This is very interesting! What did the Joué folks say about this data? They’re very responsive and friendly, and if there’s a technical issue that they can fix, I’m surprised that they haven’t jumped on it yet.
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Well I didnt go through my ‘how to visualise the issue’ steps with them - I only asked on their forum about the poly pressure of one note interfering with another, and they told me it was a sensor limitation. At that stage my options were to moan or get angry, or give up. So I gave up. And now their forum doesnt seem to exist so there is no record of this communication. Months later I was talking to a new Joue owner and I came up with the ‘how to visualise the issue’ steps, and they saw the same thing I saw. While I was talking to them I got my Joue out of its box, where it has been sitting unloved for months, applied latest firmware update, but nothing had changed. Just terrible, which is a real shame as I like some of the Joues overlays.
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And yes, I would love to be proved wrong, or for them to realise they were wrong and that its is an issue that can be fixed in firmware. I’ve no hope of this happening though, and yes it completely blows my mind that I seem to be the only person to have mentioned this rather notable issue with the Joue on the internet in all this time. This alone is reason for me not to place too much weight on my own experience, but since its consistent and repeatable and I cannot come up with a workaround (other than not using pressure at all), I dont really know what to think.
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Well, I don’t think you’re wrong, nor do I think that it is a fixable thing in firmware if they flat-out told you that it’s a hardware limitation. You shouldn’t cast doubt on your results, particularly if they ARE consistent and repeatable.
Take one step back in the process, though, and you might see where the disconnect is happening: if you’re the only Joué user who has run into this behavior and worried about it enough to study its cause, it may be because you’re the only Joué user who has even noticed it without having it pointed out to them. I guess the question becomes: is this limitation bothersome because it’s technically inelegant, or because it screws with the process of making fun and pretty music with the Joué? That is a very different issue than whether or not the hardware is behaving as expected.
Looking at this from a musical perspective, I actually find the idea of one poly pressure point robbing from another to be kind of intriguing, and I am tempted to fire up my Joué again and play with it in the context of using it deliberately in my compositions. To quote Victor Wooten, “If you can’t get rid of it… make it funky.”
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Well, it totally screws up my ability to play, which I do not consider to be fun.
It’s not subtle, dont ask me why nobody else moans about it. I only started monitoring the midi data because things were so obviously screwed up whilst playing and I wanted to see what was going on.
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I think the reason is that few people use polyphonic aftertouch while playing polyphonic. Quite challenging for the player. With poly AT, even in MPE, most people are in legato mode.
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I need to revisit my previous evaluation.
In hindsight, I was already able to determine which overlay was in each slot, and to create all the virtual midi ports I could possibly want. So… I don’t know what my problem was.
Will report back when I figure that out. In the meantime, just assume I was wrong about everything.
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I can confirm your findings @SteveElbows. I too wrote on the forum and was disappointed when I saw that they ended up deleting the whole thing instead of discussing things in the open.
I do believe it’s due to a limitation of the sensor as I was able to prove that the behaviour would difer based on where you would press on it.
3 presses on the same horizontal axis causes issues, but move one finger upwards (y axis) and things are much better.
It’s disappointing to see that nothing has changed with the new Joué on KS. Worse, the old version is called Pro, when it has such obvious flaws.
Needless to say that mine has been in a box for over a year now as nobody was even interested in buying it 2nd hand.
It’s a shame, as the concept of modules is great. You can play 3 instruments from a single layout, using 3 modules and can replace them on the fly during a performance.
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Since I upgraded to Pro ,two days later, two of my Pads are no longer detected and do not work anymore, and the one I have left does not transmit MPE anymore. I am still waiting for answer, but their Custom service is weak, and the only answer i had so far was totally useless, so if you upgrade, keep in mind you might end up like me, paying 50 Euro for nothing, or even worse,
The worst now is that from 3 pads, now only one works, but just as a regular controller, no more MPE comes out of my Waldorf Iridium. My two favorite pads, Scale and Guitar, seem to be dead now since i updated to Pro. I wish I never updated,i wish i never bought! 400 Euro in my ass!
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