Is anyone really use aftertouch?

I mean, I have had this feature since my DX7 and never made use of it and don't feel like I need to use it either.

I find it more intuitive to modulate with wheels and/or pedals. Maybe because I am from old school? I don't think so. Maybe I am missing something?

I have disabled this feature in my DAW to make sure it doesn't capture any of it since it is a midi message eater and you soon get your event list full of it.

I would like to hear your thoughts about the question and why and how you use it, if you do !

Thanks !

 

You have to try it and play some sounds with it. I love it.

I would like to have a polyphonic aftertouch keybord, actually. So you can tweak every note's modulation simultaneously. :drool:

But I do agree that wheels and pedals are also great. I just use everything that gives you real-time control over the sound. The more the better!

Aftertouch is great for adding vibrato while you're playing, in my opinion. It feels rather natural to be able to add vibrato with pressure. More so than using a wheel for it. But tweaking cutoff and resonance feels more natural with wheels for me. Sometimes I'd do it with aftertouch, though. It depends on the sound.

 

The thing is that many "low cost" keyboards have bad aftertouch response, either you have to press keys too firmly or it's acting rather like a switch than a linear sensor. That's what can really spoil the fun and maybe a reason why it's not used as often as it could.
It's a feature that I only use on one out of maybe thirty sounds I play, but it's good to have it when playing with both hands, like a fat power chord of a Jupiter-8-like synth brass sound

 

Yes i use it a lot on Strings and Piano, it gives nuances and minor detail

 

Poly aftertouch is a great feature when playing sounds that make intelligent use of it. It can add an extra dimension because of the way it is triggered, but mainly for live use, where you always want to carry less gear and have more control/expressiveness. In the studio it can always be post programmed in the daw as just another midi controller value.
But even in the studio, because aftertouch is still susceptible to pressure/velocity after it's been triggered, it kinda differs from a control like a mod wheel, so it makes sense to be amongst the selected recorded controllers, when such a synth/sampler patch is played.
And to give a simple example.
Let's say you have a smooth Juno/Jupiter saw string pad that plays very long notes and a hi octave tremolo "real" strings patch that triggers with aftertouch after you hit velocity 70 or higher. Adding the tremolo strings requires the player to press harder on the keys after he started playing the main sound. But the action doesn't end there because the second sound triggered can be dynamically altered with more velocity adding more tension and liveliness to the otherwise typical synth string pad. I would always want my mod wheel to do something else when playing such sounds like cutoff or res or envelope controls etc.
Of course that's just me, whatever suits you is appropriate of course.
All the best

 

Aftertouch is a huge advantage in live performance for me.

 

I love it to mimic vibrato, be it for strings or anything else I wish to lend some vibe. Sometimes I also use AT to play with the filter. The use of AT frees you up to assign the mod wheel, expression pedal or anything else to be used in addition to it. As a guitar player it is an extension of left land technique and is very natural for me to utilize while playing keyboard. The idiocy of FL Studio not to have it as a default makes me scratch my head in wonder.

 

it gives what makes music alive : nuance

maybe not important when it comes to "in your face" EDM, but crucial for classical, soundtracks, etc... ( and any other music who wants to bring various emotions )

 

i play Synths for over 25 years, its a feature that is unmissable for a performer

 

I get the point and understand the vital importance of nuance, of course, but as a former organist (the first instrument I played in my youth) I got used to use the expression pedal, foot switches and mod/bend wheel on keyboard for nuances and never felt the need to set the aftertouch parameters since it doesn't come naturally in my playing habits.

But reading your comments sure give the envy to try it out and who knows, maybe I will get the hang of it and become addicted

Thanks !

EDIT:
Now I remember why I never used it in the first place when I was initiated to that feature when I bought my DX7 that recently came out in the 80s. The pressure to apply made it almost unusable. But with my Akai MPK88 it is another story. I think I will like it

 

Last edited: Mar 4, 2018

by example. you want to raise the cutoff but your both hands are in use on the keys, just a pressure move does the work for you

 

I'm myself always frustrated when playing an organ the lack of velocity sensitivity.

On an aside, I was doing sound at a church in San Francisco for my friends in a wonderful world music group called Suzanne Teng and Mystic Journey. I was alone after we set up and I eyed the organ with musical lust. I had never played a large and intricate instrument such as this one, so popped it open and turned on the power. I let it warm up for a minute or two and then played a D diminished arppegio and the hairs on my neck stood up. It was a really powerful sound. I played around with it for just a minute or two. Very cool, indeed.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 5, 2018

WOW, that must have been a big trill for sure.

 

Lemme just add that playing/practicing with aftertouch is an exercise towards dynamic playing that gives synth players an additional "perk" over classically trained pianists because they learn how to handle various sounds simultaneously. It teaches precision and control in a different than usual way. Playing different dual layered with aftertouch sounds with each hand is no easy feat for the uninitiated, you have to think and control four sounds (or even more if a patch is programmed to include a third sound rising later) simultaneously instead of two, and that can be a great brain exercise.
And as mentioned there is always the example of just adding mod parameters to aftertouch like here:

Cheers.

 

Oh, baby...you said it, a trill of a lifetime!

 

I am no expert on keyboards but I can say I do use it on certain patches. I really noticed it first on my Roland D-50.

 

most of time the aftertouch are useless in these days because they start to produce edm tracks, the edm oriented vst synth had removed some built in presets has aftertouch, and seems they will never be a true keyboardlist