It's been about a week since the last post. Luckily, it's all good news.
I completed my jammer (mkI, anyway) a couple days after my last post. I've attached a couple photos of the completed device. The first one should give a sense of scale and the second gives a nice view of the overall layout.
I went with a key coloring scheme swiped from musicnotation.org's article on the Wicki/Hayden layout. The white keys are the same as a piano's white keys, and the black and blue (both shades) are equivalent to the black keys. The blue keys indicate unison notes, as a handy reference when/if you need to wrap around the edges of the keyboard. Basically, if you play a dark blue key, and then play the dark blue key upward and to the left (for the right-hand keyboard), you'll trigger the same MIDI note. This color scheme also has the advantage of very nearly using the same number of each color of key as the original Axis-49 layout; there were only three keys that needed to be colored black with a Sharpie to complete the pattern (one of each other color).
I chose not to do further coloring of the keys, which is something Ken Rushton—aka MusicScienceGuy, the jammer's adoptive father—encourages. Being red-green colorblind, I tend not to respond to color-coding very strongly. (If you ever play against me in Puzzle Fighter, expect to win.) Blue is a good color for me, but the colors on Ken's jammer (seen here) all tend to blend together for me, especially the row of warm colors right next to the green.
Instead of colored keys, I want to add some tactile feedback. I haven't decided exactly how yet—something non-permanent would be nice, though nothing springs to mind. It may be as simple as dropping a bit of glue in the center of each C key.
Keen-eyed readers will see that I've applied exactly two of the 98 note-name stickers included with the Axis-49 to each unit: C and C-sharp. This has a few advantages in my mind. First, it gives just enough tactile feedback to find middle-C without looking at the keyboard (finding every other C without looking is why I want to try bumps on the keys). Second, between the stickers and the blue-colored keys, it makes semi-tone relationships on the keyboard a little easier to visualize.
As far as actually playing the keyboards? It's a joy! The shapes of scales immediately start to jump out at you. Changing between I, IV and V chords is ridiculously simple. Learning is slow (especially since I'm simultaneously learning how to read music again), but enjoyable. It's easy to see that while some things are a tiny bit trickier at first, this largely has to do with the fact that most piano lessons start with bits in C-major and A-minor; once you start going in any other key, everything gets simplified.
I must go for now, but so far I'm impressed.
(PS: I take back anything I said about the construction of these Axis units. I don't know why the screws in the bottom were loose, but after opening them to rearrange the keys and securely closing them back up again, I'm pretty pleased with the solid construction. The screws weren't nearly as soft as I had feared, and I expect these instruments will last me some time. Also good news: C-thru's customer support, while consisting of a single person, is quite prompt and eager to engage.)
Further reading: If you haven't been to the C-Thru forums yet, please check them out. There are some lengthy discussions on remapping the Axis 49, updating the firmware, etc. Invaluable resource for a new owner. They're not super active, but there's lots of information there already and at leasta few people still checking in regularly.
Until next time.
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