[LAU] Controllers and stuff for live performance

[david]

Carlos Sanchiavedraz wrote:
> 
> 
> 2009/10/13 david <gnome at hawaii.rr.com <mailto:gnome at hawaii.rr.com>>
> 
>     Carlos Sanchiavedraz wrote:
>      >
>      >
>      > 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>>>
>      >
>      >     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>>
>     <mailto: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.
> 
> So you say something like to achieve little variations of notes 
> ("vibrato" alike) depending on the key/finger movement, isn't it? I 
> think there is something like that in really expensive 
> keyboards/controllers, but not sure.

Could well be. My experience combining computers with MIDI keyboards is 
limited and doesn't include any high-end controllers ...

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