Had my keyboards for three days now. Still working on "building" the jammer, so to speak.
I fixed my hardware problems. It seems that the USB library included with the firmware updater is out of date. Once I replaced that file with a newer version and restarted, everything worked fine (under Windows XP Mode in Windows 7). If anyone needs any details, don't hesitate to get in touch with me about it.
Now just to figure out how to get my software cooperating. Basically, I'm just trying to find a software solution that will allow remapping of two different MIDI channels independently. I am hopeful, and will post my final results here as soon as I figure out what will do the trick. Hopefully I don't need to purchase my own copy of Max/MSP, but I may end up doing just that. Or perhaps I can work something out using PureData? More to come.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Axis 49 first impressions
My two Axis 49 keyboards arrived today.
They're nice. Build quality is not quite what I had hoped for; probably appropriate for what I paid ($250 per) considering how niche the product is, but I might have been slightly disappointed had paid full price. The bottom panels were screwed on pretty loosely, and the screws themselves seem to be pretty soft metal. I'm going to have to be very careful if I decide to open these up to rearrange the keys.
Other than that, I am quite pleased. The keys are spongier than I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way. The feel of the keys is actually better for velocity sensing than I expected. Glissandos are a bit difficult, but that might be a matter of adjusting how my software responds to velocity signals. In any case, the available glissandos on a Wicki-Hayden keyboard aren't the most useful things in the world.
I'm experimenting with software for remapping the keyboard layout of the Axis. I have the correct tuning working under Andrew Milne's Relayer application, but it's not the most convenient bit of software. It's relatively easy to set up, but it doesn't seem to save its settings upon closing. I'm going to get in contact with Andrew to see if one can change the default settings; otherwise I will try a few other things.
Additionally, I need to set one of the keyboards up to send MIDI on channel two. This is accomplishing by updating the firmware with a special version, the MIDI channel being the only change. Problem is, I need a Windows XP compatible computer, which nobody in the house owns. Hopefully tomorrow, I can take care of this.
Too long; didn't read: Now that my keyboards are here, I have a little bit of building and hacking to do in order to make sure they function properly as a complete jammer. With any luck, everything will be functioning before next week.
They're nice. Build quality is not quite what I had hoped for; probably appropriate for what I paid ($250 per) considering how niche the product is, but I might have been slightly disappointed had paid full price. The bottom panels were screwed on pretty loosely, and the screws themselves seem to be pretty soft metal. I'm going to have to be very careful if I decide to open these up to rearrange the keys.
Other than that, I am quite pleased. The keys are spongier than I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way. The feel of the keys is actually better for velocity sensing than I expected. Glissandos are a bit difficult, but that might be a matter of adjusting how my software responds to velocity signals. In any case, the available glissandos on a Wicki-Hayden keyboard aren't the most useful things in the world.
I'm experimenting with software for remapping the keyboard layout of the Axis. I have the correct tuning working under Andrew Milne's Relayer application, but it's not the most convenient bit of software. It's relatively easy to set up, but it doesn't seem to save its settings upon closing. I'm going to get in contact with Andrew to see if one can change the default settings; otherwise I will try a few other things.
Additionally, I need to set one of the keyboards up to send MIDI on channel two. This is accomplishing by updating the firmware with a special version, the MIDI channel being the only change. Problem is, I need a Windows XP compatible computer, which nobody in the house owns. Hopefully tomorrow, I can take care of this.
Too long; didn't read: Now that my keyboards are here, I have a little bit of building and hacking to do in order to make sure they function properly as a complete jammer. With any luck, everything will be functioning before next week.
Monday, April 22, 2013
The Beginning
I'm learning to play a new instrument and I wanted to document the process, both for myself and any others that might be interested.
Why might others be interested in what is typically a mundane, grueling process best kept to oneself for the sake of others' sanity?
Simple. The instrument I'm teaching myself to play is called a jammer and is quite novel. Probably fewer than one hundred folks out there in the world have played one, and it doesn't seem as though more than five or six people have made an effort to discuss it much on the Internet. Even the musical layout that the jammer is based out, the Wicki-Hayden system, remains relatively obscure, used primarily in concertinas and home-built hobby instruments (like the one I'm learning on).
In any case, isomorphic keyboards (any keyboard that preserves fingering patterns anywhere on the keyboard, like the Wicki-Hayden) should be of interest to anyone who, like me, finds the traditional piano-style keyboard to be frustrating and limiting creatively. In that capacity, I hope this blog can be inspirational.
The concept of the jammer can be summed up as such: you have two Wicki-Hayden (W-H) keyboards, one for each hand. The right hand plays a traditional W-H while the left plays a mirrored layout, which preserves all fingerings and patterns when you switch hands. In this manner, one needs only learn a single pattern rather than the twenty four (one for each of twelve keys times two for each hand) that a piano layout requires.
I have two Axis 49 keyboards on their way to my house right now, and I plan on remapping these neat little controllers to W-H. Until they arrive, all I can really do is parrot back the theory that's already well-covered elsewhere on the Internet, and is well summarized on the relevant Wikipedia articles thanks to the jammer's resident Internet evangelist, Ken Rushton. If anything I've talked about so far is remotely interesting, check those Wikipedia articles out and come back in a couple days when my Axis 49 keyboards come in.
(PS: C-Thru Music is currently running a sale on Axis 49s, selling them for half their normal price ($250 instead of $495). This is a fantastic deal in my opinion; all other commercial isomorphic keyboards are well over $1500, and even a DIY solution offered by analoguehaven will probably run you around $500 all told. Until someone like Korg jumps on the isomorphic hardware bandwagon (unlikely any time soon), this is absolutely the lowest barrier to entry anyone is likely to see in the near future. On the other hand, if you own a tablet computer, there are a number of isomorphic keyboard apps that are quite capable. I like Musix, personally. Unfortunately, these software solutions, while nice for trying the isomorphic concept and auditioning different layouts, lack the tactile feedback of a hardware controller, which is entirely necessary for the level of performance I hope to attain on my instrument of choice.)
Why might others be interested in what is typically a mundane, grueling process best kept to oneself for the sake of others' sanity?
Simple. The instrument I'm teaching myself to play is called a jammer and is quite novel. Probably fewer than one hundred folks out there in the world have played one, and it doesn't seem as though more than five or six people have made an effort to discuss it much on the Internet. Even the musical layout that the jammer is based out, the Wicki-Hayden system, remains relatively obscure, used primarily in concertinas and home-built hobby instruments (like the one I'm learning on).
In any case, isomorphic keyboards (any keyboard that preserves fingering patterns anywhere on the keyboard, like the Wicki-Hayden) should be of interest to anyone who, like me, finds the traditional piano-style keyboard to be frustrating and limiting creatively. In that capacity, I hope this blog can be inspirational.
The concept of the jammer can be summed up as such: you have two Wicki-Hayden (W-H) keyboards, one for each hand. The right hand plays a traditional W-H while the left plays a mirrored layout, which preserves all fingerings and patterns when you switch hands. In this manner, one needs only learn a single pattern rather than the twenty four (one for each of twelve keys times two for each hand) that a piano layout requires.
I have two Axis 49 keyboards on their way to my house right now, and I plan on remapping these neat little controllers to W-H. Until they arrive, all I can really do is parrot back the theory that's already well-covered elsewhere on the Internet, and is well summarized on the relevant Wikipedia articles thanks to the jammer's resident Internet evangelist, Ken Rushton. If anything I've talked about so far is remotely interesting, check those Wikipedia articles out and come back in a couple days when my Axis 49 keyboards come in.
(PS: C-Thru Music is currently running a sale on Axis 49s, selling them for half their normal price ($250 instead of $495). This is a fantastic deal in my opinion; all other commercial isomorphic keyboards are well over $1500, and even a DIY solution offered by analoguehaven will probably run you around $500 all told. Until someone like Korg jumps on the isomorphic hardware bandwagon (unlikely any time soon), this is absolutely the lowest barrier to entry anyone is likely to see in the near future. On the other hand, if you own a tablet computer, there are a number of isomorphic keyboard apps that are quite capable. I like Musix, personally. Unfortunately, these software solutions, while nice for trying the isomorphic concept and auditioning different layouts, lack the tactile feedback of a hardware controller, which is entirely necessary for the level of performance I hope to attain on my instrument of choice.)
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