Pianoteq Velocity Curve

[D3sertDog]

What velocity curves do people use for Pianoteq?

[rtwfroody]

This is mine: https://imgur.com/a/G1SDfP2

I don't get a ton of expression out of it, but it lets me go soft-medium-hard without accidental outliers suddenly being way too loud.

[D3sertDog]

I've been experimenting with the below velocity curve. The flat section between 0 and 20 is because I can't get any velocities below 20 and the upper flat section is because much above 70 I feel like I'm going to sprain my finger or break the instrument. Concave downward "feels better" than linear.

[D3sertDog]

This is mine: https://imgur.com/a/G1SDfP2

I don't get a ton of expression out of it, but it lets me go soft-medium-hard without accidental outliers suddenly being way too loud.

It's interesting we both have settled on concave downward

[Roger_Linn]

Hi D3sertDog,

I admit that LinnStrument's velocity accuracy isn't excellent. I mention the challenges involved on the LinnStrument FAQ page, Pre-Sales tab, FAQ "What are the limitations of LinnStrument's sensor technology", paragraph 1.

Are you aware of the Touch Sensor Prescale hidden setting? It scales the output of the sensor and can sometimes be helpful in fine-tuning sensitivity. To learn more, open the Panel Settings page, Global Settings tab, and search for "prescale". Please read the warning about setting it too high.

I hope this may be helpful.

[D3sertDog]

Hi D3sertDog,

I admit that LinnStrument's velocity accuracy isn't excellent. I mention the challenges involved on the LinnStrument FAQ page, Pre-Sales tab, FAQ "What are the limitations of LinnStrument's sensor technology", paragraph 1.

Are you aware of the Touch Sensor Prescale hidden setting? It scales the output of the sensor and can sometimes be helpful in fine-tuning sensitivity. To learn more, open the Panel Settings page, Global Settings tab, and search for "prescale". Please read the warning about setting it too high.

I hope this may be helpful.

No, I wasn't aware of the Prescale setting. When I first received my Linnstrument I wasn't aware of the work needed to make a sound "feel good" and expressive under my hands. I just thought some sounds felt good and others didn't. But once you get it, the Linnstrument is a joy to play! ThoughtForm Max's YouTube have really helped in understanding how to tweak a sound to make it feel right.

[rtwfroody]

I tried out D3sertDog's curve. Felt about the same of mine, and then I forgot that I changed it. However, there's a major difference. With D3sertDog's curve if you play a note really softly it doesn't register at all. Which gave me the experience of "sometimes" a note wouldn't play. It took me a week of chasing my tail before I realized this was because of the new curve. So be aware of this side effect.

[D3sertDog]

I tried out D3sertDog's curve. Felt about the same of mine, and then I forgot that I changed it. However, there's a major difference. With D3sertDog's curve if you play a note really softly it doesn't register at all. Which gave me the experience of "sometimes" a note wouldn't play. It took me a week of chasing my tail before I realized this was because of the new curve. So be aware of this side effect.

I haven't had that problem. No matter how softly I play I can rarely get a note with velocity less than 25, but I can reliably get below 25 if I'm already holding down a note (which I find to be an interesting artifact of the Linnstrument). In that case I can hear both notes. Maybe it has to do with some other Pianoteq setting?

[Rune_7s]

I wonder if the sensitivity prescale settings have been changed so the Linnstrument that misses notes is no longer calibrated correctly?

Try recording it into a piano roll and see if your DAW still sees the notes or if both he DAW and Pianoteq miss it. If both miss the note, they'll it's a Linnstrument thing. If the DAW sees the note but pianoteq makes no sound, then it's likely a Pianoteq thing.

[FranklyFlawless]

Touch Sensor Prescale values only change after factory calibration by manual configuration on the LinnStrument or by uploading firmware using Arduino IDE, which sets the value to 75 if using the main GitHub repository.

[Roger_Linn]

For that past 3 years, the sensor consistency has been so good that at the factory, we've been setting Prescale to 75 for LinnStrument 200 and 90 for LinnStrument 128, which results in the same apparent sensitivity due to the different lengths (and therefore resistances) of the 200 and 128 sensors.

Note that as stated in the description of the Prescale setting on the Panel Settings page > Global Setting tab, settings above 100 can cause problems.

Frank is right that loading source code with the Arduino IDE will reset LinnStrument's sequencer data, stored panel settings, sensor calibration data and Prescale setting to defaults. However, if you also use the trick described on the Source Code page, none of this data will be lost.