[thisjepisje]

FL Studio (a so-called digital audio workstation) has an option for using the typing keyboard as a piano keyboard. The layout looks like this: http://www.image-line.com/support/FLHelp/html/img_glob/qwert... I'll definitely try the layout as mentioned in the article, the playing looks very natural.

Not very hacky, but you can download the free demo of FL and have a go at playing with many synthesizers and audio samples. It's too bad my keyboard (and, I suspect, a lot of keyboards) doesn't support every possible key combination; a lot of even 3-note chords are impossible to play.

[intull]

On a side note, Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) is an open source clone of FL Studio. Although its not on par with FL Studio's experience and features, its pretty neat and has all the essentials in place!

[tragic]

It may be a standard thing for all I know, but I think they nicked the layout from Jeskola Buzz[0], where I cut my teeth many moons ago.

Anyone who hasn't tried it should give it a whirl - it's got the hexadecimal-happy vertical sequencing of a tracker, combined with an insanely flexible modular sound workspace. I switched to FL 'full time' eight or so years ago, but I've never found anything as intuitive for sound design as Buzz.

[1] http://www.jeskola.net/buzz/