A-Pro Aftertouch?

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rbowser
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2010/12/19 21:56:50 (permalink)
Glyn Barnes


I have just set up my A-Pro 800.  I have been trying out the aftertouch. As this is the first keyboard I have had with aftertouch I do not have a bench mark for comparison but I do think it seems a bit stiffer than I would have expected if I had not read the posts here.
 
However I am finding mine usable so far (on the default setting) and I have been having some fun with the vowel morph patches in the Kontakt 4 choirs. I am using Kontakt stand alone, I can go through the full range consistently and after a little practice accurately.
 
I wonder if there was a bad batch of Friday afternoon boards??
 
 


Cool, Glyn - Glad you're happy with the AT.  Do you play standing up?  I'm sitting in my home studio, and the only way I can get the AT action to happen with key pressure is if I press down as hard as I would to roll out bread dough, and that's pretty hard.  The AT does kick in, but it's totally impractical, how hard I have to push.  Standing gives me more leverage, but still not enough, and I don't plan on standing here to play.

It's impossible to figure out, if we all have the same amount of responsiveness in our units, and we just adapt to it differently, or the boards themselves vary that much.  It is true that online you can find users complaining about AT being for kaka over a period of years now, in all Roland boards.

Maybe you have stronger arms! - I just thought AT would be triggered with lingering and slightly more pressure, without this wrestling contest involved.  I dunno!  But it's good to hear someone who's happy with it.

I was going to ask if there were any tricks you're aware of in the settings, but you said you're just using the defaults.  Hmm.  Oh well!

Randy B.

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Glyn Barnes
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2010/12/20 04:13:54 (permalink)
rbowser


Cool, Glyn - Glad you're happy with the AT.  Do you play standing up?  I'm sitting in my home studio, and the only way I can get the AT action to happen with key pressure is if I press down as hard as I would to roll out bread dough, and that's pretty hard.  The AT does kick in, but it's totally impractical, how hard I have to push.  Standing gives me more leverage, but still not enough, and I don't plan on standing here to play. .
I can play it sitting. Currently the A-Pro is on my higher shelf with my old XP-10 in the slightly better ergonomic position on the lower shelf. The amount of pressuer required is higher than I would have thought necessary, there is certainly no chance of triggering it by accident !!  When I get chance I will try the other settings.
 
My problem is I am enjoying having two keyboards too much. I think the XP-10 will remain in use, stuck on channel 1, until it finally dies. Then I be looking for another keyboard.

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Shambler
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2010/12/20 10:18:50 (permalink)
Hi Glyn, how easy is the aftertouch to trigger if you just use 1 little finger?

On the APro  it is quite uncomfortable, but for example on a Yamaha Motif it is easy to trigger the aftertouch with just light pressure from one finger.

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Glyn Barnes
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2010/12/20 16:10:07 (permalink)
Shambler


Hi Glyn, how easy is the aftertouch to trigger if you just use 1 little finger?

On the APro  it is quite uncomfortable, but for example on a Yamaha Motif it is easy to trigger the aftertouch with just light pressure from one finger.


Now that's the acid test, I gave it a go and you are right. It requires too much pressure to be comfortable with the little finger.

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Shambler
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2010/12/22 10:48:24 (permalink)
Thanks Glyn, looks like it is time for an ebay sale!

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scottkrk
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2010/12/25 10:09:24 (permalink)
FWIW I found curve 2 gave the best response.
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Rabid
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/01/14 08:59:01 (permalink)
After touch can really clog up the MIDI stream. This is why Cakewalk and some other DAW's default aftertouch to be off. I wonder if this is also the reason after touch is stiff on Rolands. To prevent normal playing form sending after touch data. Over the years I guess I have become used to Roland's after touch.
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rbowser
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/01/14 10:30:25 (permalink)
Rabid


After touch can really clog up the MIDI stream. This is why Cakewalk and some other DAW's default aftertouch to be off. I wonder if this is also the reason after touch is stiff on Rolands. To prevent normal playing form sending after touch data. Over the years I guess I have become used to Roland's after touch.


Hi, Rabid - I remember the old days of using hardware sequencers when After touch was a super rare spice to use very sparingly.  My Alesis MMT8 would fill up fast with too much of any continuous controller.  I can't remember the memory size in that unit--?  Teeny compared to what we work with nowadays.

I think you're right that the designers have made the Roland keyboards so AT isn't accidentally triggered.  Problem is, though, that I can't make it trigger consistently no matter which curve I use and how hard I press on the keys.  I'll stand up and put all my strength on the keys, and I'll be lucky if I get a small smattering of AT.  It's just totally unworkable.

And so I stick with my map that has AT assigned to the pitch stick.  That works for a lot of the instruments I use.

Thanks for the tip, Scottkrk, about curve 2.  Unfortunately, none of the curves do it for me.  Oh well!

Randy B.

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#38
sadicus
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/01/14 12:54:17 (permalink)
what is a SONAR patch that can be used to test if Aftertouch is working correctly?
alos, should both of these be on?
Preferences> Key Aftertouch
Channel Aftertouch

I have an old XP-30, and an A-300Pro i would like to test.


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manenbu
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/02/02 16:31:15 (permalink)
I did some tests.

First one is trying each of the curves. I pressed middle A on the A300, and pressed down as hard as I could.

Obviously, 4 is totally useless. 1 is crappy as well. I almost maxed out on 3.
Also notice how the initial velocity increases - probably the result of me getting pissed.

Next I was trying to play something (some random notes) with a "real world" attempt of aftertouch. Curve is set to 3.

Well, it's possible. Very hard to control the level, but I guess we are ****ed anyway. So better practice this instead of ****ing about Roland's support.
I must say that I also own an EV-5 pedal, so whatever vibrato I need goes there. AT could be sort of an "on-off" switch for me.

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manenbu
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/02/02 16:35:09 (permalink)
Just for reference, curves out of the manual:


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#41
rbowser
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/02/02 22:42:25 (permalink)
manenbu


I did some tests.

First one is trying each of the curves. I pressed middle A on the A300, and pressed down as hard as I could.
 
Obviously, 4 is totally useless. 1 is crappy as well. I almost maxed out on 3.
Also notice how the initial velocity increases - probably the result of me getting pissed.

Next I was trying to play something (some random notes) with a "real world" attempt of aftertouch. Curve is set to 3.
 
Well, it's possible. Very hard to control the level, but I guess we are ****ed anyway. So better practice this instead of ****ing about Roland's support.
I must say that I also own an EV-5 pedal, so whatever vibrato I need goes there. AT could be sort of an "on-off" switch for me.

Good goin', Manenbu - Thanks for doing the screen shots and posts.

Curve 3 is the most sensitive, as shown in the manual's curve chart, which you've also posted.  When I try that, if I stand up and push so hard I think I'll break something, then I'll get an intermittent swoop of AT data, like in your picture, but I mean, really intermittently - just on a few scattered notes, not all of them.  But for me it's literally impossible to have any kind of reliable consistency with it.  It was less hassle just drawing it in the PRV as I did forever before this.

You've mapped AT to a pedal, good solution.  What I've done is have a special map with AT mapped to the modulation stick:

--This works for me because my primary instruments are Garritan, and most of those use CC1, or alternately, CC11 for volume.  I have a pedal for doing volume via CC11 with those instruments, leaving the mod stick handy for adding good, finely nuanced AT.  It works great, and I use it sometimes for non-Garritan instruments also.

Trying to use the spring-action mod stick for volume control with Garritan instruments doesn't work exactly for the reason that it's a spring-loaded thing.  My ancient keyboard before Apro, a $50 used generic controller beat the pants off the Apro with its mod wheel because it was free wheeling, no center detent, no spring action.  And it could be instantly programmed for any CC controller needed - a much more straightforward proposition than having to make all these various maps for the Apro.  BUT - it only had the one assignable control, the wheel.

AT shouldn't be an off/off switch, because there's a big difference between suddenly having full vibrato, and having it go in and out in degrees.  The extra spice in Garritan instruments is then to also control the speed of the vibrato, via CC17 which I have mapped to an Apro knob in my special Garritan control map.  Having various levels of AT and, if available, degrees of speed - that's what makes samples of real-world instruments come to life.

But, back to the point - AT doesn't work right in the Apro with the default connection to key pressure.  It's spotty at best.  Happily though, AT doesn't have to be only on the keys.  To me there's no problem making another sweep through a MIDI track to add AT data, or any other data, via controls on the Apro or by just digging in and drawing them in the PRV view.

Sadicus, you asked what "Sonar patch" could be used as a test - We've already proven that AT in the Apro doesn't work right, it wouldn't really be a good use of time to discover the same thing all over again.  But it shouldn't matter what patch you use anyway.  AT is commonly used in a lot of synths and their patches - In theory it should work with anything you want.

Randy B.


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#42
dfahrner
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/03/18 17:01:24 (permalink)
As everyone seems to agree, the aftertouch on the Ax00-PRO controllers is pretty much unusable, in that way too much force is required. I'm surprised the Roland hasn't responded to questions about this.
 
Looking inside my A300, the aftertouch strip under the keybed is a standard 2-conductor/pressure sensitive plastic strip, as used in most other keyboards these days. The plastic strip connects to a small PWB at the bottom left, where the controller / power connector inputs are located. There's a trimpot, VR1, just behind the expression input jack, that seems to adjust the aftertouch, but it didn't make much difference in the response: with VR1 fully clockwise, the force required is maybe a little less, and fully counterclockwise there's not any response. Probably a resistor value change somewhere in the aftertouch circuitry would solve the problem - anyone have a schematic?
 
Another approach would be to remove the aftertouch strip and use a thinner felt strip on the top where the keys press (or reduce the thickness of the existing one) and then put a strip of thin plastic under the strip to raise it back to its original level.
 
I noticed that the aftertouch circuit uses half of IC8, an 358-type dual op amp (next to VR1) as a unity-gain buffer: the + input is connected to the VR1 trimpot, the - input and the output are connected, and the output is presumably connected to the analog-to-digital-converter input. So I increased the gain of the buffer to 2, by lifting pin 6 (the - input) and connecting it to both pin 7 (the output) and pin 4 (ground) through 2.2K ohm resistors. It works fine, and I now have usable aftertouch - only half the pressure is required. But of course you shouldn't have to make this kind of modification in the first place.
df
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ampfixer
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/03/24 22:47:46 (permalink)
I've messed with this for a while and I'm not sure it's mechanics. If I use AT I hear no changes in sound but the CC data is clearly being recorded. The CC data just doesn't seem to interact with the patches I'm triggering. Very strange. I have a very old JX8P and AT works great. Go figure.

Regards, John 
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#44
Scoox
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2011/08/10 06:48:09 (permalink)
dfahrner

I noticed that the aftertouch circuit uses half of IC8, an 358-type dual op amp (next to VR1) as a unity-gain buffer: the + input is connected to the VR1 trimpot, the - input and the output are connected, and the output is presumably connected to the analog-to-digital-converter input. So I increased the gain of the buffer to 2, by lifting pin 6 (the - input) and connecting it to both pin 7 (the output) and pin 4 (ground) through 2.2K ohm resistors. It works fine, and I now have usable aftertouch - only half the pressure is required. But of course you shouldn't have to make this kind of modification in the first place.
df
Did you take any photos while doing the mod? It would be useful if you could post a couple of images showing the detail. Thanks!

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moonlightdrive85
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Re:A-Pro Aftertouch? 2015/07/21 07:59:45 (permalink)
Hey all,
 
I came across this thread researching trying to sort the aftertouch on my Edirol PCR keyboards (predecessor to the A-Pro series) - I'd previously stuck layers of insulation tape over the aftertouch strip, which had some effect, but it's worn down over time.
 
Thank you for all the advice here, I'd have been stuck without it - dfahrner's info gave me enough (along with researching IC 358 chips) to attempt the resistor mod, and proved successful (on all 4 PCR's I have). 
 
On the Edirol, the chip is labelled IC15 as opposed to IC8, but is located near the trim-pot as per the A-Pro series.
I ensured the trim-pot was turned fully clockwise, which makes it most sensitive.
 
My soldering isn't the best (which gave me some difficulty on the first one I modded), so soldered wires to the necessary pins - green on Pin 4 (earth), red on Pin 6 (- Aftertouch Input), yellow on Pin 7 (Output). For information, the chip also handles pitchbend (Pin 8 handles power for the chip - mess with this and it stops working...)
 
In terms of resistors, I used a 220k between Pin 6 and Pin 4 (red to green), and 100k between Pin 6 and Pin 7 (red to yellow) - I found this gave more sensitivity, and there is always the option to reduce sensitivity using the trimpot or software/synth you use. Once I confirmed it worked, I taped it up with insulation tape, to the bottom of the casing.
 

 
Obviously, modding is at your own risk, but hope this helps people :)
 
Cheers,
 
Rob
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