Jammer improvement suggestions

Herein are some points on how well the current design works and what I would change.

Key size and spacing,
The keys are larger / spaced out more than optimum – about 26-27 mm – bigger than the piano

Oddly, I think the larger keys makes it harder to find the keys; because the fingers tend to drift a bit around on the too-wide, flat key surface as you are playing them, until one finds oneself a fair bit off-center. Either the keys should be shaped like C-Thru’s keys, or smaller or both.

A 12-15% reduction to slightly less than the width of a piano key would be good – the lower limit would be the spacing of a computer keyboard’s keys, to 19 mm  or 25% less. This would allow one's hand to span over an octave width, and put more keys into easy reach, particularly of the little finger.

I suggest 21-22 mm spacing would be about right when we start making our own units from scratch.

Key length and angling.
The original keys were angled towards the center by 10 degrees, to reduce the pinching motion of keys coming together at the center. In conjunction with rounding the key-caps, this worked.

 
Weighting
The keys, because they are missing the weight on the end pulling it down have a shorter key, are a little harder to depress than a piano, but still quite workable, as the keys are uniform in touch and position.

Note that I drilled the white key’s spring-hole down so that the spring pull matches the black key’s (they were not the same; the black keys were set significantly lighter than the longer white keys), using my drill press set to an exact depth, and, crucially, a clamp to hold it in exactly the right place (it wanted to wander out of the hole); this was quite successful. I am much temped to drill the spring-holes down a bit more to lighten the touch, against this is the time required. 

Interestingly the firmer keys are harder to play quickly, which is not what one would expect - you'd expect them to snap back quicker, right? What seems to be more important is that it takes the fingers significantly longer to switch on, then off when pressing hard than when pressing softly. At a guess, softening the keys to near computer-keyboard levels may be best.

It was noted in the Shortcuts to faster learning post, that if the keys are made more pc-keyboard-like in feel, then a new player might be able to use their extensive experience with typing on a computer keyboard to save many valuable hours.  I would suggest the keys should have an upward force a bit lighter than the tip of a piano.

See http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/PolarRuleInstructions.pdf and http://theorem.ca/~my2iu/workshop/piano/piano.html  - they suggest about 7-9  grams.

Shape of the key-caps
The “spindle” profile for the key caps worked well. With a pure hexagon, the side corners can catch the finger (it’s a bit sharp) and also make the gap a bit small. Grinding off 1 mm gave a 12% gap increase, and stopped my fingers from getting jabbed. Also see my post on key shapes.

The top and bottom point can be left on; it fills in the hole nicely.
The high-quality, thick double-sided tape (3M brand) works well. I’d planned on using this only as a temporary measure, but will delay this indefinitely. The keys do move a bit on the tape, but can be gently pushed back.

On the C-thru Axis key board the keys have beveled edges and a finger-tip dimple in the center – this may help in centering and is an idea that should be tried. http://www.keyboardmag.com/pop-up.aspx?content_id=27426&section_code=5

Streamlining the process
The most labor-intensive part was in making the keys and key-caps.

Modifying the keys and making the keycaps was a royal pain. We need to automate the process.

I have decided to investgate what it would take to have plastic keys made.

Further notes from a conversation with Paul P:

[Paul]What concerned me is that the midi switches are laid out according to the 7-5 key size - which might make it impossible to get the wanted spacing between the keys (?) maybe that's not correct, maybe you would know if that's a problem that could be worked out.

[Response] Key size is an issue: because I could not shrink the rig the keys were mounted on, the keys are larger than Ideal.  Oddly, this makes, I think, it harder to find the keys; because the fingers tend to drift a bit around on the too-wide, flat key surface as you are playing them, until one finds oneself a fair bit off-center. Either the keys should be shaped like C-Thru’s keys, or smaller or both.

It made me think of a way to build a 6-6..(or other)...it would take 3 keyboards that are cut and each keyboard would be 2 levels (chromatic layout) making 6 levels like the original janko.

If I get what you mean, one could take 3 M-Audio keyboards and stack them, possibly angle them too.
Yes. This would be doable.

your vox page is very informative and educational.....and has been helpful for me to consider a building project of my own.

 Thank you!

"is there a software that makes it possible to connect your PC keyboard to MIDI" … I thought it would be easier to build some thing of that nature to your own design and specs - especially for other then 12 note tunings.

It’s easy if you have max/msp (which costs $500) as I do. What I don’t have is the time to program it. I’ll send to you my little max program if you like. You can use max/msp for free for 30 days.

 Is the thumbar on your zipex keyboard for tremolo and modulation?

Yes, as a proof of concept. Although I didn’t use it much – I was focusing more on getting the right notes.  

On the music notation project you asked me check out your notation - honestly I was confused....I read standard notation for piano and percussion - and guitar tablature, other then playing by ear.

It would make sense as soon as you tried to play the Thummer/jammer and had to figure out what line to play what note. After a month or so you don’t need to mark up the score, as it becomes habit.

I came up with a variation of standard notation for the 6-6 keyboard - that I would like to get to work on..........that wasn't my original interest in alternate keyboards.

My basic goal is still to teach myself music so I can sing better. Already I sight-read much better, and can play my show chorus’ tunes in the original key. That I may be able to actually play the thing well in a year of so is gravy.