But really, on the clavichord you could feel the strings stretch under your fingertips, which is very satisfying. It requires a very different action to piano. Even the size and shape of the keys are different. Probably the only realistic option is to buy an old clavichord or a kit instrument and then equip it with MIDI out. Too much work for a casual very occasional clavichord player like me. But for early music aficionados/specialists that'd be the way to go IMHO.

...Ideally I'd like polyphonic AT but that's rare and too pricey. Any advice, suggestions from more keyboard controller savvy folks would be appreciated.

The Vax has returned with a lower priced poly AT keyboard:

http://www.vaxmidi.com

There is also the CME Xkey. But it has only 37 keys and the action is shallow. However some have written that it's actually quite playable. But I haven't read how controllable the poly AT is, i.e. is it gradual or more "on/off"? Keep in mind that some aftertouch actions are bad in this regard.

http://www.cme-pro.com/xkey37/

- open the MIDI tab in the Options window and then press your pedal and look at the MIDI data scrolling by
- this should tell you what midi control number is associated with your pedal
- now link that controller number to Aftertouch using the interface in the bottom left (using mouse clicks and pop-up selection menus)

That's pretty much it as far as I recall. You may want to save the settings as a new MIDI preset.

I tried it now on the Studiologic Grand, and used the default aftertouch mapping scale 0 - 1 on the midi settings, and set the aftertouch curve to maximum (0 = -1, 127 = 1). As far as I could see the aftertouch was registered correctly by PTQ, as the data were registered on the midi overview, and there were lines on the aftertouch curve screen. But I could not hear anything.

Then I tried the virtual piano, where it is possible to activate aftertouch by clicking on a key and then moving the mouse upwards (away from yourself). Then the effect was very clear.

I am not sure if there is a bug in PTQ, but it seems to me that the effect is indeed there if you use the virtual keyboard, but I can not reproduce it by any other method.

I have had the same experience. I'm afraid I'm not that sophisticated, but I just could not get the sustain pedal to work to change the pitch at all (using Kawai VPC 1). If someone could explain exactly how to do this, step by step, as if writing for a technological illiterate, I (and perhaps a few others) would be grateful. Or maybe there really is a glitch and it just doesn't work. (?)

Found it, went through all the settings. Not sure what I did wrong in the first place, but it works now - thank you !

Nice one! How does the AT work when you have multiple keys active (pressed down)? Say if you play chords in the left hand and melody using AT in the right hand: does it respond the same as if you were playing the melody the same way on its own or do the left hand notes diminish the AT effect. (I'm vaguely considering a second hand Numa Nero: predecessor of your SL88 I believe.)

But from what I gather most monophonic aftertouch keyboards use a single ribbon sensor that takes the average of the AT of all the active keys. That's no good. I want it to respond to the melody note only; either to the top note or ideally more intelligently to the note receiving the most AT input. Ideally I'd like polyphonic AT but that's rare and too pricey. Any advice, suggestions from more keyboard controller savvy folks would be appreciated.

And here is why: Even though I live in the "greatest" city in the world (by size because we are thinly spread), the local market is small so we have no large music stores like in the US, where one can try out many instruments to make an informed decision. Just to try one instrument takes a whole afternoon (finding somewhere that has one, travelling there and back).

The aftertouch on the Clavichord (the Neupert, the only one for PTQ so far...?) does indeed work. By default it has a range of a semitone from the middle of the keyboard up, and this gradually decreases for lower notes. (In Pianoteq Pro it can be edited further to better resemble a real clavichord, where the highest notes have a lot more of a range.) Using a sustain pedal like the FC3 for this is not ideal: one does not get the same degree of control as on a clavichord keyboard, but it's better than nothing. As the aftertouch is monophonic (as it is on most MIDI keyboards as well) I set it up for "Only highest active note".

Torsten, I don't know why it's not working for you, but my guess is that something is wrong with your settings somewhere, because it all seems to work as expected. I do not have any keyboards with aftertouch, but there is no reason for that MIDI channel to work differently. Only obvious thing I can think of is that perhaps your Mono Aftertouch (at the bottom of the Aftertouch panel) is set to "Any note above..." some high note. If so, change it to "Only highest active note" or "All notes".

Then I tried the virtual piano, where it is possible to activate aftertouch by clicking on a key and then moving the mouse upwards (away from yourself). Then the effect was very clear.

I am not sure if there is a bug in PTQ, but it seems to me that the effect is indeed there if you use the virtual keyboard, but I can not reproduce it by any other method.

oldionus wrote:

I tried setting the sustain pedal to aftertouch, as was suggested, but to tell the truth I could not detect any difference, so I'm not sure I did it right. If anyone else has tried this, I'd like to hear about it.

You might need to edit the aftertouch response curve. If you set it to its extremes (-1 at 0 to +1 at 127) the effect will be very dramatic. If you're still getting nothing then something is not right with the MIDI setup.

And of course you need to have a progressive sustain pedal. But even progressive pedals often do not have fine enough gradation to be useful for controlling pitch; e.g., my Yamaha FC3 only has 16 steps (from 0 off, to 15 fully depressed).

May

I guess I'll have to dig out the instructions M. Guillaume gave me and try again. The VC1 has a very responsive sustain pedal, so that's not the problem. Thanks for your input.

I tried setting the sustain pedal to aftertouch, as was suggested, but to tell the truth I could not detect any difference, so I'm not sure I did it right. If anyone else has tried this, I'd like to hear about it.

You might need to edit the aftertouch response curve. If you set it to its extremes (-1 at 0 to +1 at 127) the effect will be very dramatic. If you're still getting nothing then something is not right with the MIDI setup.

And of course you need to have a progressive sustain pedal. But even progressive pedals often do not have fine enough gradation to be useful for controlling pitch; e.g., my Yamaha FC3 only has 16 steps (from 0 off, to 15 fully depressed). Edit: Correction! The FC3 is an analog pedal with continuous output, with resistance varying from about 1k to 10k between full off and full on (and vice versa). Only the P-140 keyboard I was using it with restricted it to 16 steps. I got it working properly with Pianoteq using an Audiofront MIDI Expression adapter. http://www.audiofront.net/MIDIExpression.php

My controller is excellent all around (Kawai VPC1), but unfortunately does not have aftertouch, which is a shame because I am interested in using the clavichord.

Of course it is perfectly possible to play the clavichord with satisfaction without the bebung.