A Closer Look at Touch Sensitivity Settings in OS v1.5

The expanded CP OS v1.5 Touch Sensitivity offers helpful and creative setups for live performance. I’ve created a few Live Set Sounds available on Soundmondo using this new feature in different ways. Before diving in, let’s review this cool update.

The CP Series has five global Touch Curves. These curves are found by pressing the [TOUCH] button directly above the [MENU] button. There you’ll find the following choices: Normal, Soft, Hard, Wide and Fixed. This is useful for dialing in the general feel of the instrument based on your playing style.

With the new Touch Sensitivity settings, you can fine tune the global Touch even more. Even better, you can do this per Section and save as a Live Set Sound. You’ll find this new feature pressing [SETTINGS]/Touch Sensitivity:

This feature works like a velocity compressor or expander. Incoming velocity can either be increased or decreased at the output as necessary. This feature is cool because:

1. You can save Live Sets with unique Touch Sensitivity Settings. This is useful when switching between acoustic pianos and electric pianos. When I’m playing an electric piano Voice on a funk, jazz fusion or R&B tune, I want my electric piano to be full and present. Increasing Touch Sensitivity Depth and Offset helps to achieve that fullness. This is nice for Clav as well.
2. You can have multiple versions of the same Live Set Sound with different Touch Sensitivity Settings. For example, say you like to play the CFX in three different scenarios: a solo piano gig, a jazz trio gig and a high-energy classic rock gig. Each one of these might require different Touch Sensitivity Settings. The cool thing is the global Touch Curve can remain the same. All that needs to be adjusted are the new Touch Sensitivity Settings.
   1. For the solo piano gig, I might need a harder setting to maximize my entire dynamic range. Before I might set the Touch Curve “Hard” to accomplish this. Now I can slightly decrease the Depth and Offset parameter to get a softer sound.
   2. For the jazz trio gig, I might not change these settings at all, or maybe just a little.
   3. For the rock gig, where I might need a harder sound, I won’t need that lower velocity level like I do on a solo gig. In that case I might increase Depth and Offset. This delivers that harder sound without me needing to play harder.
3. You can experiment with different Touch Sensitivity Settings and create unique expressive Live Sets. Setting extreme values for Touch Sensitivity Depth and Offset allows for interesting and expressive responsiveness. During the CP OS v1.5 Tech Talk, Hans-Peter “HaPe” Henkel showed how to set the Sub Section to sound only with at high velocities. He played the Drawbar Organ sound adding Brass section hits occurring only with at high velocities. Check it out here!

Before moving on to my Live Set Sounds, I wanted to point out a small change in the UI that tells you if a Section has edited Touch Sensitivity Settings. This is useful because you’ll know if the feel of a Section has been changed (or not) before playing a single note. Below is the “Hamburg Grand” Live Set with no change in Touch Sensitivity:

 

And here is the same sound with changes to Touch Sensitivity Depth:

See the icon change on the Piano Line with the little keyboard? That tells me Touch Sensitivity has been changed from the default setting. Knowing this before you start playing is helpful and a nice UI update.

Below are four Live Set Sounds you can download from Soundmondo. I’ve included notes on the Touch Sensitivity settings for each sound.

1. “Hamburg Rock!”: Rock generally needs an aggressive, bright sound. Think about classic rock pianists that play repetitive percussive figures on the piano at HIGH velocity. On a three-hour gig that style can be exhausting. Increasing Touch Sensitivity Depth makes it easier. I set Touch Sensitivity Depth to +14 and Offset to +21. This produces a bright rock piano sound with less velocity.
2. “Chilled C7X”: The C7 piano has a beautiful sound at lower velocities. Lowering Touch Sensitivity Depth allows you to stay in that lower velocity area and you can adjust Touch Sensitivity Offset to fine tune the overall response. The settings for the C7 are -19 for Depth and -7 for Offset. I’ve added a good amount of reverb to the sound as well, resulting in a moody, dark and mysterious piano very different from other versions of this sound.
3. “AmbientFelt”: The Felt Piano is already very soft and intimate. Adjusting Touch Sensitivity unlocks some different textures unique response. In this triple layered Live Set Sound, the Felt Piano is layered with 67Rd Dark from the E.Piano Section and Soft Square over in the Sub Voice. All have different Touch Sensitivity Settings. The Felt Piano has increased Touch Sensitivity Depth to +21 and decreased Offset to -10. This makes it stand out more with less velocity. The 67Rd Dark Voice has decreased Touch Sensitivity Depth to -14 and Offset to -7. I’ve also made it an octave higher. This adds a subtle bell like layer to the sound. The Soft Square Voice in the Sub Section has extreme Touch Sensitivity settings, with Depth set to +63 and Offset to -43. This is similar to the sound HaPe shows in the video but the result is entirely different because of the choice of sound. I increased Attack and Release envelope as well. With these settings the Sub Section Voice only sounds when played at high velocity. All of the sounds use Delay with higher depth on the E.Piano and Sub Sections. Experiment with different velocities when playing this Live Set!
4. “Hamburg SftHorn”: Here, I’m using a lower Touch Sensitivity Depth of -33 and increased Offset of +6. This gives me a very soft piano sound. I’ve also added Sub Section Horn Voice with Touch Sensitivity Depth set to +63 and Touch Sensitivity Offset set to -60. I slightly increased Offset from the lowest setting to produce a more extreme dynamic response: exceptionally soft when played softly and brassy and powerful at high velocities. Both Voices route through the Analog Delay for a moody effe

Take some time and experiment with these settings: You will find new ways to express yourself!

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