Intital and After Touch questions

[sunny]

Hi All,

      I never use initial or After touch, I never apply pressure or shake the key , I play softly with light touch , so what settings are needed to switch off initial and After Touch without missing any modulation effects ?

    Secondly i wan't to know , what is the  difference between initial touch and after touch ?
     Are Touch settings are global or ca be stored only  in registrations ?

Thanks,
Sunny

[tyrosman]

why would you want to switch it off it is very handy and easy to use with great effects

[sunny]

   What is the difference between initial Touch and After Touch ?

[mikf]

Initial touch is what we generally think of as touch sensitivity on a piano keyboard ie the harder you play the louder it gets. With real keyboards and hammers there can also be a subtle change in the tone just due to the dynamics of the hammer strike on a string. Good electronic instruments can try to duplicate that, but also can use this feature to modify sounds of voices depending on detection of the velocity of the key strike.
After touch is where additional pressure applied to the key right after the initial sound is made introduces effects to the voice, maybe vibrato, or a slide effect etc.
Mike

[sunny]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for clarifying. If i don't use pressure, then are the Aftertouch effects not applied ? 
Without applying pressure, Can I get same Aftertouch effects through pedal ?

Sunny

[mikf]

You need to apply pressure to activate aftertouch and I don't believe it can be done by assigning a pedal.
Mike

[EileenL]

No it has to be done manually Many will hold the key down and move the finger in a side to side motion this gives very good after touch effect.

[MadrasGiaguari]

Dear Sunny,

one of the beauties of modern keyboards, including arrangers, is the chance to reproduce quite accurately real instruments.

The main factor is the quality of the sample (of any instrument, as a piano, guitar, sax, ecc.). And that is an enormous and sophisticated work that has been carried by the manufacturer, in our case Yamaha. And from one model to another, within the same brand, the sample quality gets more accurate  as you move from entry level arranger to higher level ones, with the best samples available in the flagship arranger (in our case, Genos).

But the realism of a sound (voice, in our case) does not depend only from the quality of the sample. Good brands in their best keyboards, provide precious "tools" to give the player the chance to issue a performance that is almost perfectly realistic.
This can be achieved thank to other tools (than just a good sample), like velocity control (the velocity you use to touch the key) and aftertouch (the further pressure that you put on the key in a second time).
If you listen to any song, you will notice that different notes are played with different volume (key velocity), and that in some of those notes the sound will change, adding nice nuances, depending on the instrument (as mikf mentioned).
The aftertouch effect varies from one voice to another, and my suggestion is that you make trials on some basic sound, like for example an acoustic guitar, a saxophone, a trombone, but also on some synth sounds.

Once you will have realized what a difference you get with aftertouch your playing will become more and more fascinated.

Ciao

Angelo