[sdiy] Synth. Keyboards (was: Death of DIY?)

[harrybissell]

"R. D. Davis" wrote:

>
>
> Getting this back to being more on-topic: how many people here who
> were interested in electronics as kids or college students ran into a
> roadblock called "where can I find an affordable bare keyboard to use
> with my synth?"  I could design various circuits to make sounds, but
> never found an affordable bare keyboard back then, so I was left to do
> things like take an old Estes organ and create makeshift switches for
> its cheesy keyboard ... lots of annoying popping noises at first with
> each key-press with my first design, which wasn't even polyphonic.

Pratt-Read was a major manufacturer back then, if you had about $100
to spend.  I got my keybaords from PAiA. The first one was a beautiful
coil spring model, the second a crappy J-wire. Oh well either was better than
conductive rubber...

> Also, a curiosity: why do so many keyboards have far less than 88
> keys?

because most of us have far fewer than 88 fingers ???    ;^P

(actually, its because the highest and lowest registers of piano are seldom
used in most compositions... and most organ manuals traditionally have
far fewer than 88 keys.  49 - 61 keys is usual, they get a wider octave range by
using stops. You MiniMoogers can use those funny switches marked 32' 16' 8'
4' 2' just like the length of the organ pipes they replaced :^)

H^) harry