Keyboards with aftertouch (104)

Aftertouch is pressure applied to a key you are already holding - pressing deeper after the strike sends a control signal (vibrato, filter opening, modulation) without moving your hands. It is standard on synthesizers and workstations, rare on stage pianos and arrangers, and effectively absent from home digital pianos: hammer actions almost never sense it. This is the complete list of models in our database whose keyboard has it.

Channel vs polyphonic

Channel aftertouch reads the pressure of the whole keybed as one value: lean on any key and every sounding note responds together. Polyphonic aftertouch senses each key separately - hold a chord and swell one note. Poly AT is the rarer, more expressive (and more expensive) technology: in this database 16 models have it, 17 have channel aftertouch, and 71 list aftertouch without the manufacturer stating the type - those rows say so. Models whose pads have aftertouch but whose keys do not are deliberately excluded.

What aftertouch is for

Two practical audiences. Synth players use it as a performance modulation source - the lead that swells under the finger, brass that opens up as you lean in. Arranger and workstation players use it to trigger articulation: the same string patch bowed harder or a wind instrument given vibrato while a chord rings. If your music is piano repertoire, aftertouch will do nothing for you; if you play synth parts, it is often the line between an expressive solo and a flat one.