How to create a velocity curve tips

This method is not too dissimilar to what I use.

I just play a few notes on the keyboard as soft and as hard as I can and check out PianoTeq's MIDI options screen to obtain the lowest and highest note-on velocities...

I then use these as a basis to calculate the velocity curve using a simple Excel spreadsheet and the formula y=x^i where i is an integer representing an exponential value. With a value of 1 the line is straight; less than 1 and the curve is convex; more than 1 and it is, you guessed it, concave (as illustrated bellow).

Illustrated above is the spreadsheet showing the:

• Start (lowest velocity)

• End (Highest velocity)

• Steps (number of points drawn on the resultant Velocity Curve)

• Curve (Exponential value)

I don't know how good a method this is compared to what others have been buying/using?

Yes, subtle is the name of the game for the most part, but there's always that odd occasion where not-so-subtle is the order of the day...

Just got to say I really liked your improv on Yesterday!

..not only can you use exponential curves, but I also find sinusoidal and s-curves give a pleasing effect.

Here's an example of what I call "The School Piano" : https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php...50#p975950

The use of the S-Curve with longer peaks and troughs makes the already-wonderful U4 Small sound hard, bright and brand-new.

The School Piano - demo (with recorder accompaniment)
All parts played by yours truly ... not for the squeamish!

School Piano I

Change of Temperament... as you probably know, PianoTeq will allow you to load scala temperament files (.scl) and you can download the free scala programme from : Scala Programme and gain access to over 5,000 different temperaments to try as well as make your own !

   I did just that as I was curious to hear the Lehman/Bach temperament for myself. Here are two demos on my original School Piano for you to enjoy... I chose the 2006 Lehman/Bach III Temperament (visually it's not a million miles away from standard Equal Temperament, but you can definately hear a difference as you try all major triads; C, G, F, D, A all hum beautifully, others start to sound a bit off but full of character - give it a try if you haven't already...

Bach - Musette in D

Bach Prelude in C, Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier

That's very kind of you - Thanks

   One can read a whole treaty on why Lehman has got it 'partly' wrong here... together with other interesting 'Bachesque Temperaments' to try by Daniel Jencka.

VELOCITY CURVES II

Just a second example of the Excel sheet and graph...

..and the CONCATENATED strings ready to be pasted across to PianoTeq

Don't you just love, love, love this software?

Getting Detailed MIDI Info
Using MIDI-OX and outputting info to a text file for better analysis of playing ...

MIDI-OX
A handy little program that's free to use and opens up a whole new way to deal with vast amounts of midi data. You can filter out SYSEX chains and just concentrate of the stuff you're interested in. To get a good analysis of my playing - I sat and recorded 14 mins of Ragtime on the p515... Here's the resultant screens below:

Spreadsheet Analysis of Note-On, Note-Off and Sustain
Bringing the 14 min data (which is huge) - it's a breeze to sort it into the various events (Note-Off shown) and start to analysis it to better create useful curves for PianoTeq.

Just can't stop 'tinkering' here's the same spreadsheet as above now with an extra curve - a melange between two existing curves. Now I can be as subtle or as dramatic as I please in getting useful curves to play with...

The Curves

I don't know it I've said it before [joke] ... but don't you just LOVE this programme?

I'll tell you what I can do for you ... why not upload a MIDI recording of you playing the kind of stuff you like playing with good dynamic contrasts and I'll analyse it and give you a choice of curves to try that should be fairly well-suited to your playing style. Aim to play for at least 5-10 mins - you can play for longer if you like, I use Regular expressions to sort out the data I'm looking for, so there's no extra work involved for longer files.

Would that be helpful?

No worries, I'll do my best...

Hi, the ones you've requested are for the p120, but I'm happy to share some for the p515:

LINE

Global Velocity = [0, 0, 114, 127; 0, 0, 127, 127]

LINE/SINE (65%)

Global Velocity = [0, 0, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20, 23, 25, 28, 30, 33, 35, 38, 41, 43, 46, 48, 51, 53, 56, 58, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 73, 76, 79, 81, 84, 86, 89, 91, 94, 96, 99, 101, 104, 106, 109, 111, 114, 127; 0, 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 22, 25, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 43, 46, 49, 52, 56, 59, 63, 66, 70, 73, 77, 80, 83, 87, 90, 93, 96, 100, 103, 106, 108, 111, 114, 116, 119, 121, 123, 125, 127, 127]

LINE/SINE (45%)

Global Velocity = [0, 0, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20, 23, 25, 28, 30, 33, 35, 38, 41, 43, 46, 48, 51, 53, 56, 58, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 73, 76, 79, 81, 84, 86, 89, 91, 94, 96, 99, 101, 104, 106, 109, 111, 114, 127; 0, 0, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 43, 46, 50, 54, 58, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 84, 88, 92, 95, 98, 102, 105, 108, 111, 113, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 127, 127]

LINE/SINE (25%)

Global Velocity = [0, 0, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20, 23, 25, 28, 30, 33, 35, 38, 41, 43, 46, 48, 51, 53, 56, 58, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 73, 76, 79, 81, 84, 86, 89, 91, 94, 96, 99, 101, 104, 106, 109, 111, 114, 127; 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 33, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93, 97, 100, 104, 107, 110, 113, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 127]

Hope these are of use to you...

¡Hola! ¿Se dice 'noob' en español? No lo sabía...

Por su pregunta... se puede probarles, pero no creo que functionen perfectamente. No tengo el teclado p125, solomente el p120s y p515.

Por favor, perdone la lengua española mia, ha pasado mucho tiempo desde que lo escriba.

¡Que pase un buen día!

Hi! I didn't know you used the word 'noob' in Spanish...

As for your question... you can try them, but I don't think they are a perfect fit. I don't have the p125, just the p120s and p515.

Please forgive my Spanish, it's been a long time since I wrote any.

Have a great day!

Just

Thank you very much Smilie,

Some useful curves indeed!

May I ask what midi interface / midi cable you use between the P515 and your computer?? Thank you,

Warmest regards,

Chris

Hi Smilie,

Can you elaborate on this "active sensing" you mention here please. Are you referring to the P515? What is this active sensing and how does it effect the midi output??? And how did you become aware of it. I have not heard of it. Personally I want the most reliable midi response from the P515. Anything that would interfere with this would be undesirable for me and I also would like to disable anything that would "humanise" the velocity response of the P515.

Let me know your thoughts,

Warmest regards,

Chris

OT:
A while ago I saw this MIDI active sensing signal, when I measured latencies of note-on events with an oscilloscope. It was a "square" wave every 0.3 s (binary 11111110). But it was a very old Goldstar keyboard with 5-pin MIDI-output and not a Yamaha. It is a kind of keep-alive signal for a MIDI connection.

With a period of ~300 ms there could be ~299 MIDI note events between two keep-alives, so I wouldn't worry.