New poly aftertouch keyboard from Endeavour (NDVR)

[Arjan]

Hi,

Couldn't find any existing thread on this so here goes. Endeavour have started a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo to produce several models of a master keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch (poly AT):

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ndvr- ... board--114
http://endeavour.de/

Models with 25, 49 en 61 keys are planned. A difference with regular aftertouch is that the (optical) sensors will work on the full travel range, not just when the keybed is hit. That might be an advantage or disavantage depending on your taste. I'm definitely willing to give it a try and have already secured my own 61 key specimen.

I'm not affiliated with Endeavour in any way, I just happened on this while doing my periodical Google search for any news on poly aftertouch. I'm awaiting delivery of a CME X-Key as well but the deliver date has been pushed back twice no. In any case, if the Endeavour project goes through it would be a superior solution anyway.

[B. Townley]

I have the 49 key Endeavour. (Original version).
I use it mainly for controlling the Animoog ipad instument through an Alesis i/o dock and it works a treat!
The keys on my Endeavour are longer than normal, but this is actually a bonus when controlling poly AT.
Nice instrument and the company are nice people to deal with.

I still have my Korg Oasys though and still love it!

[Arjan]

I have the 49 key Endeavour. (Original version).

I assume you're referring to the 'evo' with the positional sensing keys.

The keys on my Endeavour are longer than normal, but this is actually a bonus when controlling poly AT.

Since it uses position sensing that makes sense. I'm pretty sure this new product uses standard size keys though. The keybeds come direct from Fatar:

25 key: TP/7BA
49 key: TP/9
61 key: TP/8SK

and they don't mention anything about non-standard key sizes being used (whereas they do on the evo product page).

Nice instrument and the company are nice people to deal with.

So far that is my impression as well. Good to hear that your evo is holding up well.

[Arjan]

A difference with regular aftertouch is that the (optical) sensors will work on the full travel range, not just when the keybed is hit. That might be an advantage or disavantage depending on your taste.

I just got the following information:

> I do have a firmware suggestion for your product if not already
> planned: customizable response curves. The main reason for this
> is that I fear that it might be difficult to hold a chord at a steady at
> a fixed volume and then bring out one of the notes individually,
> keeping the other notes at the same level.
> Using a non-linear curve might help achieve this: the first 50% of
> travel take the aftertouch output from 0 to, say, 10% and the
> remaining 50% of travel will take the aftertouch output from 10
> to 100%.

we are already doing this !!! You are right this is very important. You can also move the sensivity of each sensor in a range where the key acts like a pressure based poly-at key ...

> Of course I could do this from software too but then I'd only have
> the 7 bit resolution of MIDI poly aftertouch to work with. With the
> full 12 bit resolution you could create much finer and more gradual
>non-linear response curves.

and we are doing this on the keyboard with the full 12 bit

Sounds good. This feature is actually demonstrated in their latest YouTube video. Had not seen that prior to posting here and of course it could have been done in software but apparently that is not the case.

There is also talk about providing the actual 12 bit readings through NRPN messages.

[John Hendry]

I like the way IR does Poly AT but this is good news to see another company coming out with Poly AT solutions. This is what we need to see happening. Good job guys!