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Subject: Keyboard Weirdness

From: Bruce Wahler <bruce@...>
Date: 2001-07-13

On a totally unrelated vein:

Has anyone ever noticed that the AN1x keyboard is slightly narrower than
"standard" key pitch? (I'm talking 'pitch' as in screw thread, not frequency.)

I usually line up my keyboards vertically, C-over-C, mostly because I play
organ a lot and want to simulate the dual-manual look and feel of a Hammond
B-3. Top and bottom C's always lined up in the past, but I wasn't able to
do so (perfectly) when I added the AN1x to the mix. It's not enough of a
difference to affect playability; the total change is only about 1/2 a
white key over five octaves. It's just strange that there's any difference
at all!

After I noticed the discrepancy, I've compared the AN1x to my (former)
Roland D-50, Fatar Studio-88 MIDI controller, Roland HP-3500s piano, and
CX-3 organ. All of the others line up perfectly with each other (at least,
to the eye); only the AN1x comes up short.

I wonder if this is a Yamaha-wide "feature." It's probably true of the
CS1x/CS6x family, since they share a case style with the AN1x. I don't
think it is true of older Yamaha pieces: I owned a DX-9 for several years,
and used a DX-7 for a while, and I never noticed this situation when
stacking those keyboards. Does anyone have a Yamaha piano or other non
-'Sx' keyboard for comparison?

Why would Yamaha do this?

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions"
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice
978.964.0547 fax
bruce@...