# Aftertouch with orchestral Libraries?



## Divico (Nov 12, 2018)

Is someone using aftertouch on orchestral instruments?
I am testing it out on HS controlling the amount of vibrato
(By mapping Channelpressure to CC1).
Just curious what you think.


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## robh (Nov 30, 2018)

Yep. I use aftertouch to control vibrato on pretty much everything that has vibrato.

Rob


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## Henu (Dec 1, 2018)

As a keyboardist, I'd love to do that ^ as well. For me, triggering vibrato with aftertouch is the most natural way to do it, but due to compromises I cannot do it with my current midi keyboard.


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## pbattersby (Dec 1, 2018)

I think after touch control of vibrato is a good idea. I wanted to do that with my own library but some of the samples were already recorded with vibrato so I couldn't do it since it wouldn't be consistent. :-(


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## Gerbil (Dec 1, 2018)

I used to on my EX5. These days I map it to a joystick controller on my SL88 Grand along with dynamics, using the (less subtle) AT to open up the filter a tad for a smudge of colour when necessary.


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## Divico (Dec 1, 2018)

Gerbil said:


> (less subtle) AT


Thats exactly wht im struggeling with. I like the idea but have to use a lot of force to trigger AT and than be really careful to get the value that I want. When controlling vibrato I tend to overdo it or have a strange wobble in there since holding one position is hard for me . Probably I just need to practie


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## HardyP (Dec 3, 2018)

Guys, you all are speaking from the bottom of my heart... AT also for me is the most natural thing for a dynamic shaping. But the implementation of AT seems to be quite tricky in the hardware, or maybe is not in the mainstream focus of the manufacturers. I bought my Novation 49SL MkII as addition to my Piano Fp5 (has not even pitchbend...) mainly because it was one of the few Keys with AT in that price range in that time, and that it was supplied from Fatar.
But it turned out, that it’s nearly impossible to ‚control‘. In my youth time, I remember an old Orla Midi Keyboard, which worked great with an Wersi Organ Expander Ex10R, so at least I know that it is possible, and I would be capable of doing it if everything fits together...

So my question is (since I am thinking about some Hardware purchase this X-Mas):
How good is AT on NI‘s Kontrol S88?


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## Loïc D (Dec 3, 2018)

To me, aftertouch feels too imprecise to use for orchestral VI.
I'm on NI KK S61 mk2, but whatever the keyboard.

Obviously, AT is back to 0 right before releasing a key. If you use it for vibrato, don't you end with some artificial crossfading effect everytime you release the key. 
Besides I don't think there's any orchestral library supporting polyphonic AT (would be awesome, no?)

But I like to use it on synths (filter cutoff, LFO rate, effects, etc.).
Polyphonic AT opens new doors when the synth & hardware support this (I'm using Joué as controller in this case).


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## robh (Dec 3, 2018)

Divico said:


> Thats exactly wht im struggeling with. I like the idea but *have to use a lot of force to trigger AT* and than be really careful to get the value that I want. When controlling vibrato I tend to overdo it or have a strange wobble in there since holding one position is hard for me . Probably I just need to practie


That reminded me that I have two keyboards - a Kurzweil K2000 (synth action) and a Kurzweil PC88 (weighted). The AT responses are dramatically different between those two keyboards, with the K2000 being great for AT.


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