Xen keyboards

In-Reply-To: <947578882.24314@onelist.com>
Carl Lumma, back in digest 483.3, wrote:

> >According to the website, DS only make piano keyboards. So those
> findings >aren't applicable to MIDI keyboards, let alone when they have
> more than 12 >keys to the octave. Steve rebuilt a MIDI keyboard, not a
> piano.
>
> It is true that DS only makes piano keyboards. But the findings (at
> least
> the ones I've mentioned) are applicable to any keyboard with Halberstadt
> topology.

I see alternative keyboards (or alternative mappings of standard
keyboards) as being far more useful for MIDI than acoustic instruments.
Firstly, you can experiment with more tunings more easily with MIDI, so a
keyboard that helps you with this would be good. Also, it's cheaper to
have more than one keyboard, and you can use any keyboard with any
synthesizer. Finally, you can sequence the MIDI, and so use the same
keyboard with multiple tracks. With a piano, you either need to get a
group together, or use a multitrack recorder. MIDI is easier.

> >My old PSR keyboard has white keys 1.8 cm center-center. I found that
> >playable, but not convenient.
>
> Too narrow for my fingers. There'd be too much strain playing runs,
> having
> to ball up my hand. And, how thick were your blacks?

7mm, according to my brother. I don't know which bit he measured.

What do you mean by "playing runs"? For playing conventional music with a
conventional tuning, the fingering is cramped. But with more than 12
notes to the octave, your hands can spread out more. That makes mini keys
better the more notes are in the scale.

I have thought about buying a MIDI mini-keyboard. One think that deters
me is that the ones I've seen advertised don't have many keys. The more
notes in the scale, the more keys you need!

> >When you say "getting stuck between the blacks" does that mean you're
> >deliberately playing the top end of the white notes? This is possible
> >with mini-keys, but not easy. I'd prefer to write music that doesn't
> >require such tricks.
>
> Such as music entirely in the key of C maj?

The easiest thing is to have the main scale on the black notes, and have
some alternatives on the whites, ideally to be played by the thumbs or
little fingers. That's not too difficult for 4-note chords. Remembering
that, as the keyboard shrinks, you have more choice over which notes to
play with which hand.

> >With a custom-built keyboard, the blacks could be thickened, and the
> >keyboard made playable with a smaller span.
>
> Thickening the relative size of the blacks only makes the getting stuck
> problem worse -- or isn't that what you meant?

Yes, if that problem isn't a problem, you can shrink the keyboard quite a
bit.

> >That's better, you're not talking about pre-requisites for "any serious
> >xen keyboard" any more.
>
> Yes I am.

Oh, well, it's back to heated argument then.

> You could spend your life playing wonderful music on a xen
> keyboard where you could only reach a 5/3. But I wouldn't call it a
> serious alternative to the Halberstadt-12 keyboard, considering the
> types of voicings you'd be giving up.

Yes, but think of what you'd be giving up by *not* having such a
keyboard/mapping! You can't sit down and play a few different
permutations of diminished chords to see which best fits the progression.
You can't be playing simple chords, and decide to throw in a sharpened
third on a whim. Unless you're a dab hand with a pitch wheel, you can't
play a melody teasingly out of tune with the accompaniment. Compared with
all this, your objections seem so arbitrary.

So far, I use my extended schismic mapping, or symmetrically rebuilt
keyboard, for working out ideas, and choose 12 note scales for "serious"
work. But then I'm not a serious guitar player, and that didn't stop me
recording a piece for the Tuning Punks page. Perhaps one day I'll hit on
a really good idea that won't work in twelve notes, and I'll have to
record with an extended mapping.

Embrace and Extend!

Graham

http://x31eq.com/graham/

>>It is true that DS only makes piano keyboards. But the findings (at
>>least the ones I've mentioned) are applicable to any keyboard with
>>Halberstadt topology.
>
>I see alternative keyboards (or alternative mappings of standard
>keyboards) as being far more useful for MIDI than acoustic instruments.
>Firstly, you can experiment with more tunings more easily with MIDI, so a
>keyboard that helps you with this would be good. Also, it's cheaper to
>have more than one keyboard, and you can use any keyboard with any
>synthesizer. Finally, you can sequence the MIDI, and so use the same
>keyboard with multiple tracks. With a piano, you either need to get a
>group together, or use a multitrack recorder. MIDI is easier.

I agree with all that. Though acoustic instruments give a sort of sound
that electronic ones cannot. But none of this invalidates my application
of things I noticed on a DS keyboard to MIDI keyboard designs.

>What do you mean by "playing runs"? For playing conventional music with a
>conventional tuning, the fingering is cramped.

Actually, I prefer slightly closer spacing.

>The easiest thing is to have the main scale on the black notes, and have
>some alternatives on the whites, ideally to be played by the thumbs or
>little fingers.

Oh boy, I don't know...

>>You could spend your life playing wonderful music on a xen
>>keyboard where you could only reach a 5/3. But I wouldn't call it a
>>serious alternative to the Halberstadt-12 keyboard, considering the
>>types of voicings you'd be giving up.
>
>Yes, but think of what you'd be giving up by *not* having such a
>keyboard/mapping! You can't sit down and play a few different
>permutations of diminished chords to see which best fits the progression.

What's that??

>You can't be playing simple chords, and decide to throw in a sharpened
>third on a whim.

On an octave-reachable Bosanquet, sure.

>Unless you're a dab hand with a pitch wheel, you can't play a melody
>teasingly out of tune with the accompaniment. Compared with all this, your
>objections seem so arbitrary.

Caring about what voicings I can reach is arbitrary?

>So far, I use my extended schismic mapping, or symmetrically rebuilt
>keyboard, for working out ideas, and choose 12 note scales for "serious"
>work. But then I'm not a serious guitar player, and that didn't stop me
>recording a piece for the Tuning Punks page. Perhaps one day I'll hit on
>a really good idea that won't work in twelve notes, and I'll have to
>record with an extended mapping.

Please don't take my use of "serious" too seriously. I'm talking for me
more than you or anybody else. Remember, I said one could spend a lifetime
playing cool music on something like your schismic halberstadt mapping.
It's just not something I'm interested in.

-Carl