MIDI concertina feature wishlist

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

1 hour ago, seanc said:

I think you are all onto something...

 

As it already exists on keybboards.. Why not add Aftertouch? Essentially, the way that works is you press a piano key normally, that note sounds. BUT, if you then press the key more the aftertouch is activated. 

 

The after touch could be assigned as note bend (up or down). 

 

It could be assigned as a volume swell,

 

Or trigger a secondary sound. (think you are using your stocatto sound and after touch activates that String wash sound you hear so often).

 

Or, possibly most useful on a concertina, it could trigger vibrato, and that rate is determined by how hard the after touch is pressed.

 

And as this is already established technology, it may be not too difficult to incorporate. 

 

 

 

There are two "flavours" of the aftertouch. One is monophonic "per channel" and one is polyphonic "per note". Monophonic is very straightforward to implement in MIDI concertinas - either map the pressure readout to aftertouch message for instrument patches where having bellows driven volume sounds out of place or add a simple thumb joystick and map it's position. 

 

But the polyphonic aftertouch is way, way more demanding, since you have to use analogue readout for each button. 

[Michael Eskin]

I can't even imagine why you'd want polyphonic aftertouch on a concertina shaped device.

The new WARBL2 BLE MIDI wind controller has a 3-axis accelerometer that can be mapped to any kind of MIDI control message flow.  I have a couple, having worked with Andrew on the original. That might be something to consider.  You might even be able to leverage the WARBL2 firmware, which is open source, to understand how to do the mapping.

 

Edited May 26 by Michael Eskin

[David Colpitts]

On 5/25/2024 at 11:00 PM, Michael Eskin said:

I can't even imagine why you'd want polyphonic aftertouch on a concertina shaped device.

 

 

Well, Michael, I can imagine that someone (like me, maybe) for whom concertinas are a (or the) main instrument might appreciate the enormous sonic variety that one can create with poly aftertouch.  For me, it's easier to pick out tunes on a concertina than, say, a piano.  For that reason I play my MIDI Striso board (Wicki-Hayden layout) much more than I play the similarly technologically advanced Roli LumiKeys board.  If I had started on a piano, or a wind instrument, then I probably would not feel that way about the concertina shape.  But it works for me, with pretty seamless transition from the acoustic to the electronic 'tina.

[Michael Eskin]

I'm just not convinced that it's worth the massive increase in instrument complexity and probably cost to implement.
 

The 3-axis accelerometer used in the WARBL2 is a single tiny chip, and you only need one to implement motion-based MIDI expression for an instrument.

[David Colpitts]

You have much more experience than I in these matters, Michael.  I'll take a close look at the WARBL2,  Mayhap I should learn to play something blown like that.  Can I push the "octave button" or use the "scale" function in something like ThumbJam to get "all-scales-one-fingering" or the like?  That'd be cool.....then I could use all the great sounds, including many by you, and play them expressively with something tiny, no?

[Michael Eskin]

The WARBL and WARBL2 both support changing octaves via pressure change thresholds and various related hysteresis and timing settings. Or you can assign functions like octave shifts to any of the three buttons on the back.

 

Full details and documentation is here:

 

https://warbl.xyz/documentation.html

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

20 hours ago, Michael Eskin said:

I'm just not convinced that it's worth the massive increase in instrument complexity and probably cost to implement.
 

The 3-axis accelerometer used in the WARBL2 is a single tiny chip, and you only need one to implement motion-based MIDI expression for an instrument.

 

For me, the main problem with polyphonic aftertouch on concertina/bandoneon is not "is it musically useful", because it obviously is once you stop thinking about MIDI concertina as a simply "silent practice" imitation of "the real thing" and start thinking about it as a versatile MIDI controler with bellows driven expression. The problem is the cumulation of functions assigned to the same finger force vector. IIRC Striso utilises lateral button movement for additional expression. Simple "just press harder for aftertouch" also changes bellows pressure and with just 3mm of typical concertina button travel even velocity sensitivity conflicts with my acoustic concertina playstyle. 
 

It is different with accordions, where buttons act in perpendicular direction, so you can utilise "just push harder" even on an acoustic box. See blues accordions with note bending feature.