Need help Mapping a 294 key keyboard

Hello,

I made a 294 key two dimensional midi keyboard. It is
29" wide X 24" deep. To see the Maxi click on photos on the
menu to the left.

The Maxi is composed of 6 modified 49 key midi keyboard controllers.
Each segment has 25 front and 24 back white keys of which none are
raised. The keys have been shortened. The octave range can vary and
a method for marking the octaves has been implemented. Because I
want to have many octaves in the 49 key range I will limit my
octaves from a low 5 keys to a high 10 Keys per octave. Weird?

The six midi outs from the keyboards are inputted into the USB
MidiSport 8X8 inputs. I will put each of the six segments on a midi
channel one through six. Each channel will play a different VSTi.

The keyboards are grouped in pairs so that each set of two keyboards
face each other. My first problem is that keyboard 1, 3 and 5 are
reversed so in a sense are played from behind. On 1, 3 and 5, the
key number 36 is on the right side and key number 84 is on the left.
These three keyboards have to have the key numbers inverted so that
low notes are on the left. This set up needs to be made the default.
What is the best way to do this?

Once all six 49 key keyboards have the low notes on the left, I will
need to map one keyboard to my specifications and copy the map to
the other five, so that all six 49 key keyboards are mapped the
same. Do I use the drum mapper for this?

I have Windows XP and Cubase SX. This is easy to do in Logic which I
want to avoid as they no longer support the PC version. I will
however consider switching sequencer if VST is included and it has
the capacity to play six VST instruments simultaneously.

At this point I am not interested in microtonality.

To invert the key numbers on keyboards number 1, 3 and 5 I am
looking for a software solution, preferably a plug-in. I will also
consider hardware solution. Your help will be appreciated to resolve
both mapping issues.

Kalamata Kid

Hello, Kalamata Kid!

>I made a 294 key two dimensional midi keyboard. It is
>29" wide X 24" deep. To see the Maxi click on photos on the
>menu to the left.

Rock on!

>Because I want to have many octaves in the 49 key range I will
>limit my octaves from a low 5 keys to a high 10 Keys per octave.
>Weird?

Can't say I follow this. Could you illustrate?

>These three keyboards have to have the key numbers inverted so that
>low notes are on the left. This set up needs to be made the default.
>What is the best way to do this?

I'm not the best one to answer this, but one way would be to pick
VST synths that support microtunings. It's my understanding that
with the MIDI Tuning Standard, one can map any pitches in any
order to MIDI notes. You'll just be using 12-et pitches, but for
the instances of the synth that are listening to the backwards
keyboards, you can just reverse the order of the piteches in your
tun file, or whatever.

If you like FM, BigTick's "Rhino" supports tun files, and list
member Rick McGowan runs many instances of it at once. You do need
a lot of RAM.

Does anyone have anything to add here?

>Once all six 49 key keyboards have the low notes on the left, I will
>need to map one keyboard to my specifications and copy the map to
>the other five, so that all six 49 key keyboards are mapped the
>same. Do I use the drum mapper for this?

Map, as in...?

>At this point I am not interested in microtonality.

Stick around here long enough and you will be! :)

-Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:

> If you like FM, BigTick's "Rhino" supports tun files, and list
> member Rick McGowan runs many instances of it at once. You do need
> a lot of RAM.

Is there any way to get Rhino to render a midi file? I downloaded the
demo, but can't see how to make it work for me.

>> If you like FM, BigTick's "Rhino" supports tun files, and list
>> member Rick McGowan runs many instances of it at once. You do need
>> a lot of RAM.
>
>Is there any way to get Rhino to render a midi file? I downloaded the
>demo, but can't see how to make it work for me.

From MMM...

>I use a MIDI keyboard, input through Finale which sends MIDI
>output via Midi yoke to VAZ Modular //
>I use an Aureal Vortex sound card. It is full duplex, so I can
>record the sound card's output with CoolEdit, which is sometimes
>useful. But // I have recently been capturing the audio output
>just by using the "Capture" command in VAZ Modular and going to
>44kHz stereo WAV files. The synth output goes direct to disk and
>bypasses the sound card entirely, so it's very nice.

So if you host Rhino in VAZ modular, there does seem to be a
way to get it to render midi files.

-Carl

Hello, Carl!

Thanks for replying.

I may be able to do this using Midi Ox and Midi yoke. I am looking
for a simpler solution to invert my #1, #3 and #5.

Should I try Scala or Sound Quest Midi Tools/Midi Mapper? Years ago
there was the MS Windows MidiMapper which I was told would not work
in Windows XP.

I would prefer to do this inside Cubase SX as it can then be saved
as part of a project.

Once #1, #3 and #5 have been inverted I need then to make a key map
to my specification so the all #1 segment through #6 are identical.
This map will change from project to project.

>>Because I want to have many octaves in the 49 key range I will
>>limit my octaves from a low 5 keys to a high 10 Keys per octave.
>>Weird?

>Can't say I follow this. Could you illustrate?

I will start with the C scale and get rid of all the unused black
keys. Each octave will be 7 keys. This will put more octaves to my
disposal across the 49 key range.

>If you like FM, BigTick's "Rhino" supports tun files, and list
>member Rick McGowan runs many instances of it at once. You do need
>a lot of RAM.

Not sure what "FM, BigTick's "Rhino" is. Could this help map?

>>At this point I am not interested in microtonality.

>Stick around here long enough and you will be! :)

I suspect you are right. I am sure I will get a lot of help here.

Kalamata Kid

>Should I try Scala or Sound Quest Midi Tools/Midi Mapper? Years ago
>there was the MS Windows MidiMapper which I was told would not work
>in Windows XP.
>
>I would prefer to do this inside Cubase SX as it can then be saved
>as part of a project.

Well if you want to minimize your daily setup routine, I don't think
Scala is what you want. Don't know about Sound Quest MIDI Tools.

Maybe Cubase will load VST synths from the command line? And maybe
Rhino will load tunings from the command line? Then you could do it
with a batch file.

Maybe Cubase Rhino can remember its settings, even across multiple
instances, I don't know.

>>>Because I want to have many octaves in the 49 key range I will
>>>limit my octaves from a low 5 keys to a high 10 Keys per octave.
>>>Weird?
>
>>Can't say I follow this. Could you illustrate?
>
>I will start with the C scale and get rid of all the unused black
>keys. Each octave will be 7 keys. This will put more octaves to my
>disposal across the 49 key range.
//
>Once #1, #3 and #5 have been inverted I need then to make a key map
>to my specification so the all #1 segment through #6 are identical.
>This map will change from project to project.

Ok. Well, you could do this with the same tuning maps that get your
keys all going in the same direction. If you want different ones
for different projects you can have different ones.

>>If you like FM, BigTick's "Rhino" supports tun files, and list
>>member Rick McGowan runs many instances of it at once. You do need
>>a lot of RAM.
>
>Not sure what "FM, BigTick's "Rhino" is. Could this help map?

FM is a type of synthesis. BigTick is a company. Rhino is a synth
that accepts tuning maps.

>>Stick around here long enough and you will be! :)
>
>I suspect you are right. I am sure I will get a lot of help here.

You might also try...

/makemicromusic/

-Carl