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3 new 22-tet KBD design rough ideas

🔗Igliashon Jones <igliashon@...>

1/7/2005 11:18:43 PM

I just uploaded 3 new designs into the photos area (now in a folder
to reduce clutter). The first one is an attempt to make the design
uniform, so that the keyboard ascends by 3 steps horizontally and 1
step vertically. Using traditional keyshapes and a one-dimensional
(more or less) layout, this causes the octaves to be staggered and
the design to repeat at 3 octaves instead of at one. However, using
my suggested color scheme, I think confusion can easily be avoided,
though if anyone can think of a better scheme please let me know (not
that I'm even preferring this layout right now; it's just an idea).
Note that this is NOT based exactly on a porcupine scale.

The second one is a slightly older one, an improvement on my first
Porcupine keyboard. Now it is based on a C porcupine-8 scale, and
there is a fourth row of duplicate white keys above. It's more for
reference to compare the 3-octave uniform design to than anything
else--to help weigh out the pros and cons of both.

The third and last one is basically exactly the same as my first
porcupine design (in that it's based on a G+ porcupine-8 scale), but
now the keys are colored according to accidentals. White for
naturals, blue for flats, black for semi-sharps, and red for sharps.
I'm not sure I really like it, I'd imagine most people would be more
confused by it than they would by a general keyboard, though it might
be of use to someone who is familiar with the temperament. I highly
doubt we will actually use such a color scheme though.

I should also make note of the musical alphabet I use for 22.
Chromatically, my alphabet is C Db C+/D- C# D Eb D+/E- D# E F Gb F+/G-
F# G Ab G+/A- G# A Bb A+/B- A# B C. Though if Porcupine-8 is used
as the basis for tonality, I'd use C C# Db D D# Eb E F F# Gb G G# Hb
H H# Ab A A# Bb B B# Cb C, so that all the natural notes form a C
Porcupine-8 "major" scale.

Also, I am working on some other ideas not ready to be posted yet,
both of which were suggested to me by Paul Erlich. One is based on
his proposed 10-white-12-black design, which is split into two sets
of 5-w-6-b. The other is an attempt to refine my original design #1,
which is based on diatonic ideas. This will likely be of a similar
lattice-meets-traditional design as the porcupine-8 based ones. I'll
post these when done. Right now, I'm just going to hash out as many
ideas as I can, and then maybe you all can help decide which one
would be the most efficient.

If anyone has their own ideas, please feel free to upload them.
Diagrams help lots!!

Thanks thanks thanks
-igliashon