Nord User Forum

Hi all!

The triple sensor keybed in NP3 is supposed to do both bottom and top triggering of notes. I can clearly see/hear the bottom triggering working, but to me it seem impossible to trigger notes using only the top half of the keystroke, no matter the velocity.

Do you guys feel that top triggering works?

That's not how triple sensor works, since the top half of keystroke triggers no sound on a real piano, so does a triple sensor keybed.

If we name the sensors T-M-B (Top-Middle-Bottom), the detection is done between T-B (normal keystroke) or M-B (repeated keystroke, regenerates the same note without fully releasing the damper i.e. not generating a NoteOff event) while T-M is not used, for the above reason; this is how my Kawai VPC1 works and I assume NP3 and all 3 sensors keybeds follow the same logic.

But the top half of a real piano can definitely trigger a note if you strike the key hard enough to flick the hammer onto the string.

And the NP3 specification clearly states that both bottom and top triggering are features of the triple sensor keybed. So.. yeah.

Anyone else thought about this?

The triple sensor is to emulate retriggering when the note is already down, as maxpiano said. You seem to want something different that is not possible to do with just 3 switches as you cannot make it trigger earlier tha when the 2 first are closed.

Ok, so what does top triggering refer to then? Just normal triggering?

From the Nord Website: "The new keyboard technology makes both top and bottom triggering possible, resulting in amazing control when playing percussively as well as pianissimo with the keys half-pressed down."

I was under the impression that top triggering would mean the first half of the stroke (between sensor 1 and 2), and bottom triggering — the second half of the stroke (between sensor 2 and 3).

mybadmemory wrote:But the top half of a real piano can definitely trigger a note if you strike the key hard enough to flick the hammer onto the string.

And the NP3 specification clearly states that both bottom and top triggering are features of the triple sensor keybed. So.. yeah.

Anyone else thought about this?

If you strike the key hard enough to flick the hammer onto the string, assuming you can actually do that with the key travelling only half its way, technically you just did a normal keystroke.

I also read what Nord website says and could be that they also reat T-M contacts and use that in their algorithm, not sure for which purpose though since as you notice no note is produced (by the way I am not so sure that the contacts are equallyspaced i.e. that the Middle contact is triggered exactly at the half of the key run, probably is somewhere in the lower half...)

On teh Kawai VPC1 site there is a nice visual explanation of the 3-sensors action http://www.kawaivpc.com/en/features/#3