I tried this out at the Apple store and it blew my mind how realistic the sensation was. It totally obsoletes Apple's older diving-board style trackpads that were already best in class.
This strongly reminds me of the aftertouch feature in MIDI music keyboards. I wonder what the granularity of the force touch range is (MIDI aftertouch, I believe is capable of 127 levels, but I doubt most hardware delivers that).
It further strikes me that force touch's current implementation is analogous to MIDI's Channel-level aftertouch... basically, on a music keyboard that is so equipped, if you're holding down multiple notes, only the maximum detected pressure across ALL the held notes is applied.
Per-note aftertouch is rare ($$), but so much more expressive.
Just imagine, in the future, if Force Touch could be made sophisticated enough to differentiate between the pressure between EACH touch in a multitouch scenario - and act accordingly...
Does anyone make a MIDI keyboard that responds to pressure exerted to the left or right on a key, as well as to downward force? I've long ached for this feature so that something analogous to bending a guitar string would be possible on a keyboard instrument. Pressing a key, then applying pressure to your finger leftward and rightward would bend the pitch slightly flat or sharp respectively, allowing control over vibrato or pitch bending. This would make possible much more expressive playing, and is what I most miss when I move from guitars to keyboards.
Does anyone make a MIDI keyboard that responds to pressure exerted to the left or right on a key, as well as to downward force? I've long ached for this feature so that something analogous to bending a guitar string would be possible on a keyboard instrument. Pressing a key, then applying pressure to your finger leftward and rightward would bend the pitch slightly flat or sharp respectively, allowing control over vibrato or pitch bending. This would make possible much more expressive playing, and is what I most miss when I move from guitars to keyboards.
There actually are some very costly MIDI keyboards that have string-like responsiveness, however on iOS I can recommend several apps:
None are perfect, but in combination I find a lot of guitar-like behavior and sounds are achievable. Anything Apple does to increase pressure sensitivity should help tremendously.
Comments
This strongly reminds me of the aftertouch feature in MIDI music keyboards. I wonder what the granularity of the force touch range is (MIDI aftertouch, I believe is capable of 127 levels, but I doubt most hardware delivers that).
It further strikes me that force touch's current implementation is analogous to MIDI's Channel-level aftertouch... basically, on a music keyboard that is so equipped, if you're holding down multiple notes, only the maximum detected pressure across ALL the held notes is applied.
Per-note aftertouch is rare ($$), but so much more expressive.
Just imagine, in the future, if Force Touch could be made sophisticated enough to differentiate between the pressure between EACH touch in a multitouch scenario - and act accordingly...
Does anyone make a MIDI keyboard that responds to pressure exerted to the left or right on a key, as well as to downward force? I've long ached for this feature so that something analogous to bending a guitar string would be possible on a keyboard instrument. Pressing a key, then applying pressure to your finger leftward and rightward would bend the pitch slightly flat or sharp respectively, allowing control over vibrato or pitch bending. This would make possible much more expressive playing, and is what I most miss when I move from guitars to keyboards.
Force Gesture - On the touch pad, you can put pressure sensors under the pad. How would you do it on iPhone/iPad glass?
There actually are some very costly MIDI keyboards that have string-like responsiveness, however on iOS I can recommend several apps:
Steel Guitar
Steel Guitar by Yonac Inc.
https://appsto.re/us/8eqtt.i
iFretless Guitar
Guitar : iFretless by Ngo Minh Ngoc
https://appsto.re/us/SDmjL.i
Pocket Guitar
PocketGuitar - Virtual Guitar in Your Pocket by Bonnet Inc.
https://appsto.re/us/e_Fkr.i
None are perfect, but in combination I find a lot of guitar-like behavior and sounds are achievable. Anything Apple does to increase pressure sensitivity should help tremendously.