touch sensative?

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illies17

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touch sensative? question what keyboard to get

whats the difference between touch sensative keys and hammer action keys? what i want is where the keys feel like a real piano, but the keyboard im looking at says touch sensative but im not really sure what that means.
 
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Touch sensitive means the keyboard can tell how hard you hit the key, hence playing that note softer or louder.
 
You will want a keyboard that has hammer action and is touch sensitive.
 
what would be the best keyboard for around 300 bucks?? any opinions?
 
Farview said:
You will want a keyboard that has hammer action and is touch sensitive.

Why?

It all depends on the style of music. Hammer action is not good at all when it comes to fast synth leads and organ licks.

Figure out what exactly his need are before say he needs something.
 
As stated before:

Touch-sensitive/Velocity-Sensitive = the volume of the notes produced are in proportion to how hard you hit the keys

Hammer-Action/Weighted = the keys are designed to offer the weight and feel of a piano. If a keyboard has hammer-action/weighted keys, it virtually always also has touch-sensitive keys. The reverse is not always true.

Since you state that you want a "piano" feel, then you are probably looking for hammer-action. From looking at the links you posted, I did not see where any of them listed hammer-action keys. The least expensive of the hammer action piano/keyboards are probably the Casio Privia series. They start at around $500, although there was a blemished one on musician's friend for about $425 yesterday. The Privias have a nice piano-like feel and actually sound pretty good.
 
I think the safe assumption tobe made from his post is that he is looking at hammer action, and confused by the term "touch sensitive".

He may very well need neither. But I strongly suspect he would want both.

brzilian said:
Why?

It all depends on the style of music. Hammer action is not good at all when it comes to fast synth leads and organ licks.

Figure out what exactly his need are before say he needs something.
 
another possibility???? i dont recall ever associating velocity with touch sensitivity... wonder if they mean after touch??? all three can be a god send... though if he's not areal pianist (would he be asking this??) the hammer action may be more of a detriment than an advantage... YMMV...
 
brzilian said:
Why?

It all depends on the style of music. Hammer action is not good at all when it comes to fast synth leads and organ licks.

Figure out what exactly his need are before say he needs something.

OK, Let's read the original post:

illies17 said:
whats the difference between touch sensative keys and hammer action keys? what i want is where the keys feel like a real piano, but the keyboard im looking at says touch sensative but im not really sure what that means.
Why don't you read the thread before you start telling other people that their advice is wrong.
 
My understanding (I don't thinbk about it much) is that touch sensititivity refers to the ability to associate velocity with a keystroke. For example, harpsichords do not have this (hence why a piano got its name - from pianoforte as being the first keyboard to have dynamics). Touch sensitivity is the concept of associating a midi velocity to a MIDI on event.

Aftertouch is the ability to associate midi data with various levels of pressure the follow the initial midi on event. Aftertouch is NOT (necessarily) velocity data.

They are different animals.

And agreed, sometimes you just do not want hammer action. But when I am playing piano-ish parts, I want it to feel like a piano. When I want to play synth parts, I use another keyboard.


dementedchord said:
another possibility???? i dont recall ever associating velocity with touch sensitivity... wonder if they mean after touch??? all three can be a god send... though if he's not areal pianist (would he be asking this??) the hammer action may be more of a detriment than an advantage... YMMV...
 
fraserhutch said:
My understanding (I don't thinbk about it much) is that touch sensititivity refers to the ability to associate velocity with a keystroke. For example, harpsichords do not have this (hence why a piano got its name - from pianoforte as being the first keyboard to have dynamics). Touch sensitivity is the concept of associating a midi velocity to a MIDI on event.

Aftertouch is the ability to associate midi data with various levels of pressure the follow the initial midi on event. Aftertouch is NOT (necessarily) velocity data.

They are different animals.

And agreed, sometimes you just do not want hammer action. But when I am playing piano-ish parts, I want it to feel like a piano. When I want to play synth parts, I use another keyboard.

There's rarely any good reason not to want hammer action...IMO anyways
 
taeyoung said:
There's rarely any good reason not to want hammer action...IMO anyways
I disagree to a point, and agree to a point. If you're just talking about pianistic style playing, no doubt. Otherwise, one really excellent reason was given above - some types of playing really lend themselves to synth action. I learnt this after repeated tearing away several layer of epidermis from the inside of my right thumb doing rips. Also, I can get better velocity (speed in this case) playing synth action keys. And finally, the action of a keyboard can and will influence your approach to the instrument.
 
fraserhutch said:
I disagree to a point, and agree to a point. If you're just talking about pianistic style playing, no doubt. Otherwise, one really excellent reason was given above - some types of playing really lend themselves to synth action. I learnt this after repeated tearing away several layer of epidermis from the inside of my right thumb doing rips. Also, I can get better velocity (speed in this case) playing synth action keys. And finally, the action of a keyboard can and will influence your approach to the instrument.

Well, I hear what you're saying. It just seems that anyone that I've seen that's been able to play hammer action well, can play the same things as people do on non weighted keyboards. I don't think there is anything you can't play on weighted that you can play on non.
 
taeyoung said:
Well, I hear what you're saying. It just seems that anyone that I've seen that's been able to play hammer action well, can play the same things as people do on non weighted keyboards. I don't think there is anything you can't play on weighted that you can play on non.
What about guys that grew up playing on hammonds? Just because you play keys doesn't mean that you have ever even touched a piano. (unlikely, I know)

Shred synth players certainly aren't going to make it harder for them to play by using hammer action keys.
 
There's all kinds of different hammer actions, and the shape of the keys is a factor as well. The Roland RD-700SX has keys with fairly sharp edges, so when you do glisses it can really get a burn going on the underside of your hand. You probably don't even want to think about doing thumb glisses on that one. Great feeling keyboard to play though.

Bottom line, you need to play the keyboard before buying to see if it feels good.
 
*sigh*


I give up.
taeyoung said:
Well, I hear what you're saying. It just seems that anyone that I've seen that's been able to play hammer action well, can play the same things as people do on non weighted keyboards. I don't think there is anything you can't play on weighted that you can play on non.
 
Farview said:
What about guys that grew up playing on hammonds? Just because you play keys doesn't mean that you have ever even touched a piano. (unlikely, I know)

Shred synth players certainly aren't going to make it harder for them to play by using hammer action keys.

Hey, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with playing on non weighted synth. Go for it. But after all, the guy from Dream Theatre plays only on weighted keys, and I think that's about enough shred to convince me.
 
taeyoung said:
Hey, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with playing on non weighted synth. Go for it. But after all, the guy from Dream Theatre plays only on weighted keys, and I think that's about enough shred to convince me.
Which guy, they've had 3.
 
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