Hiya, Jeff. The Wiki page is saying it's 100 but perhaps that's wrong. Many other sites are mentioning the same value but they may just be referencing the wiki entry. I'll have to do some tests to see what's up but I think for general usage you're right that I probably won't miss the lower values. I'm a hack on the keys anyway. ;-p
 
Hope things are good on your side of the world. Cheers.

Jeff Evans
I thought the maximum velocity value for a DX7 was 117 or maybe 110, a little higher than you think. Adding a value live on the way in of 20 should take it up to where it is meant to go.

All the previous posts I've seen around here have also referenced a peak velocity of 100. In any case, I think it's important to emphasize that any real-time velocity scaling/offset done by SONAR is applied at the output, not "on the way in". The velocities will not be recorded with any scaling or offset.

Hi Beeps I am well except that dog in my avatar did not make it though. We lost her recently to old age (14 1/2) so that was not too bad an innings as they say. Very sad not having her around though. I miss her a lot. She was very good friend and a great dog. Carried on a like a puppy for most of her life. (except for the last year or two, she slept a lot)
 
One way to really find what the max velocity is to use some software that will show you the velocity value after you play it. And hit it as hard as you can.
 
You can add velocity on the way in but perhaps through external means. (Yamaha MEP 4 perhaps) Or can you insert some sort of midi plugin (Franks Midi Plugins) in Sonar where you can add velocity on the way in. Having it being applied on the output is not much use as you won't hear the sound you want on the way in, and that is what is important.
 
Basically the original DX7 sucks (as a controller) and you should really forget about it and use something else. If you like the sound, invest in FM8, you will get that sound absolutely.
 
There may have even been a mod you could install in a DX7 that gave you extra memories and fixed the velocity issue. You never know you may find it somewhere. I did like the action of the original DX7 keyboard though. (Same as Korg M1 I think) Very playable.

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your puppy, Jeff. That is a good run though. Her fuzzy face reminds me of my friends dog who was the sweetest thing and sadly she went as well. Maybe they'll meet up over Rainbow Bridge. ;-)
 
As far as the DX I can't really afford to replace it so I'll have to work with it for now and it does play really sweet. I've seen some little hardware solutions out there but again money needs to go into other studio stuff first (as well as rent/food/etc). I think I've got some good workable solutions from this thread to get my performances down and any really intricate nuances can be edited in PRV afterward. Just gotta mess around with it at this point. Cheers and thanks (to all).
 
 

Jeff Evans
Having it being applied on the output is not much use as you won't hear the sound you want on the way in, and that is what is important.

I'm assuming the sound source is a soft synth, not the DX7 itself. But if it is the DX7 playing it by MIDI echo (the preferred setup for external keyboard synths) would let the higher output velocity have an effect.

There are some hardware solutions that connecet between the DX7 itself and the midi input to your DAW but they are not cheap. Around $130 or so which is quite a lot.
 
http://www.midisolutions.com/prodevp.htm
http://www.midisolutions.com/prodvel.htm
 
The Mod I was talking about was by a mob called Grey Matter Response and the mod was called E!. It lets you set the lower and upper limits for velocity. (as well as many other things like extended patch memory etc) This would be the cheapest option, it is just a matter of keeping an eye out for one on ebay etc. And you will have to open it up and install it yourself!
 
You might pick up an old Yamaha MEP 4 for a song too which is a serious piece of single rack gear that does a lot of stuff to the midi signal. Very cool but a complicated thing to use. You could just ask it to scale the velocity up or add a fixed amount on the way through. Have not seen one for a while though.
 
But if you don't mind using your DX7 with say any instrument VST or otherwise and it seems to respond OK to the limited velocuty reach than you should be OK. As you say you can always input the data and modify it after.