[sdiy] Accordion-style controller

[Amos]

Could you use, perhaps, something that is physically like a concertina-button
and instead of worrying about a "real" push-button switch that does
not feel right,
install a simple contact that is broken  when the switch is depressed?
 Reverse your logic so that breaking the switch causes a positive
trigger to the key-scanning/MIDI-handling part of the device.
This is a late-night thought, I hope it makes sense.  Seems to me that
the physical construction might be easier this way.

Good luck!

-Amos

(supposing you know about the Roland MIDI accordion already... they
don't make a little concertina model though; they should!)

On 2/11/07, Johannes Öberg <johannes.oberg at gmail.com> wrote:
> R Drake: wrote about a MIDI concertina:
>
> Interessting! However, it seems he had the very problem I'm trying to
> avoid: that the switches have no travel. Accordion 'melody manual'
> buttons have a very short travel to begin with, but they usually have
> a very low resistance and therefor at least *some* travel is good.
>
> John Luciano wrote about opto-interrupters:
>
> I'll look into that, are they complete 'forks' where you just insert
> something between the, uh, what do you call them? Fork-pins?
>
> That method might provide a way to get 'pressure' sensitivity into the
> keyboard. A real accordion tends to bend and distort the tone (like a
> blues harmonica) when you hold the buttons very lightly.
>
> OT: Come to think of it; why has the accordion keyboard never catched
> on? In these synthetic days, there's no need for the piano keyboard,
> and the accordion keyboard is simply a better idea. It's compact, so
> you have a better reach, it's faster to play, and it is completely
> symetrical so you can transpose to any key just by moving you hand.
>
> I guess it's just "marketing"; the accordion being forever associated
> with polka.
>
> /J (I like polka)
>
> On 2/12/07, rdrake <rdrake at data2action.com> wrote:
> > Paul Everett has a DIY MIDI concertina project here:
> >
> > http://home.stny.rr.com/peverett/gadget.html
> >
> > pretty complete writeup, including his switch choice etc.
> >
> > bbob
> >
> >
> > >----- ------- Original Message ------- -----
> > >From: "=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Johannes_=D6berg?="
> > ><johannes.oberg at gmail.com>
> > >To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> > >Sent: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 21:26:52
> > >
> > >Hi list. I'm prospecting building a chromatic
> > >button accordion
> > >keyboard for MIDI. Does anybody have any
> > >recommendations for switches?
> > >It seems to me that the technically best idea would
> > >be to build little
> > >accordion levers that operate microswitches but
> > >that feels like
> > >overkill (and bloody difficult too!).
> > >
> > >So I guess I'm looking for SPST pushbuttons with
> > >the right kind of
> > >feel to them. If you have any ideas of a simple way
> > >to make the above
> > >solution (levers) instead, i'm all ears :-)
> > >
> > >/Johannes
> >
>