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My favorite keyboards

fabiensanglard.net

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Re: My favorite keyboards

#71

Post by andrewla »

ubermonkey wrote: post #60

I loved the Model M, but my first real THIS IS MY FAVORITE I WILL CUT YOU keyboard was a Northgate. Dang, I loved that one. For most of the last 20 years I've been on Kinesis boards. First a regular Ergo, and then starting about 6 months ago their new Advantage 360, which is a definite improvement.

The Northgate was a great keyboard, and a company called Creative Vision Technologies briefly owned and sold keyboards under the "Avant" brand. I had one of those, it finally succumbed to some sort of electrical issues so I let it go. You can still by old Northgates and Avants on eBay, but ~$300 a pop.

No keyboard since has ever matched that level of responsiveness and tactile feel. The downside is just that it was so loud. Now that everything is open floorplans I wouldn't use one even if I still had one.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#72

Post by hdb2 »

dofm wrote: post #6

Yamaha DX7. Oh you mean… OK. The one on my 2008 unibody MacBook, which I likely put the most hours in on of any of them. Then the one on my ancient and lovely Thinkpad T240 — one of the most pragmatically delightful computers ever — and probably the N33SX I owned in 1992. The keyboard on the M1 Max MBP is quite nice, too.

OMG thank you - as a musician, that's the first thing I think of when I see "favorite keyboard."

Re: My favorite keyboards

#73

Post by hdb2 »

dofm wrote: post #27
aa-jv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DX7 had a dreadful keybed. Midi CC only up to 100 (instead of 127), wtf?! Fatar learned a lot of lessons from Yamaha in that regard. Looking forward to adding an Expressive E Osmose to my rig soon ..

I never actually owned one but I loved playing one. Just the fact that a synth thing was so (relatively) affordable and accessible and also made music we heard all the time. I should probably make a Dexed thing. Ultimately I don't even play an instrument with frets, let alone keys, so it would only be for tinkering.

The DX7 IIFD is a bucket list keyboard for me. I fell in love with it in my youth, and I will eventually buy one in good condition.

The Yamaha FSR1 would be nice, too! :)

Re: My favorite keyboards

#74

Post by 0XAFFE »

I'm also a big fan of the ergo dox ez, and I'm pleased with it.

I don't know how many hours I spent to get my neo 2.0 layout running. Neo 2.0 is a very nice “German” layout I have been using for ages: https://neo-layout.org/ (and before that something similar called de-ergo).

The biggest win for me is to have all the brackets on the home row for coding.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#76

Post by fischermann »

dfox wrote: post #30

Basically the only thing interesting about the ConcertMaster is that Carmack used it (and that it looks somewhat cool). As for the keyboard itself, it is just a basic OEM membrane keyboard and not that good one even. The speakers are lets say adequate for the time and size. Interestingly, the speaker part and the keyboard part are completely separate. The "cable" consists of four separate cables (keyboard, power, lin…

Not to bag on the guy but he seems a bit obsessed over Carmack in general.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#77

Post by fischermann »

I’d suggest to folks in general to start using ergonomic keyboards well before any sign of RSI sets in, because once it does you are unlikely to reverse it, you’re merely managing it. The body is full of one-way valves.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#78

Post by MomsAVoxell »

hdb2 wrote: post #73
dofm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never actually owned one but I loved playing one. Just the fact that a synth thing was so (relatively) affordable and accessible and also made music we heard all the time. I should probably make a Dexed thing. Ultimately I don't even play an instrument with frets, let alone keys, so it would only be for tinkering.

The DX7 IIFD is a bucket list keyboard for me. I fell in love with it in my youth, and I will eventually buy one in good condition. The Yamaha FSR1 would be nice, too! :)

The FS1R is the #1 reason I still have my 19" rack after all these years..

No keyboard on an FS1R, although a workstation version of the FS1R would kick serious ass.

Re: My favorite keyboards

#80

Post by ashton314 »

Typing this on a Moonlander right now. Love it to pieces. The tenting kit is pricey but incredibly stable and, to me, is worth every penny. I've gotten used to the ortholinear so much so that I hate other layouts now.

I've looked at some other more minimal boards and, while they look nice, I actually make good use of pretty much all my keys and I would not like going down to a smaller layout.

In my mind, the most important pieces of a good keyboard are, in this order:

1. QMK/ZMK firmware so you can add stuff like mod-taps and whatnot

2. Split & tented to avoid bad wrist angles

3. Lots of buttons for your thumb to press: it's your strongest finger so you should put it to work

4. Ortholinear layout for more natural finger movement

ZSA (the maker of the Ergodox, Moonlander, and Voyager) is a great company—I've had incredibly positive experiences with their support team whenever I've needed help. One time I was having trouble using their online configuration tool (https://layout.new) and so I emailed support. I got an email back within the hour from a developer asking for more details. After I supplied this, it was just another hour until I heard back saying that they had found a bug and that the fix was live. So awesome!!

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