[PD] FSR and velocity sensitive keyboards

Martin Peach martin.peach at sympatico.ca
Sat Apr 12 21:21:54 CEST 2008


Steffen Juul wrote:
> Inspired by the (other) topic on force sensitive resisters:
> 
> How is velocity sensitive keyboards made, do they use FSR's of some  
> sort?
> 

I think FSRs would be best for a touch-sensitive keyboard, where the 
keys don't move. My edirol PC-70 seems to time the delay between two 
switch contacts, the cheapest possible method (I had to open it up to 
clean the contacts under a couple of keys). A piezo might be better (and 
less expensive than FSR) for instantaneous force detection of a key 
hammer. Piezo elements will generate a voltage proportional to pressure, 
while FSRs change resistance with pressure and are not as fast, so they 
don't register impacts very well.

Martin




More information about the Pd-list mailing list