Feature request: Adjust black key aftertouch sensitivity separately; Keylab 88

[Tausendberg]

Hello,

First of all, I apologize if this is already a feature, I must have missed it. Under default settings the white key's aftertouch sensitivity is just fine but with the black keys, I thought I would just need a little practice but it really is too much, I'm starting to worry that I'll eventually break a black key given how hard I have to press down on one.

So, putting in a feature request for the next firmware update, please give us a global option to increase black key sensitivity separately from the white keys. From what I understand, there's no particular technical reason this shouldn't be possible.

[Eric Barker]

There definitely isn't a setting for that. However, with a little work, you might be able to make a script in whatever you're performance environment is to modify the aftertouch data of just the black keys. I'd just do it in Max/MSP myself, but if you're using MainStage, you could create a script with scripter.

[Tausendberg]

No, the problem with that is that it's a keylab hardware issue. The keylab, it only outputs one aftertouch value even though there are two aftertouch strips (one for black and one for white). It takes the higher of the two aftertouch values and outputs that. So, this needs to be adjusted at the Keylab level. In theory, what you suggest could work if I was playing one note at a time but I use Presonus Studio One and it doesn't have scripting features like that. But really, it would just be simpler if they made the keylab 88's aftertouch strips independently adjustable.

[Eric Barker]

Would be nice, but I've never encountered a controller that did this. Sorry you're having trouble. Curiously, on my old Alesis QS, the white key aftertouch strip was getting worn out, and wouldn't even reach 127 anymore (more like 105), but the black keys worked fine. So I was in the reverse position from you, but just from wear and tear.

[Eric Barker]

I also suspect that the two strips come together and are processed at a low level long before the data hits the OS. Keep in mind these beds are made by Fatar, the Keylab OS just uses the data fed to it. On my old Alesis QS (with an older Fatar bed), I had the white aftertouch strip go out for a time (just a bad connection), and when I opened it up I could see that there was separate processing unit for the aftertouch controller, off the main board. I highly doubt this is something that a firmware update could fix, as the OS doesn't see anything but one type of aftertouch controller. It would be like trying to separate out a single pickup's signal on a guitar track.

[Tausendberg]

Well, that's an interesting hypothesis but the thing is, I think the keylab 88's OS does get both signals independently BECAUSE in the firmware update notes for v 1.1.0.4 there is mention that the keylab 88 takes signals from both strips and outputs the higher value through midi, which basically means that it was doing something else before, which means that this is handled at the keylab level and not the keybed level.

I mean, it's not the biggest deal, I would just like more sensitive aftertouch simply because I want to get many years out of my keylab 88 and so I want to be gentle with it.

[Eric Barker]

Oooh! Very astute observation! You must be correct then, if it's something "corrected" in a firmware update, then it must be accessible to the Keylab OS. Then I suspect it could be fairly simple for Arturia to add a single "aftertouch w/b balance" page to their settings menu.

The setting I'd like to see is a "not speed" setting aside from the acceleration. What I'm noticing is that no matter what the acceleration is set to, turning at a medium rate isn't very fast, the acceleration curve only starts to kick in when you turn pretty hard, where the setting makes a difference. I'd like to have a relative nob that's fairly linear but where you can adjust the sensitivity.