all great suggestions Nigel, but I have such a heavy left hand that the effect is always being triggered falsly. I never had an instrument with poly aftertouch, so I guess I'll never know.

Ud,
When I met you , I kinda noticed that you were leaning a little to the left .
I now know why ...... you have a heavy left hand ! dano

You're a RIOT, Alice ! Bang ..... Zoooom !

If someone brought out an arranger keyboard with "one-note" aftertouch, I would have to consier getting it. It would be useful to bend one note out of a chord, as Pedal Steel guitar players to.
Anybody know I way to do this on arrangers?
DonM

Polyphonic (or "key") aftertouch means that aftertouch information is associated with each note that is played. Monophonic (or "channel") aftertouch means that aftertouch information is sent out per MIDI channel and applies to all notes sent on that channel. To get two notes to bend different amounts, polyphonic aftertouch is required. However, as Nigel says, there is a lot that can be done with monophonic aftertouch.

Due to the added mechanical complexity, not many keyboards support polyphonic aftertouch. I am not aware of any in production. However, it is not hard to implement electronically so many modules and keyboard synths will respond correctly to polyphonic aftertouch. Keyboards that generate polyphonic aftertouch include: Roland A-50, Roland A-80, Kurzweil MIDI Board, GEM S2 and S3, Ensoniq SQ1 and EPS, Yamaha DX1, and not very many others. It's a shame, because polyphonic aftertouch feels very "natural" and is the most expressive controller available in MIDI.

However, there is another issue that affects the usefulness of aftertouch for pitch bends, and that is the resolution of the aftertouch. Aftertouch resolution is apparently not critical when aftertouch is used to control vibrato, etc. However, to emulate a guitar, smooth pitch bends are required. I am not sure that even 128 levels is enough and I seem to recall some synths implement a sort of double-precision for pitch bend information. On the other hand, many keyboards that implement aftertouch do not even provide 128 levels. This is the problem with my PSR8000 and it does not do pitch bends well. I have been able to get the effect I want on my A-50 driving my XV-5080. Some of the patches on the Roland Fantom use aftertouch efectively to control pitch bend.

The moral of the story is you cannot assume that because a keyboard has aftertouch that it is suitable for controlling pitch bend. Try before you buy.

[This message has been edited by Clif Anderson (edited 01-14-2002).]

Aftertouch ?
This I know for sure . On the Sd1 I can take one sound and apply aftertouch ( editable) .
I can than harmonize that one sound with what Ketron terms as "octaveup" or "octave down" . That gives me the same voice at different octaves , both responding to aftertouch at the same time ! Take a pedal steel guitar and have them play 2 seperate octaves and have assignable aftertouch !
Also the Sd1 allows you to combine 4 sounds at a time and aftertouch can be applied to any one of the 4 combined sounds . You can even "double up" or "double down" the combined sounds called "PROGRAMS" . Very cool ! dano/ketronguy

Hi DanO

If you assign aftertouch to pitch bend on the SD1, is does the pitch change smoothly when activated by aftertouch? This is something that will probably depend on the pitch bend range. It may be smooth for a full-tone bend but not an octave bend.

Clif

Cliff ,
I also add a little portamento with the steel guitar sound . It's kinda of cool ! dano