Aftertouch -> volume

Getting Stuff Done How do I .... ?
#1

Hi,

Can please someone explain me how to connect the aftertouch of the keyboard to the volume of the MIDI track ?

I have an Alesis VI49 and I perfectly see the effect of the change of the pressure on a key in “automation -> pressure -> channel 1” (0 to 127), but impossible for me to send this signal on volume.

It seems that this signal is send on modulation or something like that.

thanks !

#2

You need a synth that supports aftertouch.
It’s polyphonic (per note) and hence cannot be applied as global volume.

PS. You also need Ardour 6 (since there were some bugs regarding aftertouch in A5.x).

#3

Thanks Robin,

Now I have Ardour 6 (from debian unstable), my masterkeyboard is a Alesis VI49 : it has aftertouch, but not polyphonic.

I tried again to send the pressure signal on the volume but I didn’t succeed… Can you please help me ? I only see the effect of the pressure on “automation -> pressure -> channel 1”.

Thanks && best regards,

Aka :slight_smile:

#4

As Robin noted, this all comes down to the synth.

Ardour doesn’t do anything with this sort of MIDI data other than deliver it to the plugin. If it doesn’t have a way to use channel pressure in the way that you want, then Ardour can’t help you.

In theory, you might be able to use some sort of MIDI transforming/mapping plugin that would totally change the messages, but I can’t think of one that will do this. Maybe someone else knows of one that could do this.

#5

OK, I think I have understood : simply nobody you know did what I am looking for with Ardour.

My English is not the best, pardon me, perhaps you say me that this works with some keyboards, but not all ?

Thanks !

#6

No, that’s not really correct. Let’s start from scratch:

There are two entities involved in a MIDI track:

  1. Ardour, which owns the MIDI track, which has various controls (including a fader)
  2. a plugin/instrument/synth

The MIDI track has an input where it receives MIDI data (e.g. noteOn, noteOff, channel pressure etc.). Ardour delivers that data to the plugin. What the plugin does with it … Ardour doesn’t care and cannot change.

Now, perhaps you want the channel pressure messages to somehow controil the fader for the track? That’s not possible.

#7

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