Terpstra update

Hi everyone, hope you don't mind me doing some cross-posting for the sake
of promoting a good project (I am not affiliated with it, just a
supporter...).

So for the diykeyboard people, I'm a huge supporter of music in different
tuning systems, like 19 or 22 notes to the octave instead of 12, because of
the musical possibilities these systems open up. For someone like me with
strong AP and some mild to moderate synesthesia, it's like a brainhack; I
get to make myself "trip" by playing these new notes and chords and etc.
Unfortunately, since musical instruments haven't really existed to really
take advantage of these tunings, I've had to "imagine" what a lot of it
would sound like, using math to fill in the holes. This is no fun.

I finally got to play on an actual Terpstra at Queens college. I absolutely
loved it and shot some footage of myself and my buddy Tyler playing it,
which the Terpstra folks asked if they could edit into a video for the
campaign. That video is on the top of the page here, so feel free to check
it out:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terpstra-keyboard-280-color-changing-continuous-controllers

My candid review of the controller:

First, playing on this thing was awesome. There is no longer any doubt in
my mind that the future of 21st century music is different tunings. You can
see at one point in the video where I'm playing this 31-edo meantone thing,
and then I decide I want to end the phrase with the chord 2:3:5:7:9:11 from
the harmonic series... so I just do it. Just being able to do stuff like
that was pretty mind-blowing.

It was also pretty crazy to teach my buddy Tyler what a "comma pump" is and
watch him figure out Hanson comma pumps in like 20 seconds. It was a really
eye-opening experience to be like "11-limit harmony sounds like this" or
"this is what a comma pump" is and have another musician next to me
immediately "get it."

Wait, you folks on diykeyboard don't know what these terms mean? Well, you
tell me which makes more sense: is it the jargon on this page (
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/comma+pump), or the example of the chord
progression I play at 0:58 here (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QUJ2oND3cdg#t=58).
Never mind, don't answer that :)

Ordinarily, this is where I'm supposed to explain that full-row-rank
matrices define musical temperaments, and the null space of one of these
matrices corresponds to the set of vanishing unison vectors, etc etc. Or, I
can just play an example of one, so you can just hear that these are
Escher-style chord progressions that suddenly land you back to the I chord
when you don't expect it, which was the point anyway. As a staunch internet
microtonalist who's struggled for years to explain this stuff, that was
pretty unbelievable :)

The keyboard itself:

I was playing on a pretty old, busted prototype. Most of the issues that
came up were on the end of the old softsynth we had the thing plugged into
- some custom Max/MSP patch they wired up. I'm talking about stuff like
19-EDO not being set up all the way isomorphically, latency issues, etc. I
mentioned this to Dylan and he said that they were aware of this, and that
in the future there's going to be a better synth hooked into the Terpstra
anyway, so that doesn't bother me.

The prototype I was playing on was an old first-gen prototype, and it was
old enough that there were a couple of mechanical issues - sometimes the
magnetic keycaps would fly off if you hit them at the right angle, and some
of the keys were "dead," and others would sometimes stick. I mentioned
those Dylan and he said he was already aware of those issues - they've
already changed the design to go with a different type of non-magnetic
removable keycap because of that very issue, and they've already fixed the
dead/sticking key issue by redoing the key mechanism. I wasn't phased too
much by any of that, since I knew anyway in the beginning that the
prototype I was playing on was an old beat up first-gen thing that they'd
redesigned anyway. So, I got what I expected and was glad to know Dylan was
already on top of everything. None of that didn't change my opinion of the
keyboard.

Ironically, the issue that came through most in the video is that the
action seemed "loud," but in real life that wasn't an issue at all. It just
came through more in the video because my buddy was filming me on a crappy
iPhone camera, and the sound was coming out of this dinky little speaker on
the other side of the room, so after we brought the volume up the keyboard
ended up sounding louder than it did IRL. I don't work for Terpstra and I
just filmed this for fun, so it isn't like I had a $10k camera with me, but
anyway, YMMV.

Despite all of that, this thing blew my mind. I was just able to play all
of this exotic new tuning stuff whenever I wanted. I've been waiting for a
high-quality instrument to let me do this for a long, long time, and now
that I've gotten to play on one it's like it's made the whole thing "real."

I am 100% behind this project, and think everyone would benefit from one of
these, even the cheaper 1-octave version if it's all they can afford. I
hope the campaign succeeds, because I think this type of music, as well as
alt-keyboard design, will grow by leaps and bounds if it does. And again,
I'm not affiliated with Terpstra or anything: I just asked if I could play
the prototype and they agreed, and then in return I let them use my video
in their promotional campaign (for free, I wasn't paid or anything).

The campaign needs about 5 more people as of this writing, so here's hoping
my very candid review makes an impact.

Two thumbs up from me.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terpstra-keyboard-280-color-changing-continuous-controllers

Cheers,
Mike

Good to see the actual thing in action!

The action seeming "loud" is something I noticed, too. Good to hear this is not in real life.

The various improvements you mention, redoing the key mechanism and so on - will they be available in the "upgradeable" version only or also in the "original" one?

I would also be interested how the keyboard felt concerning velocity sensitivity. As one of the few privileged people that have played the Terpstra keyboard in real life, what were your impressions in this aspect?

Looking forward and barely able to wait...

--

Hans Straub

---In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, <makemicromusic@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi everyone, hope you don't mind me doing some cross-posting for the sake of promoting a good project (I am not affiliated with it, just a supporter...).

So for the diykeyboard people, I'm a huge supporter of music in different tuning systems, like 19 or 22 notes to the octave instead of 12, because of the musical possibilities these systems open up. For someone like me with strong AP and some mild to moderate synesthesia, it's like a brainhack; I get to make myself "trip" by playing these new notes and chords and etc. Unfortunately, since musical instruments haven't really existed to really take advantage of these tunings, I've had to "imagine" what a lot of it would sound like, using math to fill in the holes. This is no fun.

I finally got to play on an actual Terpstra at Queens college. I absolutely loved it and shot some footage of myself and my buddy Tyler playing it, which the Terpstra folks asked if they could edit into a video for the campaign. That video is on the top of the page here, so feel free to check it out:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terpstra-keyboard-280-color-changing-continuous-controllers http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terpstra-keyboard-280-color-changing-continuous-controllers

My candid review of the controller:

First, playing on this thing was awesome. There is no longer any doubt in my mind that the future of 21st century music is different tunings. You can see at one point in the video where I'm playing this 31-edo meantone thing, and then I decide I want to end the phrase with the chord 2:3:5:7:9:11 from the harmonic series... so I just do it. Just being able to do stuff like that was pretty mind-blowing.

It was also pretty crazy to teach my buddy Tyler what a "comma pump" is and watch him figure out Hanson comma pumps in like 20 seconds. It was a really eye-opening experience to be like "11-limit harmony sounds like this" or "this is what a comma pump" is and have another musician next to me immediately "get it."

Wait, you folks on diykeyboard don't know what these terms mean? Well, you tell me which makes more sense: is it the jargon on this page (http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/comma+pump http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/comma+pump), or the example of the chord progression I play at 0:58 here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QUJ2oND3cdg#t=58 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QUJ2oND3cdg#t=58). Never mind, don't answer that :)

Ordinarily, this is where I'm supposed to explain that full-row-rank matrices define musical temperaments, and the null space of one of these matrices corresponds to the set of vanishing unison vectors, etc etc. Or, I can just play an example of one, so you can just hear that these are Escher-style chord progressions that suddenly land you back to the I chord when you don't expect it, which was the point anyway. As a staunch internet microtonalist who's struggled for years to explain this stuff, that was pretty unbelievable :)

The keyboard itself:

I was playing on a pretty old, busted prototype. Most of the issues that came up were on the end of the old softsynth we had the thing plugged into - some custom Max/MSP patch they wired up. I'm talking about stuff like 19-EDO not being set up all the way isomorphically, latency issues, etc. I mentioned this to Dylan and he said that they were aware of this, and that in the future there's going to be a better synth hooked into the Terpstra anyway, so that doesn't bother me.

The prototype I was playing on was an old first-gen prototype, and it was old enough that there were a couple of mechanical issues - sometimes the magnetic keycaps would fly off if you hit them at the right angle, and some of the keys were "dead," and others would sometimes stick. I mentioned those Dylan and he said he was already aware of those issues - they've already changed the design to go with a different type of non-magnetic removable keycap because of that very issue, and they've already fixed the dead/sticking key issue by redoing the key mechanism. I wasn't phased too much by any of that, since I knew anyway in the beginning that the prototype I was playing on was an old beat up first-gen thing that they'd redesigned anyway. So, I got what I expected and was glad to know Dylan was already on top of everything. None of that didn't change my opinion of the keyboard.

Ironically, the issue that came through most in the video is that the action seemed "loud," but in real life that wasn't an issue at all. It just came through more in the video because my buddy was filming me on a crappy iPhone camera, and the sound was coming out of this dinky little speaker on the other side of the room, so after we brought the volume up the keyboard ended up sounding louder than it did IRL. I don't work for Terpstra and I just filmed this for fun, so it isn't like I had a $10k camera with me, but anyway, YMMV.

Despite all of that, this thing blew my mind. I was just able to play all of this exotic new tuning stuff whenever I wanted. I've been waiting for a high-quality instrument to let me do this for a long, long time, and now that I've gotten to play on one it's like it's made the whole thing "real."

I am 100% behind this project, and think everyone would benefit from one of these, even the cheaper 1-octave version if it's all they can afford. I hope the campaign succeeds, because I think this type of music, as well as alt-keyboard design, will grow by leaps and bounds if it does. And again, I'm not affiliated with Terpstra or anything: I just asked if I could play the prototype and they agreed, and then in return I let them use my video in their promotional campaign (for free, I wasn't paid or anything).

The campaign needs about 5 more people as of this writing, so here's hoping my very candid review makes an impact.

Two thumbs up from me.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terpstra-keyboard-280-color-changing-continuous-controllers http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terpstra-keyboard-280-color-changing-continuous-controllers

Cheers,
Mike

He says he's just redesigning the key mechanism for the mainstream
production in general, so it isn't one of the upgrades. You guys
should feel free to email him these questions too; I'm not like an
official Terpstra spokesperson or anything, just a middleman here...

I had the Terpstra set up to this organ patch which wasn't velocity
sensitive. The actual prototype is velocity sensitive, but I basically
didn't get any data on how well it worked, because I loaded up the
organ and I basically went into the zone and didn't think about it
again until we had to leave.

The action in general felt spring-weighted, like an unweighted
synth-action or semi-semi-weighted action or something, but I can't
comment on how the velocity would feel if, for instance, you hooked it
up to a piano patch.

Regarding key noise, it really wasn't anything I noticed at all IRL,
neither when I was playing or when Tyler was playing. I mean, you can
definitely hear the key action as you play, but it ended up coming out
way more on the video. It's just a matter of that Tyler either had to
film me from an angle where he was close to the speaker, or an angle
where I looked good and the camera wasn't up my nose, and we went with
the latter, lol.

Mike

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 7:56 AM, <straub@...> wrote:
>
> Good to see the actual thing in action!
>
> The action seeming "loud" is something I noticed, too. Good to hear this is not in real life.
>
> The various improvements you mention, redoing the key mechanism and so on - will they be available in the "upgradeable" version only or also in the "original" one?
>
> I would also be interested how the keyboard felt concerning velocity sensitivity. As one of the few privileged people that have played the Terpstra keyboard in real life, what were your impressions in this aspect?
>
>
>
> Looking forward and barely able to wait...