[sdiy] Synth Keybards and Number of Keys

[R. D. Davis]

Hi Everyone, hopefully the following questions aren't too far
off-topic, but they'll appear more SDIYish by the end of the
message. :-) 

Something that puzzles me every now and then is the question of why so
many synthesizers have been designed with less than eighty-eight keys.
Going from a piano to a synth keyboard with only five octaves can be
quite frustrating, but I see that many synths have even fewer than
five octaves.  Organs, on the other hand, have even more keys to play
with.  Given that synths could use far more keys, to divide the keys
up into regions of different sounds, and, or, a truly usable range of
frequencies, on two or three levels of keyboards (manuals?), plus
pedals, why do 88-key keyboards, seem to be somewhat of a rarity, and
organ-style keyboards almost unheard of?  One would think that synths
keyboards would have begun taking on more of the appearance of mighty
Wurlitzers, with all sorts of additional knobs and switches, by now.

Getting to the SDIY angle of this post, how many here typically use
more than one keyboard at a time with their SDIY projects, or retrofit
organs with more than 88 keys for synths?  

Happy SDIYing!

Robert 

-- 
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