This instrument is fun to play: You have four rows of 24 keys each. Thus the spacing of semitones is pretty similar to the piano overlay. Each row is an octave apart from the next. Thus there are two positions for most notes, where at least one of them is close( r) to the horizontal middle of the pad, so you have space for chords or bends in both directions.
Vertical space is still sufficient to willingly play in the ballpark of a specific value (so the vertical CC is set to absolute).
When playing with two Morphs you can have the left hand on the left and the right hand on the right Morph, so they don’t interfere. In the attached mapping the upper two rows of the left Morph have the same pitch as the lower two rows of the right one, so you have some overlap that can be played from both hands (without having to move a hand to the “foreign” Morph). Even with this overlap you still have seven octaves with two Morphs (five with one Morph).
To play this as intended set the synth to +/- 12 semitones pitchbend range.
Have fun!
4x 2 octaves 12 R.senselmap (3.3 KB)
4x 2 octaves 12 L.senselmap (3.3 KB)
Edit: If two octaves is too dense for you you can also set the pitch bend width of the synth to +/- 8 or 9 semitones, then the distance is closer to what we have with a real piano. Then you have to adapt the image above for the innovator overlay accordingly. With the bigger distance the advantage that you have two positions for all notes (from which one is close to the middle) gets lost a little of course.
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Ferdinand, have you experimented at all with any tactile stuff on the overlay? I’d really like to attach lasercut rectangles to the innovators overlay but I like the feel of the raw surface so much more. I’d like it to feel like a Linnstrument. Maybe we could work together somehow.
No, up to now I have tried the following variants:
- Innovators overlay with paper underneath. Nice for prototyping. The biggest disadvantage of the innovator’s layout is imho that sensitivity in the corners becomes less and (more disturbing) that I either have to use thick paper or tend to get “phantom touches” when playing close to the edges, because the borders of the innovator layout are too high for thin paper, so the overlay is sagging and touching the surface involuntarily. But as said, nice for prototypes.
- Some “best of” stuff printed on neoprene. Has some nice feeling (similar to Continuum) and it is so far “tactile” that you get a good haptic feedback how strong you press. But no elevated areas to differentiate between keys. The disadvantage here is that I haven’t found a clever way to fix the overlays. The current “solution” is that I printed the overlays much wider than necessary and place heavy objects on the left and right side. Not exactly elegant but working
- the keyboard and drums overlays. These are pre-made by Sensel and have a haptic component
- no overlay at all. Also a cool way to play. As haptic as a plastic plate can get - but the most responsive variant of all
The overlays above also favor getting rid of the concept of keys - particularly when playing with pitch rounding off. So e.g. you can aim for playing pure intervals vs the usual equal tempered ones etc. Thus imho just having a flat surface horizontally is more advantageous than limiting. (Also have a Linnstrument, wouldn’t mind if the horizontal separators were only visual markers instead of engraved there. But it’s still ok the way it is).
Vertical, slightly raised delimiters for 2x24 or 8x24 would be nice though.
Don’t have a 3d printer. As soon as the magnets are available I might consider to go to a printer shop and print some of the best off overlays there. Then I could consider raised vertical delimiters etc.
Edit: Would be careful with cutting the Innovator’s overlay: My fear would be that the “sagging” problem would be increased and the overlay always touches the Morph at several places, leading to “phantom notes”.
