VSTi that recognizes Key/Poly Aftertouch?

[bsork]

Not many MIDI controllers have key aftertouch and those that have are AFAIK expensive, but I like the idea of being able to affect at a single note in a chord while it's sounding. As I'm doing a set of MIDI utilities for V5, I've come up with the idea of creating a script that translates either channel aftertouch or a CC into a one-note poly aftertouch on a first, last, lowest or highest note basis.

The thing is, I don't have any VSTs that recognizes poly aftertouch, and most of them don't, AFAIK. Does anybody know of any synth or sampler plugin that does? Preferably free or cheap of course...

[nay-seven]

I'm not a specialist but this one can interest you :

MiniMogueVA free http://glenstegner.com/softsynths.html
rez free http://www.ugoaudio.com/
ME80 (demo or 30 US dollar ) http://www.memorymoon.com/

and if you need only test , maybe you can use a demo of cs80 from Arturia..?

[bsork]

Thanks, nay - I'll check 'em out.

[Stefan]

I haven´t tested this, but many patches of the Symptohm Melohman PE Edition are tagged with aftertouch capabilities: http://www.ohmforce.com/ViewProduct.do?p=SymptohmPE

Best,
Stefan

[amiga909]

as u surely knew, there are 2 forms of aftertouch: going from your description, bsork, u want poly aftertouch (control key pressures in a chord seperately).
afaik only very few midi keyboards support poly aftertouch (akai mpc pads, roland a50). mono/channel aftertouch is much more common.
therefore (afaik) there are heaps of vsts that support aftertouch but they dont specify which aftertouch is meant (going from the rarity of keyboards with poly aftertouch, its probably mostly mono aftertouch).
therefore your script should be able to work with situations when the user doesnt know if there is poly or mono aftertouch?

ur question:
albino, z3ta+, cs80, blue, battery, kontakt support poly aftertouch.
freebies: found these: antti augur, oatmeal, linplug free alpha

edit: yup, that memorymoon vsti (me80) seems to concentrate on the aftertouch issue. dont miss it for a mono->poly aftertouch idea.

[bsork]

Thank you all for your suggestions, guys. The fact that aftertouch is mostly of the channel/mono variety together with the fact that most synths are polyphonic makes googling for "polyphonic aftertouch" a bit of a hassle - that's why I've been asking you. It appears (ahem...) that I have some of your suggestions already in my VST folder. Guess I should have checked before asking...

I've been fooling around with the FreeAlpha and the ME80 with a simple patch I made that translated the mod wheel into poly AT for the last NoteOn received (that was easy!) jut to get the hang of how playable it would be, and I stumbled upon some thing that I should incorporate in the script when I get to it: Some kind of "pick up" point adjustable from 0 to 127 for the controller value. Say you have a chord and the poly AT mode set for last note, and move some controller to open the filter and/or the raise the volume on just that note. Then you add a note to the chord so there's a new "last note". With a normal "last note" priority the previous note would be dampened and the new note would be very loud instantly. That would happen with a next-to-last note as well if the the last note was released. This can of course be totally cool depending on what you want, but I'd also want to be able to add a new note and a get a more sublte transition to the next note. This idea raises some questions on how to handle the note that last received the AT when a new take over. I have to think about that.

therefore your script should be able to work with situations when the user doesnt know if there is poly or mono aftertouch?

I don't think so. Firstly, a lot of controllers already have mono AT and if they don't it's easy enough to convert a CC to that. (Whether there's any point to that is up to the the receiving device as you don't actually create more "detailed" controller information by converting a CC that way, but it may that the modultion setup of the synth or whatever has different options for say CC1/mod wheel and the AT.)

Also I would think that even if the marketing blurb can be a bit confusing whether a synth recognises poly AT and not just mono, the documentation would in most cases tell the true story. If there is any documantation, that is... And if a user really wants to have a go at poly AT (even in crippled way like this obviously will be), (s)he should be sure of the differences between the two both technically and how to play it.

[ZooTooK]

NI Reaktor recognise poly AT. Now Reaktor is just like Usine a completely configurable environment (called ensembles) - not many ensembles have implemented poly AT. But it's really easy to change from channel AT to poly AT. And it works for sure. I've used my Ensoniq EPS (now sold) connected to Reaktor with an ensemble I've built - it's magic to control the LFO speed polyphonicly!

Second hand Ensoniq keyboard is a pretty good option for poly AT. I sold my EPS for $100

[woodslanding]

I had a trombonist friend who used the EPS poly-AT to flatten the thirds on his trombone patch to get just intonation. Makes brass samples sound 10x more realistic!

[Soir_Noir]

Thanks for posting this info, just picked up a Kurzweil Midiboard and am experimenting with Poly AT. What a feature