on the search for the best keyboard-layout

Dear community,
I'm making microtonal music, for traditional instruments as well as with live-electronic-instruments.
My question is:
What kind of keyboard-layout would You suggest for making microtonal music with a midi keyboard?
I've heard about the terpstra-layout but this one is not been sold anymore, or am I wrong?

thomasstefan88 wrote

> Dear community,
> I'm making microtonal music, for traditional instruments as well
> as with live-electronic-instruments.
> My question is:
> What kind of keyboard-layout would You suggest for making microtonal
> music with a midi keyboard?
> I've heard about the terpstra-layout but this one is not been sold
> anymore, or am I wrong?

Hi thomasstefan88,

I'm getting one of these next week:

http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49

98 keys for < $500. Get two for maximum awesome.

-Carl

and I will be right behind him :-)

On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 1:04 PM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:

>
>
> thomasstefan88 wrote
>
>
> > Dear community,
> > I'm making microtonal music, for traditional instruments as well
> > as with live-electronic-instruments.
> > My question is:
> > What kind of keyboard-layout would You suggest for making microtonal
> > music with a midi keyboard?
> > I've heard about the terpstra-layout but this one is not been sold
> > anymore, or am I wrong?
>
> Hi thomasstefan88,
>
> I'm getting one of these next week:
>
> http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49
>
> 98 keys for < $500. Get two for maximum awesome.
>
> -Carl
>
>
>

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "thomasstefan88" <kontrapunktstefan@...> wrote:
>
> Dear community,
> I'm making microtonal music, for traditional instruments as well as with live-electronic-instruments.
> My question is:
> What kind of keyboard-layout would You suggest for making microtonal music with a midi keyboard?
> I've heard about the terpstra-layout but this one is not been sold anymore, or am I wrong?

Concerning hardware, the best options right now for hexagonal keyboard models are probably from C-Thru Music:
http://c-thrumusic.com/
The 49 model is affordable, if a little small.

I'd not heard of the terpstra keyboard, but it looks nice from a hardware point of view. This seems to be the most current site, and from what I can tell it never became available commercially:
http://www.cortex-design.com/projects_terp1.htm

There has been a lot of work done in linking isomorphic (or "generalized") keyboard mappings to tuning, as you may know. Working from a regular mapping standpoint there are ways to define a keyboard mapping so that it has the same fingering in every single tuning of a given temperament (like meantone/syntonic, magic, hanson/kleismic). These layouts with "tuning invariance" can be described and compared mathematically. Take a look at this paper, which delves pretty deeply into the mathematics:
http://www.thummer.com/ThumTone/Tuning_Invariant_Layouts_Last_Draft.pdf

It is the opinion of the authors of that paper (and myself) that the optimal layout for playing microtonal music is the Wicki/Hayden layout. It retains the most consistent "swath thickness" across generator sizes while still having a reasonable harmonic and melodic gamut necessary to play important MOS scales.

You can see the wicki-hayden layout used to play alternative tunings in these two videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd4h8vmEsQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--pLdh1m8E8

John

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <carl@...> wrote:

> I'm getting one of these next week:
>
> http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49
>
> 98 keys for < $500. Get two for maximum awesome.

Tell us how the pitch-bending works out. These kinds of Bosanquet keyboards are natural for rank two temperaments, but I wonder how easy it is to assign the tuning.

Gene wrote:

> > I'm getting one of these next week:
> >
> > http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49
> >
> > 98 keys for < $500. Get two for maximum awesome.
>
> Tell us how the pitch-bending works out.

You probably didn't mean this literally, but for the record
I'll be using software synths that support Scala files for
retuning, and in particular, pianoteq until I get tired of it.

> These kinds of Bosanquet keyboards are natural for rank two
> temperaments, but I wonder how easy it is to assign the tuning.

With pianoteq, quite easy. I'll be starting with 22-ET
and its pajara, porcupine, etc.

-Carl

Dear community,
thanks for Your advices.
The Pro-axis-Keyboard looks interesting.
Does someone of You had experiences with using these kinds of keyboards in
combination with Csound?

> Hi thomasstefan88,
>
> I'm getting one of these next week:
>
> http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49
>
> 98 keys for < $500. Get two for maximum awesome.
>
> -Carl
>

Hi Stefan,

I haven't, but maybe somebody else has. I only briefly
played the predecessor of this instrument, but the keyswitches
are purportedly the same. I don't really see how I can go
wrong at this price, but I believe they do have a return
policy.

-Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Stefan Thomas <kontrapunktstefan@...> wrote:
>
> Dear community,
> thanks for Your advices.
> The Pro-axis-Keyboard looks interesting.
> Does someone of You had experiences with using these kinds
> of keyboards in combination with Csound?
>
> > Hi thomasstefan88,
> >
> > I'm getting one of these next week:
> >
> > http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49
> >
> > 98 keys for < $500. Get two for maximum awesome.
> >
> > -Carl
> >
>

> Does someone have experiencs with using these kinds of keyboards in
> combination with Csound?

I'd check here:
http://forum.c-thrumusic.com/

I'm sure someone must.

John