Jim’s Zapperesque draft promo for ‘Shape Of Music’s (then) new ‘Opal’ range of MIDI controllers. Includes young Kate & Alice playing it for the first time, me playing Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” with bass & Melody played with left and then right hand alone, Bessie Smith’s blues “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out” and Jim’s improvisation. The 3 instruments used here are prototypes of the Opal models: Chameleon and Gecko
Duration : 0:3:24
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Technorati Tags: alternative MIDI controller, beethoven, blues piano, classical music, Deep Purple, electronic keyboard, Fur Elise, hand, Harmonic Table, improvisation, invention, Isometric Keyboard, Left hand playing, Melodic Table, music education, music research, music theory, new musical instrument, playing, Reaching the notes, right, Smoke on the Water Riff, sonome
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Early Promo of Chameleon & Gecko
Your switches can …
Your switches can have a shorter travel than the key travel as long as the keys have a separate means of pushing them back up.
My main trouble at …
My main trouble at the moment is getting my hands on the switches. I don’t need velocity sensitivity as I will use this mainly to control a virtual electric organ. The only real problem is most of the affordable switches have a travel of 0.25mm and that seems much to short.
If I ever finish this project I will upload a video here on youtube
You’re welcome! …
You’re welcome! The key travel is 3mm, which we found works best for weight & high resolution velocity. It was slightly less on the prototypes in this video. Please let me know how you get on
Thanks for the help …
Thanks for the help! As I haven’t yet had any opportunity to try out the sonome I’m a bit curious about the switch travel. From the videos it looks like it is around 2mm. Is that about right?
Thank you Kojiro, I …
The key spacing is 19mm centres. Good luck with the DIY!
Thank you Kojiro, I appreciate your kind comment. The hexagonal keys took a long time to develop. They are injection-moulded for us by a company in the UK and are only cost-effective in large batches. For a DIY project, it might be possible to use some material that has a circular section, like timber dowel, or plastic or metal rod. After all, circles stack the same way as hexagons
This is the most …
This is the most visually appealing keyboard instrument ever. Not only that, but the very concept of the layout is inspiring. I tried out an interactive flash version just to get a feel of how to find the notes and it is very cool. I’m planning a DIY based on this harmonic table layout but right now I’m stumped trying to figure out some sensible way to create the keys caps. Hexagonal key caps aren’t exactly standard
thank you very much …
thank you very much! i will look into all of this.
Im happy that youre …
Im happy that youre inspired enough to take on a DIY project based on my project. If you do, Ill have a think about ways I can help. I cant offer any hand-made parts but there may be other ways. I wish you success with it.
Electronics …
Electronics engineer Jim makes the v-sensing switches by hand to his own design. Sorry, cant say how he makes them, its not mine to tell! Key caps are injection-moulded to my design, shaped so they work running your hand or fingers across the key surface, sideways on to the key-caps, as well as vertically. No redundant keys. Whole piano? We have 5.3 octaves of key area; this range can be expanded to the whole MIDI range of 10.66 octaves by transposing zone 1 up and zone 3 down.
That’s so great, …
That’s so great, may I ask how you make the velocity sensitive keys, im assuming some one doesn’t just sell those and also the key caps look very good and easy to play can you get those from somewhere are you having some do plastic injection molding or something?does the hamornic table that’s on the keyboard in this video have the full piano range, or are there just a bunch of redundant keys? I’ve heard somewhere that there is 3 repetitions of each not but dont know if the enitre piano is there?
Yes, we do custom …
Yes, we do custom jobs to order. Opals have as standard 15 tuning layouts, including 30 & 90 degree rotations & reversals of the melodic (=harmonic) table, so no need to turn the keyboard sideways. One layout, the Wholetone Mirror, resembles Wicki Hayden. The keys are weighted & feel piano-like but with shorter 2.5mm travel, enabling fast playing while retaining full control of velocity (15 settings) from very quiet to loud. Guitar-like and nice looking, a variety of finishes – thats our aim.
I see, considering …
I see, considering the work involved that’s a pretty good price. Do you guys do any custom jobs, like if I wanted a wicki hayden layout instead of the harmonic table ( I would rather not just turn the keyboard sideways)? Also, how do the keys feel, is it short key travel or long? I only ask all this because I’m considering doing a diy project myself but it would be cool to have a keyboard that was like…a keyboard/guitar…really nice looking and all.
Thanks for asking …
Thanks for asking the question
Sorry it’s such a long reply!
…why it’s complex …
…why it’s complex to build by hand: 192 weighted keys with a small footprint, 192 hand-made, hand-soldered switches, velocity-sensing, close tolerance and no stock parts exist. With all the electronic components, it amounts to one thousand hand-soldered joints per instrument after we get the pcbs made with the tracks in place. Its a labour-intensive project. Ideally, the mechanical parts should be mass-produced, but while this isnt possible, we dont mind the labour, its worth it!
Guitar Building – …
Guitar Building – with solid bodies, the neck is the hardest part, the body and passive circuit are very simple and all the hardware is readily available. With acoustics, the sound-box is more complex to build, but it’s still a box – and the technology is well established. This keyboard has electronics, software and mechanical parts – a relatively huge number of parts… (continued)
why is this more …
why is this more complex than guitar building, you dont have to worry about how the chassis sounds like you do with a soundbox…i dont know much about guitar building btw so this is just a question
I wish I could …
I wish I could afford one! This is seriously brilliant design.
Cheers, it’s fun to …
Cheers, it’s fun to play too!
awesome man
… 
looks great xD
awesome man