I can attest that the keyboard on the poly is the
best fatar available (the same on the A6) and full channel aftertouch
is implemented. Indeed, it is better aftertouch response than most any other
synths, even those that use the same keyboard. The reason? It is that Dave Smith
has taken the basically, in his opinion, rather rough aftertouch that the fatars
output, and has used his own algorythms to smooth it out and make the pressure
curve really really nice. I have used it extensively and while demo-ing at the
Namm booth, a few people came up to comment on the fact that it was the best
aftertouch response they had felt. Hence the conversation on this topic. This is
just another example of how a designer implements things rather than just
plugs components together. Makes all the difference.
The knobs are the same, the encoders are not. They
are smooth, not detented and do not have the same few issues of the others.
Big knobs means less space between them and less
room to do easy turns. The issue of what size knobs to use was not conditioned
on Dave having extra stock I can assure you. He likes those knobs. And even if
they don't appear shiny and all, they really do the job. The rest of the synth
is pretty flashy with all the blue lights.
----- Original Message -----From: Miles BaderSent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 3:34 AMSubject: Re: [Evolver] Re: Poly keyboard video at sonicstateOn Thu, 27 Jan 2005 11:09:03 +0100, Andrea Toni <Andrea.Toni@...> wrote:
> -- kbd aftertouch ? or only vel ? is it a Fatar or .. ?
It's said to be the (exact) same keyboard as the Alesis A6, which is a
Fatar, but supposedly one of the nicer ones. I think the A6 has
aftertouch, so the keybed itself must support it. Still needs the
wires to the synth though, I guess D.S. could leave those out :-).
> and i really dont like the shape of the knobs.
They look like the exact same ones as on every other Evolver model (I
guess he bought enough to last a while :-). Maybe not completely
ideal, but too bad either. A lot of people have a large-knob fetish,
but that might make the panel too cramped -- there are a lot of knobs
crammed in there.
[Personally, I'm a fan of having different knobs for different
functions -- filter cutoff biiiig knob, sequencer little knobs, etc.
-- and irregular layout, to help your muscle memory, but those things
add to the cost.]
The thing I'd be most concerned about is the quality of the underlying
encoders; I've heard of people having their Evolver encoders die.
-Miles
--
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.