An Introduction to the Seaboard RISE: 2.2 - PRESS Video Lecture | Introduction to Seaboard Rise: Advance Music Production

press is defined by the pressure applied
to the key wave after it's struck
commonly referred to as after touch
press is one of the most intuitive
dimensions of touch and easily
integrates into the way your hands play
the Seaboard let's navigate to preset
number 95 called pluck and drone and
take a closer look at press just by
looking at the graphical representation
here we can deduce a few things the
slope isn't a straight line so the
modulation is going to unfold a bit
differently than it did in the last
example in this dimension x-axis is
representing after touch or pressure
applied by our fingers after they hit
the key wave and the y-axis again is
representing any amount of modulation as
we apply pressure we shouldn't hear any
modulation until we press down a bit and
once we crossed that threshold we should
hear a significant change in a sound
when we click on press we'll be able to
see what parameters are mapped to this
gesture for this preset it's assigned to
adjust the level on sample one the level
of oscillator one and two the feedback
on filter one and the delay amount on
filter one and the cutoff on filter two
if I just hit the key way without any
sustain you can see that most of what
we're hearing is sample two which is
that percussive plucking sound it's only
when I hold down a key wave and apply
pressure that the levels of sample one
and all three oscillators come into play
creating that Street drone component of
this patch it's very common to map press
to parameters which control the volume
or brightness of a sound this way you
can get very expressive volume swells
which respond very much like a
traditional instrument would a little
bit goal is a very long way with this
one since volume is the parameter that
goes hand-in-hand with press adding just
a little bit of color to this gesture
can be really effective such as a slight
cutoff boost we have here and you can
hear that brightness really come into
play
let's map the placement of the two
samples and two of the oscillators so
that as we apply more pressure to the
key waves the sound sort of splits wide
and becomes more narrow as we remove
pressure start by making sure that press
is selected and then we'll head over
here to sample one and then click on the
arc of pan and drag all the way down on
sample two we'll do the opposite
creating a hard right pan and then we'll
repeat that process on oscillator 1 here
and oscillator 2 over here but we'll
leave oscillator 3 right in the middle
now as we press on the key waves we've
created even more dimension with this
one gesture it sort of pulls itself
apart
I'm really into the adjustments I made
on this preset so let's save this into
our library so we can always access it
later we're gonna do that by clicking on
the menu icon here on the top right hand
side and select save as from the drop
down menu which appears you can assign
all sorts of tags to each patch which
will help you sort through them later on
when you're composing I'm gonna add the
tag motion to this patch and then add
the word stereo to the title from now on
we'll always be able to find the setting
inside of our library there are a few
modes that you can play the Seaboard in
which we covered earlier while in
expression mode the three touch Bader's
on the left hand side will adjust the
sensitivity of a few key gestures the
fader on the right with the circle on
top controls the sensitivity of press
and you can adjust this until it feels
right for you and when you pull it all
the way down you'll actually see a light
illuminated in the middle of the fader
which means that press is no longer
engaged watch and see what happens when
I press the key waves now
as we wrap our minds around how Equator
is working in tandem with these gestures
one of the challenges is getting your
motor skills to jump on board you can
practice using press a number of ways
let's head over to patch number 110
glass dome bells first I would start
with single melodic lines and playing
patterns which have moments that you can
press on so to speak I find that two
note phrases naturally lend themselves
to this gesture and the next step would
be to try multiple notes at the same
time try playing a chord and then adding
pressure to just a single individual
note at a time you can create
interesting internal melodies this way
or spotlight a particular note usually
one word voice leading chords our ears
gravitate towards whichever note is on
the top and this way we can create our
own internal melodies with press we can
pick and choose which note we want our
listener to hear at any given moment in
time even after we've placed our fingers
down on the key waves