modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

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modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

Post by pax-eterna »

I have now tried two, Deepmind 12 and Waldorf Blofeld and both exhibit the same thing.

The velocity seems to be fixed for every patch and note. And yes I have the global settings on these so the keybeds SHOULD respond to a softer played note playing softer and vice versa for heavily pressed notes, but the keys produce the same sound level no matter what pressure is applied. I have tried every patch on both boards with the same result.

Is it just the way these are designed/built, or am I too used to "standard" keys (as in 76 and 88 note piano/synth hybrids) and this is just the way these synths are?

I'd really not have to go and edit every patch just to get "usual" velocity sensitivity.
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Re: modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

Post by BJG145 »

They will do, sounds like it's a bit rough on the Deepmind though, for example. Maybe they're just bad. You might need to dig into the response curves to find something that will react to your playing....or use a different synth/keyboard for more subtlety.

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/c ... _the_midi/

https://waldorfmusic.com/en/forum/quant ... y-velocity
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Re: modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

Post by pax-eterna »

BJG145 wrote: Tue May 17, 2022 6:17 pm They will do, sounds like it's a bit rough on the Deepmind though, for example. Maybe they're just bad. You might need to dig into the response curves to find something that will react to your playing....or use a different synth/keyboard for more subtlety.

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/c ... _the_midi/

https://waldorfmusic.com/en/forum/quant ... y-velocity

Thanks - It really is both and the edit is so deep in the menus....Like when you play EG a Motif, or Fantom et al - no matter what the sound the key velocity response is how it is set in the globals mostly...yeah, maybe I need to look at a differnet 'board I guess...though not much in the 49 key area (needed for physical dimension sizing on the rig)
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Re: modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

Post by BJG145 »

Just a random thought, but if you connect them up via MIDI it might be interesting to see if velocity is more noticeable when they're playing each other.
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Re: modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

Post by pax-eterna »

BJG145 wrote: Tue May 17, 2022 10:18 pm Just a random thought, but if you connect them up via MIDI it might be interesting to see if velocity is more noticeable when they're playing each other.

haha, yeah that might be interesting :D tbh I really wanted the ASM Hydra but there was somethng (I cannot recall now) I needed that was only available on the deluxe which is much bigger physically.
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Re: modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

Post by N i g e l »

[my viewpoint is from the blofeld here...]

there are 2 velocity aspects to consider here - what the keyboard puts out as the "velocity number" for each note press and how each patch reacts to that number.

You can test the keyboard action by using it to control your piano or monitoring the numbers on somthing like MIDIOX. The globals will probably affect these numbers.

The sound patch's response to velocity is alot more complicated.
For a start, the patches may be from different sound designers, who each have their own ideas of how velocity should affect the sound.
Then, application of velocity is very patch dependant and occurs in many places - like output amplitude, filter cutoffs, envelope rates.

e.g. if the patch is an organ sound, velocity might not be used at all.

Velocity also goes into the modulation matrix where anything can become velocity dependent !
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Re: modern synths and velocity -they do not seem to respond?

Post by pax-eterna »

yeah thanks Nigel....I agree...Im getting to the point where it is what it is and just deal...I mean I'll probs not use more than about 20 presets live anyway haha!
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