Feature request: Polyphonic Aftertouch for damper release realism (N1X

Yes, Pianoteq can indeed rename it as “Disklavier dialect” with “Damper position” in the MIDI panel, but this has no effect in practice. Pianoteq 8 does not actually process or respond to these Polyphonic Aftertouch damper data.

I’ve tested it directly: the messages are transmitted, but Pianoteq simply ignores them in the current version.

For clarity: these are standard Polyphonic Aftertouch MIDI messages, with values typically between 32 (damper near the strings) and 20 (damper far from the strings).

On Yamaha hybrids such as the N1X, the behavior is also conditional:
    •    If the key is released very quickly, no transitional aftertouch is generated.
    •    The detection is based on both the position and the speed of release.
    •    In other words, the Polyphonic Aftertouch messages themselves are conditioned by the release velocity.

No, it’s just an interpretation of the XP dialect, but it isn’t actually implemented in Pianoteq. It’s not a bug — it’s simply a capability that’s missing: the dialect is interpreted in terms of MIDI description, but it has no real use inside the Pianoteq engine.

I see. In this case, requesting the new feature from your user area is the best way to get their attention. Raising the issue here helps only insomuch as if there are other people interested in doing the same request to show the developers there is interest, which of course there might be, but given that we are talking about a pretty rare instrument, maybe there are not that many people.

Best of luck getting this feature implemented!

It’s not really that rare, actually — all Yamaha Disklaviers, the P-525, some Clavinova models, and the entire line of traditional acoustic silent pianos with the SH3 system use polyphonic aftertouch. And if I was able to build a Mac app in Swift that converts those aftertouch messages in a calibrated way into standard Note Off velocities for Pianoteq, then it would literally take the Pianoteq developers just a few seconds to add it directly.

Wrong

I own a Yamaha P-525 myself, and it does transmit a polyphonic aftertouch message when you release a key slowly.
That message reflects the damper gradually coming back into contact (smart release behavior), like a per-note half-pedal.

If you release the key quickly, no such message is sent — because there’s no need to represent a partial damper position.

So yes, the P-525 does send that MIDI data (Polyphonic Aftertouch) , but only in the specific case of a slow release.

and you can convert this with an external MIDI SCRIPT to use Velocity NOTE-OFF of Pianoteq, and set the note-off velocity curve

But it would be nicer to have this feature in Pianoteq 9 without external script.

I own both a Yamaha P-525 and an N1X, and honestly, you are completely misunderstanding how Smart Release works. It is far more advanced than Roland’s or other brands’ simple Note-Off velocity systems. Yamaha’s algorithm doesn’t just estimate based on release speed — it actually detects the real damper position in combination with velocity, and only recreates the aftertouch effect if necessary, because it knows exactly how long the damper stayed in an intermediate position between two states.

When I play on the P-525 or the N1X, this effect is reproduced incredibly faithfully compared to my real grand piano. Your explanation is full of assumptions without actually studying the real response of these keyboards. Smart Release is much more sophisticated than a crude Note-Off velocity approach, which only looks at release speed without knowing whether the pianist released the key fully or only halfway.

So in short: you’re completely wrong — Yamaha’s Smart Release is a far more evolved system, and your points 1–3 show that you don’t really understand how it works in practice.

Though I no longer have the P-525, I rechecked the midi reference guide and you're right, it does send the per-note aftertouch. I'm not sure how I got that confused when I looked originally.

The more general question is - can we band together to make something can do the remapping calculations that is relatively universal, or at least for an entire platform (rather than a single piece of software like Logic)?

Does still leave the issue of these single event note-off translations not reflecting the timing of the continuous aftertouch values correctly. But that's flaw in single event note-off in general, just a reminder that the best solution is for Pianoteq to integrate damper position into the model rather than do a conversion to note-off. By definition, the slower the release, the more 'delayed' the damping becomes if based on single event note-off values that always fire at the same time. I guess, thinking about it, it might be possible to compensate for that too in some kind of translation layer by sending slower velocities earlier.

I believe you definitely don’t understand that there is already a pre-processing step, and that the aftertouch messages are already conditioned by both the speed and the position close to the string. I was able to calibrate my script by comparing it with my large Schimmel or Steinway, and I’m getting incredible results by combining Pianoteq for the resonances, the release, and the soft release, together with VI Labs Modern D. Because Pianoteq 8 on its own sounds like a vibraphone on a synth.

Not agree 100 %

That's great! I also request this feature. I'm interested in controlling partial key damping without releasing the note.

I reckon the Pianoteq model is very close to being able to do this already - I was playing with the Sustained Notes Damping Aftertouch curve. I set this to a negative slope so it activates as I release the key. Currently Pianoteq completely damps the note as soon as the map value is >0. If Pianoteq could use this map to partially damp the note according to the map value then we get our feature. Pianoteq can certainly model partial damping already, using the continuous damper pedal.

This is something a lot of Pianoteq users would be able to engage with. As Olivier says, there are several midi controllers suited to this. I have a list of some other possibilities below. But basically anyone with a board with key pressure PAT, or even just channel pressure, could explore this requested feature, though it's awkward with the control being at the bottom of the key travel.

The following boards/controllers, apart from Olivier's list, may have continuous PAT control near the top of key travel:

Arturia Polybrute 12 - explicitly has settings with PAT at the top of key travel
Yamaha Montage M8x - seems to have the hardware to do this, but not the firmware. This is the one I'm hanging out for, if Yamaha put this in the firmware.
Kurzweil Midiboard - might be able to, given the note on and PAT key travel range can be apportioned.
Osmose Expressive E - might have this full key position information? Don't know what it sends for midi.
Arturia Beatstep - not a keyboard but has pressure pads that give an initial note on then PAT according to pressure, all the way to release - this is what I used to play around with the Pianoteq Aftertouch functions.
CME XKeys - this seems to be pressure pads (in a keyboard shape) so may work the same as Beatstep.

Yamaha P525 - with its fixed PAT value, could be my halfway budget option. But I don't know what happens when the key is re-pressed.

Without Pianoteq modelling this, I presume it's only the Yamaha range as Olivier specifies that actually have their sound engine modelling this partial damping?