Topic: Bebung... pedal control possible?

Forgive me if this is an ignorant suggestion, but here goes anyway. It seems most MIDI controllers, including most of the best ones folks on here recommend most often, such as the Kawai VPC 1, do not support the polyphonic aftertouch necessary for the keyboard half-vibrato ("bebung") characteristic of the clavichord. I realize that clavichords are hardly the main focus for PTQ or its users, but wouldn't it be relatively easy to assign a vibrato effect to one of the pedals for the clavichord, to approximate the "bebung" for controllers that do not support aftertouch? (Which is most of them). Thanks.

Amateur Standalone PTQ user; interests classical music, especially Bach and Mozart, and historic keyboards

Re: Bebung... pedal control possible?

You can use regular (channel) aftertouch, too... and there's an option to apply it only to highest active note, or only on notes above a certain key.

Read the tooltip on the Aftertouch curve page under the ? button for more info.

Last edited by EvilDragon (22-11-2015 23:34)
Hard work and guts!

Re: Bebung... pedal control possible?

Sorry if this is a bit thick, but I am a new user. Where is the ? button and the tooltip for afterouch? I could not find it. And how is the channel aftertouch activated? Thank you.

Amateur Standalone PTQ user; interests classical music, especially Bach and Mozart, and historic keyboards

Re: Bebung... pedal control possible?

Bottom left, where you have velocity curve. Right-click on it and you will see Aftertouch curve.


Channel aftertouch doesn't have to be "activated" - you either have it on your controller, or you don't. If you do, you can use it. If you don't, then you can use a MIDI CC instead.

Hard work and guts!

Re: Bebung... pedal control possible?

First, thank you for your information. But I'm afraid you've suggested something I don't really understand. My controller (Kawai VPC1) does not, as I understand the manufacturer's FAQ, have any kind of after touch. But I have no clue what you mean by "use a MIDI CC." The desired ability is to be able to activate the half-vibrato effect, or something similar enough to work as a substitute, almost exclusively on the last notes of phrases, and especially at cadences. But if the controller doesn't do that, I still have no idea how you could make that happen in real time. Thanks again for addressing this rather arcane topic, which undoubtedly is of no interest to most users. But for me, the ability to use the clavichord is important, so if there's a way to do this without ditching a brand new and expensive controller for one that has aftertouch (which I probably wouldn't do anyway), I'd love to know it. Thanks again.

Amateur Standalone PTQ user; interests classical music, especially Bach and Mozart, and historic keyboards

Re: Bebung... pedal control possible?

Oh, well. VPC-1 is strictly a piano controller, so it doesn't have any other means of control apart from the keyboard - no sliders, modwheel, or anything like that which you could use instead of aftertouch for the same effect. You'd need to have a separate MIDI controller that has some knobs or sliders (say, a Korg nanoKontrol?), which you would then use as a second MIDI input to Pianoteq - VPC1 taking care of notes that are supposed to be played, and nanoKontrol for the tweaking part - you could assign its sliders and buttons to various Pianoteq functions, not just simulating aftertouch - like toggling FX on/off etc.

Hard work and guts!

Re: Bebung... pedal control possible?

oldionus wrote:

First, thank you for your information. But I'm afraid you've suggested something I don't really understand. My controller (Kawai VPC1) does not, as I understand the manufacturer's FAQ, have any kind of after touch. But I have no clue what you mean by "use a MIDI CC." The desired ability is to be able to activate the half-vibrato effect, or something similar enough to work as a substitute, almost exclusively on the last notes of phrases, and especially at cadences. But if the controller doesn't do that, I still have no idea how you could make that happen in real time. Thanks again for addressing this rather arcane topic, which undoubtedly is of no interest to most users. But for me, the ability to use the clavichord is important, so if there's a way to do this without ditching a brand new and expensive controller for one that has aftertouch (which I probably wouldn't do anyway), I'd love to know it. Thanks again.

In any case you can at least use the sustain pedal: in the UI, open Options->MIDI, click on Insert (at the bottom), depress once the sustain pedal, click on the bottom left cell (where it is temporarily written Invalid) and select Controller 64,  click on the cell to the right, select Set Paramter and choose Aftertouch. If you went through these steps, the sustain pedal is now triggering the aftertouch. That makes sense at least for the clavichord which is normally not equipped with a sustain pedal.

Re: Bebung... pedal control possible?

Wonderful. Thank you so much for this information.

Amateur Standalone PTQ user; interests classical music, especially Bach and Mozart, and historic keyboards