Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Terpstra Keyboard

terpstrakeyboard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 82 posts

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#41

Post by hippari2 »

bluGill wrote: post #27

I've been trying to design a keyboard that can be used with the feet - something that I can play like dance dance revolution, while playing something else with my hands (mandolin), thus making me a one man band. Figuring out what a good layout would be is the first step and so far everything I've thought of either lacks useful notes, is too big to reach useful notes, or the keys are too close together. If anyone has…

Piano layout is suprisingly robust, just use a bigger size key like organists do.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#42

Post by vunderba »

hippari2 wrote: post #41
bluGill wrote: post #27

I've been trying to design a keyboard that can be used with the feet - something that I can play like dance dance revolution, while playing something else with my hands (mandolin), thus making me a one man band. Figuring out what a good layout would be is the first step and so far everything I've thought of either lacks useful notes, is too big to reach useful notes, or the keys are too close together. If anyone has…

Piano layout is suprisingly robust, just use a bigger size key like organists do.

OP needs the walking piano from the movie "Big". That'll give them a workout.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#43

Post by vunderba »

bluGill wrote: post #27

I've been trying to design a keyboard that can be used with the feet - something that I can play like dance dance revolution, while playing something else with my hands (mandolin), thus making me a one man band. Figuring out what a good layout would be is the first step and so far everything I've thought of either lacks useful notes, is too big to reach useful notes, or the keys are too close together. If anyone has…

I've messed with using a 9-button dance pad as an impromptu midi controller - gives you a full octave and you use the center square as a "rest", but I can't imagine trying to use it in a live setting - it would be like trying to play a guitar in a bouncy castle.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#45

Post by sdrothrock »

bluGill wrote: post #27

I've been trying to design a keyboard that can be used with the feet - something that I can play like dance dance revolution, while playing something else with my hands (mandolin), thus making me a one man band. Figuring out what a good layout would be is the first step and so far everything I've thought of either lacks useful notes, is too big to reach useful notes, or the keys are too close together. If anyone has…

Have you seen Electones?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electone

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#46

Post by bluGill »

Hesinde wrote: post #36
bluGill wrote: post #27

I've been trying to design a keyboard that can be used with the feet - something that I can play like dance dance revolution, while playing something else with my hands (mandolin), thus making me a one man band. Figuring out what a good layout would be is the first step and so far everything I've thought of either lacks useful notes, is too big to reach useful notes, or the keys are too close together. If anyone has…

An organ pedalboard MIDI controller would be an off-the-shelf solution albeit expensive. You could hook it up to a drum rack in a DAW in order to remap the pedals to a useful layout. With a foot activated MIDI controller the number of keys will always be rather limited. Therefore, I think that the virtual layout should be customized to the music you play or even for each song. E.g. you could only map notes of a certa…

Organ pedalboards require sitting down and so are not really what I want.

The number of keys is the real problem - I don't want to be playing a single note in one octave, I want to play my chord progression and that means I need separate buttons for the major, minor, 7th (which 7th...) for the chords that go with the song.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#47

Post by bluGill »

awongh wrote: post #14
maxdamantus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've kind of done this, just without the actual "build" part—I instead use a Wooting computer keyboard (which has the hall effect switches you're referring to), and I've written some program to emit MIDI based on key velocity. I've been using it very frequently for a few years, and can confirm it's quite fun to use, though I don't have much experience playing other keyboard instruments and haven't tried to learn it s…

> I've written some program to emit MIDI based on key velocity. nice! Is the velocity code on the firmware side? Is that why it's not included on the demo site?

Some mechanical keyboard firmware already supports midi. I don't think any supports velocity, but they would likely welcome the code if you wrote it. They already support these switches, so it seems workable.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#49

Post by bluGill »

vunderba wrote: post #43
bluGill wrote: post #27

I've been trying to design a keyboard that can be used with the feet - something that I can play like dance dance revolution, while playing something else with my hands (mandolin), thus making me a one man band. Figuring out what a good layout would be is the first step and so far everything I've thought of either lacks useful notes, is too big to reach useful notes, or the keys are too close together. If anyone has…

I've messed with using a 9-button dance pad as an impromptu midi controller - gives you a full octave and you use the center square as a "rest", but I can't imagine trying to use it in a live setting - it would be like trying to play a guitar in a bouncy castle.

That idea was my inspiration. However I want more than 9 notes. In particular I want major, minor, and 7th chords based as well as the root note.
Post reply on HN