[21echoes]

why did they give it a non-standard keyboard layout? having the black keys be higher up & "overlap" front-to-back with the white keys is pretty crucial for playing with any sort of speed. also wary of the button-like keys vs traditional lever-like keys on real pianos.

other than that, the proximity sensor looks awesome, and the price point is pretty incredible! not to mention the light-up stuff for people learning.

[idanb]

I was worried about that too when we first started to give it to musicians. We had to test this design out first, before we launched it. I'm not a piano player, but I would produce music on flights to China and back a lot when we were doing manufacturing for the gTar and I would get these midi controllers and they would all break going in and out of my backpack.

That's where the design initially came from, but I knew one of the most important things is that the keys had to be full size. Mini key designs always left something to be desired, and I would just use my laptop keyboard instead - which seemed to be more effective and in the long run more convenient too - since these controllers were really cumbersome.

So when I first gave the design to musicians I was scared that they would immediately reject it. The Keys were full size, but the interface was different than what they were used to. But they made zero mention of it, and you can see in later half the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guKRk3WPc40

I know no feedback sounds like bad feedback, but in this case it was really positive. These guys would immediately start wailing on keys like it was natural. These are guys that do this for a living, and I didn't hear one comment about the difference in the keys from a traditional piano.

So take it for what it is - We weren't ignorant of the fact that Keys isn't a traditional design, but all the same - this approach also makes it significantly more portable - and the great thing about AMON (the networking stuff) is we could always make a traditional version and it would still work and link with the non-traditional layout.

[jtheory]

Interesting -- I'd be curious to see what actual musicians would say. It really depends on the type of music you're building with it, I'd say.

I'm not primarily a keyboardist, but I use them; in this case it would surely be tricky to play anything that uses the black keys much; your hands have patterns memorized that (I'd imagine) would be tough to adapt to having the black keys on a separate row.

But because it's MIDI, it really does depend on what you're building, and it might not matter. Recording simple snatches of melody would be fine if you keep away from chromatic lines -- e.g., if you want to add a line that's in C minor, just record it in A minor (all white keys except maybe the G#), then transpose it in a few seconds.

You wouldn't play the Flight of the Bumblebee on it, though.

[idanb]

I can't disagree with you, these haven't gone out into the wild yet - but I will say I've seen some truly gifted piano players / keyboardists take to this without any mention of strange finger/hand issues with the layout.

I'll be honest, I'm not a keyboard player. I designed this to be truly mobile and portable without making compromises on the key size, which my theory is that having a full scale keyboard is more important than the traditional design of the keys. The former makes the device useful, and the later makes it familiar but also prevents it from being very portable without shrinking the keys or otherwise compromising on other dimensions.

I've seen people shred on Keys, it's pretty awesome to see, since I can barely play Yankee Doodle - but I'm getting a lot better!