Any x-y midi pads?

[SLiC]

EARE is the best X/Y (Z) pad currently available in my opinion....its sop much more than a configurable XY Pad (and you can have lots of them) its a full MPE Controller https://www.embodme.com/erae-touch expensive but it will do everything- X/Y, sliders, keyboard, drum pads sequencers , al configured as you wish with memory for cc and stored on device etc

Thanks. This looks great however it does seem to be something like a 40 x 25 grid and I'm looking for something with a lot more precision, minimum 0-127 across a single axis but ideally many more pressure points so that it can output 14-bit midi. So far only the Sensel Morph is capable of this but it's been discontinued.

Hoping to find a multi-touch monitor with similar features somewhere but no luck yet... Lenovo laptops apparently have the Sensel tech built-in so maybe running one of these apps on one of those is the way forward

https://sensel.com/

The custom interpolation system feels very 'analogue/fluid' when you are actually using it as remeber they are X/Y/Z sensors so a loy of data from a 1000 points, it isn't just reading one at a time... 100 um XY precision is about as accurate as I need (with global latency <1ms).

I had the sensel morph for a few years, the EARE is far more accurate in my opinion and more importantly has visual feedback of where the position!. I also have a Etouche, if you want something 'self cantering' this is a good option, but I like to move in X/Y and leave it there...

[arvindj]

Ok, that's really good to know. Thank for the info!

[Kalamata Kid]

If you are on Windows consider getting an economical multi-touch monitor.
Perhaps a small one.
Then get:
DawSound
https://markderricos.wixsite.com/dawsound
OR
Xotopad
http://feelyoursound.com/xotopad/
Now you can have X-Y pads and all types of midi buttons, keys and faders.

Are there any multi-touch monitors that support pressure as well as XY input and MIDI controller apps like these that can translate that XYZ input into MIDI CC data?

As far as I know there are no multi-touch monitors that have velocity sensing capability. Velocity can be simulated by where one touches the key. Touch the key higher up and get a higher velocity. I am beginning to like using this method.

An acquaintance had a iPad Pro 12.9" that could sense light or heavy touch. There are iPad apps that have simulated velocity sensing.

[Kalamata Kid]

My feeling is that it can be done on an XY pad on the MT screen by having two fingers touch the pad, the bottom finger will be location and the top finger to measure the distance to the bottom finger. The spread can then give configured to send the desired data. Hmmm, this may actually work. But now find a developer to implement this.

[wilkins_micawber]

My feeling is that it can be done on an XY pad on the MT screen by having two fingers touch the pad, the bottom finger will be location and the top finger to measure the distance to the bottom finger. The spread can then give configured to send the desired data. Hmmm, this may actually work. But now find a developer to implement this.

Distance in terms of both X and Y to send 2 dimensional velocity data with one finger? This seems a little too much for one's brain to intuitively do, imo, when you also have to worry about the location of the other finger. I used to develop games, and this seems remarkably like one of those character control ideas that's brilliant in theory and just not realistic in practice.

[Kalamata Kid]

Perhaps with some fudging the software can make it happen. Before posting I put two fingers on the desk and imagined the rest. The spread of the fingers can be smooth or quantized. Or perhaps use two pads one for location (X-Y) and an adjacent pad for simulated pressure input.

[arvindj]

Z or pressure input for things like amplitude is really intuitive as it always starts from 0 and returns to 0. I'm not using note-on velocity but am mapping pressure directly to amplitude with custom attack/release shaping done in Max. I currently use a Sensel but as soon as I upgrade my OS, the app used to load custom interfaces won't work.

I'm waiting to hear back from Embodme support as to whether the Erae supports 14-bit midi but based on the previous posts, I'm hoping it can as otherwise it would be a waste of all that sensor precision

[Tj Shredder]

Erae is ready to support Midi 2.0…
I have a Roli block, a Sensel and an Erae. The resolution of the Sensel is the highest, but they stopped producing it, and stopped supporting it for decades, its kind of unfinished… I once had the Korg one, which is a useless toy and waist of plastic for the trash can…
The Erae Touch is the one to get, alone for its flexibility…
The sensor precision on the Erae isn‘t waisted at all, even with 7-bit Midi, as you can have a lot of xy pads on that surface…

[Psuper]

Sensel was king for XYZ pads (and other custom controls) for me for years, however it had two huge road blocks. First is the Sensel is pretty much unavailable anymore, and second you have to roll your own template because Sensel out of box experience templates are just shy of garbage. The template I designed and had incorporated consistently was untouchable in the usability department as I created it specifically for my needs -- anyone could do the same with some basic ingenuity. However my latest 'hack' I've used the last 6 months or so is virtual control, it's replaced ALL of my previous XYZ/Modulation/Control devices handily, nothing out there comes close and it has 6 highly configurable and precise XYZ type controls with one hand.

While I know people like items like Erae the lack of tactile representation of a discreet XYZ pad on a physical medium is a game-breaker unless you intend to look at it the entire time while playing. Still, it's in production, expensive, but seems people like it so might be something to look at if you mainly do studio work.

[Kalamata Kid]

What you are describing sounds fantastic. Will a photo or video help us better understand the design? That is if you want to share.

[wilkins_micawber]

@TJ

I'm intrigued. Is it a Sensel morph hack? They're going for 1k used, atm, lol.

Also, I don't like arbitrary restrictions on parameters for made-up instruments, like z (pressure) starting at zero and ending at zero. X-Y pads are great because you can start and end each parameter wherever you want.

I'm digging my touch-screen monitor with x-y pads. I've been disappointed with the accuracy of enough MPE instruments to be stoked with convenient and accurate x-y pads. The korg nanoPad 2 i got in the mail last week has a just barely usable x-y pad but is much more innacurate than a touch monitor. Out of the four touch-to-midi progs I've used, I'm majorly digging TouchOSC. Only one that lets you customize layouts with LUA scripts, afaik. Was able to replicate Bitwig's behavior of allowing x-y pads to be reset to default position, something none of the midi progs I've tried so far allow by default.

[Kalamata Kid]

My Huion tablet, similar to a Wacom tablet when used used in Photoshop seems very accurate. I never used the Huion on an X-Y-Z pad so cannot say how well this will work. The pressure sensing is done by the stylus.

[wilkins_micawber]

I wrote some c# to make a wacom tablet usable as x-y-z midi. I didn't like it because it was hard to keep the z axis constant within a small margin when making large x-y sweeps. It's also annoying switching from actual mouse to getting your tablet cursor over the right area of an x-y pad. Tablet also only allows 1-at-a-time touch. Very accurate for one x-y pad, though

[zerocrossing]

I didn't buy a Touche, but it's still on my wish list. There are a few Touche users here, so hopefully they'll know the answer.

The Touché is great, but it snaps to zero when you take your hand off of it. It’s definitely not an x-y pad, but my Rise 49 has one built in.