Resolving Velocity Issues

[austin]

Like many 8HD owners, I've noticed a difference in the velocity responses of the black & white keys. I intended to write a post inquiring if anyone has got to the bottom of this problem with mismatched key velocities, but I spotted this site on the web:

larsee.dk/introducing-midimixfix ... prototype/

There's also a YouTube posting demonstrating what's possible.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRt7MXFQuEk

I followed up & bought one of these for a very reasonable sum. I've housed it for now in a small box until I find something that more closely matches the styling of the Fusion. It seems to work fine, smoothing out the differences in velocities nicely. I'm not skilled as a keyboard player, but there is a noticeable improvement.

I would recommend any 8HD owner wanting to resolve their key velocity issues give it a try, but not all at once as it's a one guy hobbiest operation, although in my opinion the electronics look very expertly put together.

[Jim]

I can see how this could be useful when controlling a sound module from another keyboard such as the Fusion but how have you got it connected so that it corrects velocity imbalance issues when playing the Fusion from its own keyboard? I ask out of curiosity as my 8HD does not seem to have this issue.

[austin]

Hi,

I simply turn the local control off on the global midi page, then route midi lead from the output of the box to the 8HD midi in, so there is no internal signal, it's routed via my external box.

I wish I knew what caused these velocity issues, I bought a second 8HD for spares as I had issue with booting up due to a damaged effect board, so I swopped over both keyboards & motherboards but had the same problems on both.

[Jim]

Ah, I suspected as much. We play similar tricks on the Yamaha EX5 to increase the keyboard splits. I have a hankering to do a more formal test on mine - is there a specific test you do for this or is it done by ear?

[austin]

It is obvious by ear, but can be confirmed by the test routine (press 1 + 8 on power-up), there's a page for testing the keys, which indicates the velocity as you hit it. On mine there's at least a 10% difference in the values as you hit the keys with different strengths, it's very easy to hit a velocity value of 127 on the black keys.

[Jim]

OK, my ears are not brilliant but I should be able to hear such a mismatch. Thanks for the reminder about the test page - I had forgotten about that. Think I'll give it a go just out of curiosity.

Update: useful diagnostics those, I had forgotten how good they were. I can't discern any noticeable velocity difference either on attack or release between the black and white keys so I am a happy bunny (8HD).