MORE ADDED : Watching the last 3 seconds of the video, this looks something new. This isn’t the way the Medeli or the Fatar keybeds have worked. Maybe they are doing something different with those, but I am really thinking they are either using the Expressive E keybed, or they’ve done their own, or there is a new third party keybed.
I could be wrong, it is such a short clip, but this seems better than the EE product. Something is up here.
Could someone please comment in this thread, i am three post limited here.
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From December 2023 :
On the Yamaha MONTAGE M8x poly-aftertouch keybed and its feel.
So Scott of Scott’s Synth Stuff did a video ( a tour of Sweetwater ) where he tested the action of the Yamaha MONTAGE M8x with both weighted action and polyphonic-aftertouch.
Interestingly he absolutely glows in his reaction to that synths weighted keyboard feel !
Sounds like he likes his Hydrasynth more for the P-AT feel, but seeing the image of the key movement on the keyboard it looked like it had a good amount of movement.
My observation from this is that you could play this keyboard like a real piano action keyboard, without concern of activating the P-AT action, unless you really wanted it.
This may address some of your thoughts about the combination of the two features, chm_jacques.
I queued a link to the Youtube video showing the two modes for this keybed.
Polyphonic-aftertouch and “full touch”. I like having a front panel switch for this.
ADDED : And it looks like this video was just made private too. Good i downloaded a copy for myself.
There is definitely some play with the aftertouch press, but it seems much less ( “mush” ) than on the Expressive E keybed. Also the demonstrator did not show any X motion, commonly a per note pitch bend. Make of that what you will.
Given that Arturia have reportedly done their own ( channel aftertouch ) keybed, or had a new design keybed done for their new Astrolab product, it is believable, that this poly-aftertouch keybed is their own new technology as well. It certainly looks new from the video.
These two keybeds could even have been done off the same molds ( the expensive part of making a keybed ) with different sensing mechanisms used.
They indeed have on the new Polybrute 12 ( thread ) with the ArturiaFullTouch keybed. Loopop explains it in his video which i have queued past the preliminaries here.
My opinion. They have gone beyond the Osmose keybed here, despite the lack of an X dimensional sensing.
The improvements with slow motion attacks, and the ability to choose between various keyboard sensing modes, and on the fly tweak those modes immediately are part of what i see as improved.
It’s hard to judge without first hand experience, but the feel looks better to me on the new Arturia keybed as well. Loopop seems to say this in his video too, and he is certainly very complementary of this keybed specifically.
I also agree when he suggests/asks Arturia for a controller with this keybed, and the front panel key action controls.
My thought is perhaps offering that controller with MIDI 2.0 might improve this further over MPE, specifically with envelope control etc.
The Arturia FullTouch keybed looks amazing from the review videos so far and much less fiddly than the Osmose seems. Was tempted by the Osmose or just another poly aftertouch keyboard like the Native Instruments or Korg ones (neither seem perfect). Think I might wait a year and see if they release this as a controller only version. I think they’d be silly not to as considering how many Keysteps you see everywhere I can imagine this becoming a standard.
Does anybody know if there is a Medeli-based MIDI master keyboard on the market (or soon to be)?
I’m looking out for a 49-keys MIDI master keyboard with polyAT…
You can look at the Ashun Sound Machines Technology page for details on the Polytouch keybed. It also gives a contact to license the technology for development. Plus it says this :
Our Polytouch® technology is currently being used in the following products:
OK, the above are all ASM products.
Anybody knows if Medeli keybeds are installed in other devices? As of know I’ve only read about Kurzweil SP4-7.
I use this as a reference:
It’s @Mumdad who suggested that Korg Keystage models would use the Hydrasynth (hence Medeli) keybed. But from what I was able to find, this is not true.
I have to believe Arturia is working on a Keylab or other controller model with their FullTouch. IMO there’s no chance they developed and copyrighted the design, for it to go in a $4000 MSRP flagship only. Just a question of when and how much it costs. I could see them releasing a Keylab with FullTouch at around $1000 MSRP and destroying a lot of the competition. Would love to hear others’ thoughts on it though.
It’s the same company, but those are their consumer product lines you are looking at and are just basic keyboards. The keybed sales work through completely different channels.
I found the hydrasynth explorer pretty bad as a polyAT controller. I checked it with other people who had the same issue. I don’t know if it’s fixed though because I never see people talking about it online.
Basically the issue is when you apply note pressure the first note will have smooth AT midi data, but as you add notes to a chord with each successive note the AT midi data becomes increasingly less smooth and more jagged.
looking forward to the future
thanks for the correction