Inexpensive controller

[VTgreen81]

I'm not a keyboardist and never plan to pretend to be one, but need to add midi tracks for production. I'll be using soft synths so I'm not concerned about the quality of the on board sounds.

Would a Yamaha PSR 510 fit the bill?

Is touch response different from velocity sensitive?

Thanks

 

[AlChuck]

There are a couple of things that might be called "touch response."

Velocity sensitivity means that if you strike the key harder, it moves through its range of motion quicker and this rate is measured and mapped to the loudness of the note that's triggered.

Aftertouch sensitivity means that after the note is struck, the pressure that you apply before you let go of the key is also measured and mapped to some parameter, often some modulation parameter. There are two types of this: one is called channel aftertouch, which means that only one pressure measurement (the strongest) out of all the fingers that happen to be pressing keys at a give moment is mapped. Polyphonic aftertouch means that each indiviual note's pressure is measured separately and mappable to that note.

 

[VTgreen81]

So if my understanding is correct I'd need to polyphonic aftertouch to play chords?

 

[AlChuck]

No, only if you want to use aftertouch to make different things happen to different parts of the chord, controlling it by how hard you press.

You have to have killer keyboard technique to get much use out of this. Also, very few except the most expensive controllers and synths generate or do anything with polyphonic aftertouch.

All you really need, the way you described yourself, is velocity sensitivity. If you think you'll want to trigger a tremelo or filter sweep by pressing down hard while you hold a note or a chord, then maybe you'll want channel aftertouch, but to use that will fully you'll have to become a MID expert and learn how to assign it to whatever controller messages you want to exploit...