Believe me, I tried out a LOT of controllers before I settled on the Roland, which, although it is far from real piano action, was a lot better than most other digital pianos/controllers.egarrard wrote:It sounds like you don't need a better sampled piano, but a better controller. This plug isn't going to fix what you just complained about. A plugin isn't about feel. It's about the sound it produces.
And a plugin IS about feel, to some extent, as velocity curves and ability to adjust this is very important. Although this can be adjusted to some extent within the controller, you usually have better control within the actual plugin.
You know, I actually don't think it's about the 128 steps. I think a lot of it is the sensitivity of the controller. You can always play louder on a real piano, but on a controller, there's a pretty prominent brick wall you hit.The expressiveness you are complaining about is a limitation of MIDI. 128 steps is probably too course. I'm not sure there's any way around it as it stands. I suppose with a keyboard/module combo, a manufacturer could have whatever resolution they wanted between the two. It couldn't interface with normal MIDI stuff without conversion. A new format, maybe over firewire, might be able to take off, but it would need to also transmit normal down-converted MIDI stream for older equipment and software. If they can send 48 or more tracks of 24-bit audio down firewire at the same time, surely they could run several 16-bit control streams along with it.
Well, no, because I'm talking about the actual headroom in the sensitivity of the controller itself.Have you thought about using an upward expander on the output? That will allow you to lower the velocity for the normal stuff , yet give you more headroom on the top. It will give the same amoount of steps, but they will be further apart. Depending on how it was adjusted, it might do the trick for you.
Oh, I agree with you! Controllers are great! But to me, they are like a different instrument than a piano. It's like a sax player playing an EWI, or a drummer playing on electric drums. Sure, they both add a lot of cool features, but why do sax players not all play EWIs and drummers all play electric sets?I agree with you though that controllers are a compromise at best. However, I don't need a truck to move mine and I can bang away all night without disturbibg someone sleeping in the room with me. Compared to what has gone before, I think controllers and piano modules are great! The benefits waaayy more than offset the negatives.
Again, waiting anxiously the try this new piano.
You can also always tell people who are used to playing digital pianos from people who are used to playing on real pianos because of their tone on a real piano. On an electric piano, you really have no control of your tone (or rather you don't have to worry about your tone), but on a real piano... you can work for years and years on developing a good tone.
I know it's not your fault, guys, but the teasing is a little exhausting....