[sdiy] Re: My homebuilt Keyboard - update

[Edward King]

Richard,

thanks for the faith...but heres the thing:

The original discussion came about from someone asking whether 61,76 or 88 
keys were better. During that discussion, manufacturing costs came up and I 
pointed out that building your own 88 key keyboard is likely to be cheaper 
than its commercial equivalent (with vel sensing, displacement sensing and 
individual aftertouch).

What I failed to point out however, was the obvious....you CAN build an 88 
key keyboard quite cheaply (certainly cheaper than Ive done) but it is a 
headache and this doesnt take into account that if you were costing the 
man-hours involved, this would push the cost up beyond any competitors. A 
project like this is okay for DIY synthers who are just giving up some of 
their free time, but as a commercial venture, I dont think its viable. If Im 
wrong, I'll be happy to eat my words.

If you just want an unweighted synth style 88 key keyboard, you can run one 
of those off in the space of a weekend using just the components I listed.
If on the other hand you want weighted, semi-weighted or hammer action, then 
you're in for a long hard slog because you're essentially reinventing what 
took Roland, Yamaha, Fatar and Korg years to get almost right and it takes 
alot of experimentation. Its the sort of thing that you'll never stop 
re-designing...

The long and short of this is that my keyboard - in its current state - is a 
prototype. I have a lot of experiments to do on it and some design decisions 
to revisit as a result of what Ive already done. I think it unlikely that 
this will be the keyboard I use for my synth because a number of the 
experiments are likely to be destructive to some degree or another and so a 
"production" version is probably a month or so away yet. My prototype is 
nowhere near commercial standard; the only thing in its favour is that its 
tough. Accuracy and asthetics are things that will come with time and unless 
something looks pretty, I dont think the general consumer is interested.

Currently, im experimenting with hammer action and the effects the 
associated dynamics have on the sensing mechanisms. So far all I can say is 
that they "play hob" with most sensing mechanisms and this is something that 
can only be worked around in code comnined with additional sensing (at the 
hammers for example).
I am also playing around with design ideas for switchable hammer action to 
cover both unweighted and hammer action camps.

Other experiments include using field technology to control the action 
(stepper motors, solenoids, actuators etc) and some alternatives to the 
optical slotted switch and QTC pill displacement sensing stuff Ive done.

So I have a lot of work to do before I can put it to one side as a finished 
project.

Would you like me to send you some pictures of my key mechanism and 
calibration tool? It looks like crap but its proved very useful

Regards

EK

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Wentk" <richard at skydancer.com>
To: "Edward King" <edwardcking2001 at yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: "Synth-DIY" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 2:22 PM
Subject: [sdiy] Re: My homebuilt Keyboard - update


>
> On 4 Mar 2007, at 23:11, Edward King wrote:
>
>> Richard,
>>
>> over the weekend, Ive reworked some areas of the keyboard. The  weight is 
>> now 64% of what it was.
>>
>> this is primarily down to the Chassis. The total area of the  chassis was 
>> 6600cm, but I found that I was able to reduce this to  4250cm. As its a 
>> prototype, id allowed extra room for design  changes but actually found 
>> that I have more room than I thought I  would.
>>
>> In hindsight, I perhaps could have gotten away with an aluminium  chassis 
>> instead of galvanised steel, but Ive actually wrecked a  couple of 
>> digital pianos before by simply getting carried away (the  switching 
>> mechanisms and PCB's tend to be the things that fail) and  wanted to 
>> build this on the tough side.
>>
>> Are you hoping to build your own keyboard?
>
> Not at this point. I've just bought an M-Audio Keystation Pro88, and 
> aside from wiring in some aftertouch with QTC cable, it's more or  less 
> all I need for now.
>
> I do think there's a market for your design though. You could  probably 
> sublicence it to someone in China and they'd make it for  even less than 
> you can, ship it all over the world, and also do the  marketing.
>
> If money were no object, I'd probably get one of these:
>
> http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/
>
> Richard
>
> 


		
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