[LAU] Controllers and stuff for live performance

[david]

Carlos Sanchiavedraz wrote:
> 
> 
> 2009/10/12 david <gnome at hawaii.rr.com <mailto:gnome at hawaii.rr.com>>
> 
>     Carlos Sanchiavedraz wrote:
> 
>         Hi David,
> 
>         2009/10/12 david <gnome at hawaii.rr.com
>         <mailto:gnome at hawaii.rr.com> <mailto:gnome at hawaii.rr.com
>         <mailto:gnome at hawaii.rr.com>>>
> 
> 
>            nescivi wrote:
>             > On Sunday 11 October 2009 13:36:55 Carlos Sanchiavedraz wrote:
>             >> Hi dear folks.
>             >>
> 
>         [...]
> 
> 
>            I had a thought re keyboards (particularly the keys
>         themselves). Why
>            can't the surface of a key be a touchpad-like surface
>         sensitive to
>            pressure and even movement? So, for example, you could play a
>         violin
>            note, hold it, and use finger pressure and movement on the
>         key surface
>            itself to do vibrato the way a violinist would? That would go
>         a long
>            ways toward bringing human expressiveness back into playing
>         the sounds
>            of such expressive instruments as strings and woodwinds.
> 
> 
>         Yes, that would be great. But AFAIK the circuit inside keyboards
>         just cares about keypresses; nothing about pressure or velocity,
>         although maybe something could be hacked given the present
>         keyswitches, electrical contacts (or I think capacitors on old
>         ones), scan codes and other stuff.
>         Do you know any work about that?
> 
> 
>     Sorry, I should have mentioned that I was talking about musical
>     keyboards, not computer keyboards ... although I suppose you that if
>     you ganged some Trackpoints (IBM's little eraser pointer tool)
>     together, you could get take advantage of the Trackpoint's
>     directional abilities.
> 
>     It was just an idea that I think would be great. Don't know if
>     anyone is working on anything even remotely like it...
> 
> 
> Ok :).
> 
> Then, I'm not sure, but I think what you refer is called "aftertouch":
> http://www.google.com/search?q=aftertouch+keyboard

Hmmm, hadn't run into that. I read the Wikipedia article about it. The 
three forms of aftertouch they mention don't seem to include my idea of 
directional movement while holding the key down.

But an array of Trackpoints might be interesting as a control input, too.

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community