch and you can assign it to any MIDI parameter. How useful aftertouch actually is depends also on how the sounds are programmed, or how they can be edited, and how you like to play. On most synths, aftertouch is only assigned to a limited range of factory sounds, most often to vibrato, swell or crescendo, or some tone parameter or filter on some string, wind, and synth sounds.

The feel of aftertouch is very important. Some trigger too easily, so if you hit the notes hard aftertouch triggers whether you want it or not. Ideally you have an aftertouch that is nice and progressive so you actually have good control from MIDI values 0-127. On some synths (particularly cheaper ones) you dont have fine control over aftertouch, basically all you can do is off, full on, and something somewhere in the middle. With a good aftertouch you can, for example, do nice crescendos or swells, or have fine control over pitch bend.

You really need to decide if you need aftertouch or not. Some keyboard players use aftertouch a lot, some hardly use it, and wouldnt miss it. If you are a piano player playing keyboards you may not find you want to use aftertouch. It is of more use to synth type players, or players that want to use string and wind type sounds extensively (in which case why do you want hammer action?). If you spend most of your time banging away on piano, vintage key, and organ sounds then you probably wont have much use for aftertouch, and can probably do what you want using other controllers, like the mod wheel, a knob, or expression pedal. Aftertouch can only be used when you are actually holding a note, which limits its usefulness.

You are right that hammer or fully weighted action is usually only available on 88 note boards. The Kurzweil PC1SE has a fully weighted action on 76 keys, and StudioLogic makes a hammer action controller in 88, 76, and 61 note layouts. A few older synths have hammer or weighted action in 76 or 61 notes. There are also some 88 note synths with hammer actions that are as short as some 76 note boards as they have the pitch and mod wheels above the keys, not next to them. The Alesis Fusion 8HD, Alesis QS8.2, the Yamaha S08 (no aftertouch), and Casio pianos (no aftertouch) are like this.

Speaking as a piano player playing keyboards I much prefer a hammer or weighted action, and 61 notes is just not enough. 76 notes is ideal, but hard to get in a weighted action. If you are a piano player then you will probably be happy with an 88 note hammer action board, with or without aftertouch.

The lack of hammer action on (almost) anything less than 88 has been lamented many times in this forum. But Studiologic has recently come out with the VMK161 and 176 - I have one of the 161's and I really like the action. Also, it appears that CME is coming out with the ZSC series - although they have been notoriously slow in getting new products out the door. I also wonder about the validity of the info on their site - a 64 key board, really?

I"m going to be doing sythn work, with sting and wind instruments, which is the best type of keyboard ? (for lack of a better word) Weighted, unweighted, semi-weight, some other thing I havent heard of yet ?

I suggest you try as many actions as you can. Most modern unweighted actions are horrible, especially on cheaper boards. Some of the semi-weighted actions are very good and would probably be the best all around choice for you (some are horrible though, like the M-Audio IMO). Many of the 76 note synths have a semi-weighted action. Check out one of the recent Keyboard mags for a review of loads of different controllers to find out something about their actions.

More keys gives your more room to play, especially if you are playing keyboards splits or combinations when 61 notes may often not enough. It really depends on how you play. A second board is a good option too.

For string, synth, and wind instruments a ribbon controller or X-Y pad controller can be very good. Try some synths or controllers out that have these if you can. For example, you can do a proper finger controlled vibrato using a ribbon controller in much the same way that a string player does. Sounds much better than the fixed vibrato that most synths do.

A ribbon controller is touch sensitive strip that you run your finger over to control. An X-Y pad is like a ribbon controller but is square and works in 2 directions, like the Korg Kaos pad. They are just another control surface, and have some advantages over a wheel, knob, or slider.

M-audio is a cheap brand, making mainly cheap gear. Some of their gear is very good, some is very cheap and nasty. They mainly target the home-studio market. If you want a controller for playing live music you will probably want something that is nice to play and durable, so look at the top end M-audio gear and other brands. There are so many brands I dont even know where to start. Look up that Keyboard mag article I mentioned to get started, then try as many as you can. In general you get what you pay for.

Starting from the top down, the PSR-E473 offers the most bang for the buck: touch sensitive keys; a backlit screen; USB audio and MIDI connectivity; a DJ pattern mode with real-time control knobs; over 800 Voices; and much more, making this fully-featured model a keyboard that an aspiring player can really grow into.

Every piece of music has a dynamic range, meaning that notes get softer and louder, allowing the player to interpret and convey the emotion of the piece. A touch sensitive keyboard adds value because the keys register velocity. Basically, the harder you hit them the louder the sound, enabling the musician to deliver a more compelling and dynamic performance.

Many keyboards have touch sensitive keys and these can even be adjusted to feel harder or softer to the touch within the settings, but this will remain at the same sensitivity throughout all the notes until you change the setting again.

Weighted keys on the other hand give a resistance when you press them down, to emulate pressing the keys on an acoustic piano. They will also respond louder to a firmer press and quieter to a lighter touch.

Now add into that the graded hammer action which, dependent on your piano model, may be graded in groups or linear (where each note is differently graded), notes in the bass of the piano will feel firmer to the touch than those in the treble.

If you are looking to play something that responds, dynamically, to your performance then touch sensitive is perfectly adequate. If you are looking more for the feel and response of an acoustic instrument however, weighted keys is what you need.

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