Anybody ever try the Wholetone chromatic keyboards?

[gordian knot]

This guy (a customer, not the company) has some good videos on his experience.
with "jankolike" the keyboard layout

https://www.youtube.com/user/outstretchedarm/videos

[gordian knot]

I'm sort of interested...I'm a very very bad pianist

[fishtankdork]

Mind is blown. I've been playing synths more than guitars latley. This is kinda interesting cause I'm not super set into the regular layout. I wonder how much of a transition this is. It seems like this would be easier for a string player.

[mysteriousj]

I guess it's just arranged like a button accordion? I guess it would take a bit of getting used to, but hey if you don't play keys already nothing to lose right?

[fishtankdork]

Kinda reminds me of a guitar fretboard layout

[Deltaphoenix]

Yeah these are cool. I have had some interest in these for awhile. These let you play your keys riff correct if you switch keys in a song/riff just by knowing the pattern.

Not the same but can have similar results is Ableton Push. I wish it was a standalone piece of hardware.

[gordian knot]

but has anyone actually spent any significant time physically playing one?

[gordian knot]

I guess it's just arranged like a button accordion? I guess it would take a bit of getting used to, but hey if you don't play keys already nothing to lose right?

there are a couple of different layouts of chromatic button accordions (the left hand on accordions tend to work completely differently, they are typically chording butons)

The left hand chromatics use different layouts which, frankly, I never quite understood - they are just kind of freaky to me

I think there are a couple of accordion keyed electronic keyboards out there -- but that's about the extent of my knowledge. they are out there

[Swordfishtrombone]

Huh, this is pretty cool. I dunno if I could be bothered to play one since piano/synth isn't the only thing I play with a keyboard layout, and it would likely screw my talentless ass up even more.

Also, this doesn't make any sense intuitively to me. I mean, looking at a guitar before I learned to play, I had a basic idea of what you'd actually do with it, looking at piano before learning anything, I had a basic idea. This would probably end up confusing the hell out of me.

[gordian knot]

Huh, this is pretty cool. I dunno if I could be bothered to play one since piano/synth isn't the only thing I play with a keyboard layout, and it would likely screw my talentless ass up even more.

yeah, "design lock in" as they call it

that's a major impediment (or has been) I mean shit, janko keyboard has been around for 130 yeas or so, but it has trouble gaining traction. Maybe now with streamlined manufaturing, but there's still the question of overall support vs standard

[Swordfishtrombone]

Whoa, I didn't even look into these keyboards, so I didn't know they were that old. I was thinking it was some modern take on the keyboard to make it more efficient/ergonomic or something (like fanned frets on some guitars, for example). But yeah, that's definitely a problem with this. It's cool, and some people could probably find some awesome use for it, but it doesn't seem like something that would be able to be played by a significant amount of people or anything.

[gordian knot]

It's always pretty crazy shocking how old a lot of 'innovations' are

some stick, some don't some resurface every few years for some reason or another.

[gordian knot]

Man, I don't know --- talk me out of it --- please --- talk me out of it

[lordgalvar]

It's always pretty crazy shocking how old a lot of 'innovations' are

some stick, some don't some resurface every few years for some reason or another.

Yea, it's kind of nice that in this "information" age a bunch of neat stuff get to surface more. I mean modular synths were really, really niche for a long time and they are back with a vengence these days. Stuff like the gizmotron are being rebuilt and reintroduced to a new generation that doesn't have to rely on trade magazines or the one mail order store to inform them of a product. It is pretty awesome, really.

[tuj]

this reminds me of the controls on Ableton Push for 'chromatic' playing (more like 'in-key' playing), the arrangement is grid-based but essentially similar and allows for moveable shapes that preserve intervals. But yeah, it comes from accordians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic ... _accordion