More on my generalized keyboard

Hi friends,
Here is some more info on my generalized keyboard. As
I mentioned, it's originally set up as a default to
send out six separate MIDI channels for what amounts
to six separate keyboards. The black and white keys
correspond to the black and white keys of a piano,
only in a hexagonal shape for each key and honeycombed
together for up to 72 notes per octave. Each
individual "keyboard" is default-set for one standard
MIDI row of notes, and each note is individually
reprogrammable to any MIDI note or channel. I never
did get the Kurzweil connection to play the music;
instead I got Gigastudio. That's been tough, because I
have to manually tune every note of every instrument.
I've found some shortcuts so tuning a single
instrument now takes about an hour. Not too terrible.
So MIDI Channel 1 plays the first keyboard row, which
I create a separate instrument for and tune each note.
Then MIDI Channel 2, the same instrument copied, then
retuned for the notes I want that instrument to
represent. And so on, for five keyboards. Some day I
may use the sixth keyboard as a "controller". The
biggest problem was my computer, which had defective
hardware and slowed me down enormously. A good
computer, Gigastudio, the Starrlabs keyboard and a lot
of setup time is all that was needed to set up a
53-equal piano.
So for now, I'm studying W.A. Mathieu's book, Harmonic
Experience, to learn some good Just Intonation theory
and actually hear what everyone is talking about. No
more technical building of instruments until I get to
learn some actual music for a year or so!
As far as the keyboard goes, because mine was a
prototype it had some signficiant glitches, like keys
rubbing against each other and playing multiple notes,
various crashes etc. It is indeed not very expressive,
though killer glassandi are possible. I don't think
the aftertouch works on mine, tho newer versions may
well have that. It's also hard to keep my big fingers
on the key I'm aiming for. I don't really consider it
a great instrument for performance, but it sure is
great to have an elegantly laid out instrument to
plunk around on. My version is only 288 keys (four
octaves), not the 900 or so of the full-sized model. I
think the full-size version is something like $8000,
and mine was around $3000, but that was four years
ago. I also waited two years for my instrument to be
built, though again that may be because I got one of
the prototypes. I wish I had at least five octaves on
this keyboard, and six would be even better.
Hope this helps; let me know if you have further
questions.
Chris Mohr

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