Melodicade MX - A DIY 3D printed velocity sensitive MIDI keyboard using the Wicki-Hayden key layout
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- Опубликовано: 8 авг 2024
- Melodicade MX - A portable 6+ octave, 3D printed, velocity sensitive MIDI keyboard and synthesizer, using mechanical key-switches arranged in the Wicki-Hayden button layout.
Project code, CAD files and build guide at: www.koopinstruments.com/instr...
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction and description
0:42 - Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - Pokke Village Arrangement
1:48 - Wicki-Hayden Button Layout
2:48 - Efficiency of key layout, and possibilities of one-handed play
3:50 - Lower barrier to entry - Canon In D Arrangement
4:52 - Easy transposition into different keys - The Wellerman
5:49 - The Legend of Zelda - Song of Storms Arrangement
7:24 - Demonstration of menu system - Instrument selection
7:49 - Device mode options
8:54 - On-board synthesizer demonstration
10:35 - Pedal mode selections and pitch transposition
11:02 - Looper demonstration
12:01 - Untitled song idea
13:16 - Project history
15:31 - Super Mario World - Game Over Arrangement
Sources:
Alesis Recital Pro - alesis.com/products/view/reci...
Janko Keyboard Video - • Demonstration of 4-Row...
Axis-49 Image - www.jefftk.com/axis-49-big.jpg
Wicki-Hayden Image - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Musix Pro - shiverware.com/musixpro/
Hayden Duet Concertina - people.well.com/user/jax/rcfb...
Wicki and Hayden Patent Photos - www.concertina.com/gaskins/wicki/
Janko Piano - / the_jank%c3%b3_keyboar...
Harmonic Table - www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page...
LinnStrument - www.rogerlinndesign.com/linns...
Bayan Accordion - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Harpejji - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Wicki-Hayden MIDI Visualizer - www.kreativekorp.com/app/mymi... 
Видеоклипы
Hey man. I really think people like you are the reason the world keeps spinning. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Wow that one handed part at 3:39 around there is so soulful and cool. I just wanna show up to places, sing and play this with one hand haha
That would be an amazing show.
Thank you for sharing this with us - it is an amazing project
This is incredible! If you could program backlit keys to correspond to the right key/notes so that you can find what notes to play easily this machine could be an absolute gamechanger for MIDI controllers.
WOW! Absolutely amazing! I'm trying to create a Le Strum with tons of more control. I'm now depressed. No way can I make something so wonderful!
As a layman, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen.
This is so dope! Can't wait to follow along your development
Wow this thing is really cool! And your playing was impressive!
Great Work, i learned a lot, i really like the concept, very inspiring 👍🤝
Wow - I really love your project! I haven't heard of the Wicki-Hayden layout before - it really makes a lot of sense! Thank you for sharing!
Super cool and impressive. Your vid was mesmerizing. Kudos.
this looks great. is souch a great idea. I wish you will never abandon this. I will follow this project. Congrats.
This is amazing thank you for the detailed build guit.
Wow!! Congrats on this, really stellar work.
This is the coolest thing in the world. Might spend a bunch of money and time to try to make one
Thank you so much for sharing and being so thoughtful and detailed.
You beautiful bastard throwing a Song of Storms in there! This is easily the coolest open source thing I've ever seen, hands down.
Wow this work is really increadible. Still have more to watch
My partner did not understand my excitement when I saw you finally uploaded this project conclusion. Bravo!
Beautiful! Awesome and inspiring. I’m working on a controller. Yours has almost everything I want.
I still haven’t used this key arrangement tho you’ve convinced me I need to.
Thanks so much for sharing!! I just ordered all of thr parts. I might try to modify it and reprogramm it to have more like a button-accordion layout. i'll keep you Updated 💫
Looks really impressive.
Absolutely incredible project
Very impressive. Reminds me of my own Janko keyboard converters. These are however strictly mechanical. You went a lot farther then I ever could. 👍👍👍👍
Many, many thanks for sharing the project
I'd love to build one of these, wanted to make my own midi fighter 64 but this seems so much more practical. great build and beautiful playing! love me some MH ost
I want one !! Looks fantastic !!
I couldn't 3D print a tooth pick if my life depended on it :-)
This is a thing of beauty, my friend
thank you very much, you are a wise and kind man, a good human being
:0 that can be microtonal
theres so much potential
imagine lumatone but more accessible
Very impressive! The craftsmanship is clean and lovely.
Absolutely fantastic I want to build one to accompany my electronic drum set so i can play it with my left hand while i drum
Just noticed the 40k seal at the beginning too, legend.
beautiful playing btw
it is just insane project😮
Wow, cool! Thank you, this is very interesting!
That MHFU arrangement made me tear up man
God damn never thought I'd hear that again
I'm saving my pennies so someday I can build one of these. Cheers!
Wow that’s beautiful
That's incredible!
I've actually been working around a similar idea, wanted to add velocity sensitivity to regular MX Style keys. You definitely came up with a nice solution modifying the lower part of the switch's case and making the stem action a low force microswitch. I was actually trying out to figure out a way to do something similar but with a more analog, so that you could use it as poly aftertouch.
Hi, did you have any success? I’m planning on doing a teensy synth with polyphony and VS too but I don’t know how to achive VS or after touch
@@pablobaccelli5154 To give you some Ideas. I am working on a version with linear hall effect sensors and using a series of Multiplexors to reduce the IO consumption of pins on the Teensy. If you look at Koop's code, he tracks the difference in timing between the two switches activation time. In my case for that standard velocity detection, I poll for a minimum Analog value that signifies activation and then I poll the same pin and Multiplexor channel for the desired Max value. from that I can determine the activation times in a similar way. For aftertouch you would just scan this looking for a reduction in value and time accordingly. Alternatively, you could just translate the analog value to MIDI Volume and the speed at which you withdraw your fingers would just be translated directly.
BEALTIFUL DEVICE!
CONGRATULATIONS
CHEERS!
You really deep-dished the pizza here. Keep baking!
This is awesome! So many cool details!
Very cool!
This is great! I was working on a similar project years ago but never finished it. I've since gotten a linnstrument and programmed a "wholetone" layout which is similar to this but runs diagonally to the right, which is what I use now and now I think it's better than wicki-hayden. It opens up a number of techniques and increases the range of the linnstrument, and also works well with splits with two hands (even on the smaller one), which makes it so stacking your hands is unnecessary. The chord shapes also work better than on wicki-hayden imho. Major, minor, and sus chords are just simple triangles, etc. Great work on this though. Hope to see more instruments with similar layouts in the future.
bosanquet-wilson layout ftw!!! if you're willing to go outside of 12tet, try a porcupine layout! (3\22 of an octave to the right and 4\22 upwards) it works on the linnstrument even better than bosanquet-wilson because the octaves drift diagonally slower
This looks like it could help me realising my project of building a Janko-layout keyboard. I thought velocity-sensitivity would be out of reach but it might not be after all!
This is great!
nice concept, i'd like to learned it
I love YT for the random things I come across, and subbed! Appreciate you sharing! As an autistic person, this intrigues me, that is a very different key layout and I am curious now to see what it would feel like playing haha and to see if it feels better then the standard piano... I can't read sheet music and some chords feel funny to me on piano. Being an EE, also have heaps of components and projects n tools. Looks like I have another 3D print and electronics project to add to the todo list tehehe!
That's amazing! :)
There is a wooting lekker hall effect analog mechanical switch. Reasonably priced but out of stock. No telling if it ever will come back in stock. Paired with the right hall sensors from aliexpress and maybe you have a winner. Something i have looked into. Optical sensors, cny70, are another option and what i am currently using in my project.
мужик, ты молодец, очень классно играешь
Wooooow! This looks amazing! And 3D-printing, (embedded) electronics, assumably some software development, all in one. Are you available to adopt another son... ? :D
Really would be nice to see you play this tuned in pythagorean tuning. It is much more pleasing than equal temperament, should be fairly easy to do, and it would allow the flats to the left and the sharps to the right to be different pitches allowing for true intonation and right feeling in modulations and differences in keys. The layout is really perfect for this tuning. Most keyboards as you know can only have 12 notes per octave at any given time. Your keyboard and layout would allow 19 pitches per octave.
The left most note would be a Cb which would be slightly lower in pitch than a B natural. And on the right most key on the instrument, you would have an E# which would be slightly higher than an F natural. I think playing in this pure harmonic pythagorean tuning, also called 3 -limit just intonation, you would find you really like.
That's subjective. Many people prefer the warbly nature of 12-TET
@@Persun_McPersonsonIt is and it isn't. Consciously it can be subjective. Unconsciously, no, it is how our brains hear and interpret music holistically. Also, Pythagorean tuning does warble, but unlike 12 tet, it warbles consistently and the warbling rhythm is harmonic in nature to the sounding pitches.
@@RememberGodHolyBible
Any actual evidence that we unconsciously hear music in Pythagorean tuning? Because it sounds like you're spouting pseudoscientific nonsense with that explanation. Our brains hear music in whatever tuning it's been brought up to hear it in.
By "warbly" I meant the specific "clashing" kind of warble that you get with 12-TET that some people cite as undesirable. I should have worded it more accurately, though.
@@Persun_McPersonsonscience can't prove something like this, and I am not claiming it to be science. You only have your experience, and polling, and logical analysis. Science only can prove the cause of a naturally occurring phenomenon. That is very far outside the scientific method and what it is capable of. You cannot formulate a sound hypothesis on this issue in terms of science.
But there have been polls done that show an overwhelming preference for Pythagorean tuning over meantone. But if you are not convinced from hearing this notion and music in Pythagorean tuning which you can hear on my channel, I would consider two things.
1. Timbre - timbre plays a big role in how we consciously perceive intonation, but if something sounds off, the issue could be the timbre and not the intonation of the fundamental pitch. Today most people are only expose to electronic music and fake timbres from fake instruments. And this can and does condition the ear.
and more importantly
2. Historically speaking - music, diatonic music, as a system is always conceived of as the intervals derrived from a chain of unbroken fifths. Whether the pentatonic scale, or the regular old major and minor scale. Those notes, the letter names, the whole concept of sharps and flats, and our whole music notation system comes from the fact that a chain of fifths and those notes' octave doublings are the foundation of all music theory and notation.
12 TET was adopted because it very closely approximates Pythagorean tuning, but limits the system to having only 12 notes and the Pythagorean comma is dispersed among all intervals save the octave. But anecdotally people hear the Pythagorean 3/2 perfect fifth as pure and in tune over the 12 tet perfect fifth. 12 tet was not adopted sooner because people did not prefer it, in China for example, it had been known about for a very long time, but was not adopted because of how impure the harmony was.
12 tet is a product of modernity, of being open to compromise that which is good to do that which you want in an easier way. It uses irrational numbers, and so is an irrational tuning system. If music is from a chain of fifths, octave reduced, than it is only natural that that when the fifths and octaves are close simple harmonics, the notes obtained are the intervals our brain understands. Everything in frequencies in ratios between powers of two in relation to powers of three.
I used to prefer 5 limit intonation, but that isn't how your brain hears music holistically. Holistically, it is very out of tune especially when scrutinized and put through tests, in different pieces of music in various timbres.
12 tet is just slightly detuned Pythagorean. People may prefer something lesser, but that does not make the quality completely subjective.
When you spend a lot of time tuning and retuning pieces as I have, you see, and hearing 12 tet and then Pythagorean, and comparing against different timbres, it is clear what the true intonation is. When I say holistically in tune, I mean that the music is simultaneously perfectly coherent to a relaxed yet aware state of consciousness both vertically, that is harmonically, and horizontally, that is melodically. Pythagorean tuning is the only tuning where you get both dimensions in tune at once.
There is a reason our writing system for music has more than 12 notes, it has over 21 with just the naturals, sharps, and flats, not to mention the double sharps and flats and beyond. The reason our system of music is not based on 12 like 12 tet is, is because music itself is not based on 12. 12 is an important number in music, but it is in no way a fundamental backdrop on pitch class in general, locally it can serve as a backdrop, but not in terms of functional harmony or in terms of the infinite spiral of fifths. Even for the vicinity of C major you need 7 naturals five flats, and five sharps, for a total of 17, 12 is not enough. Another reason that our notation system is not based on 12 pitch classes, is because you can't really make a 12 tone music notation system that is better than our current Pythagorean one, because again, 12 does not go together with our music, and how we perceive music, it is not fundamental enough.
When in 12 tet, you can tell there is something off because you have multiple names for the same pitch, for no real apparent reason. When dealing in Pythagorean tuning suddenly all of music theory makes sense as does our music notation system. All the seemingly arbitrary parts are seen and heard as logical and coherent.
@@Persun_McPersonson science can't prove something like this, and I am not claiming it to be science. You only have your experience, and polling, and logical analysis. Science only can prove the cause of a naturally occurring phenomenon. That is very far outside the scientific method and what it is capable of. You cannot formulate a sound hypothesis on this issue in terms of science.
But there have been polls done that show an overwhelming preference for Pythagorean tuning over meantone. But if you are not convinced from hearing this notion and music in Pythagorean tuning which you can hear on my channel, I would consider two things.
1. Timbre - timbre plays a big role in how we consciously perceive intonation, but if something sounds off, the issue could be the timbre and not the intonation of the fundamental pitch. Today most people are only expose to electronic music and fake timbres from fake instruments. And this can and does condition the ear.
and more importantly
2. Historically speaking - music, diatonic music, as a system is always conceived of as the intervals derived from a chain of unbroken fifths. Whether the pentatonic scale, or the regular old major and minor scale. Those notes, the letter names, the whole concept of sharps and flats, and our whole music notation system comes from the fact that a chain of fifths and those notes' octave doublings are the foundation of all music theory and notation.
12 TET was adopted because it very closely approximates Pythagorean tuning, but limits the system to having only 12 notes and the Pythagorean comma is dispersed among all intervals save the octave. But anecdotally people hear the Pythagorean 3/2 perfect fifth as pure and in tune over the 12 tet perfect fifth. 12 tet was not adopted sooner because people did not prefer it, in China for example, it had been known about for a very long time, but was not adopted because of how impure the harmony was.
12 tet is a product of modernity, of being open to compromise that which is good to do that which you want in an easier way. It uses irrational numbers, and so is an irrational tuning system. If music is from a chain of fifths, octave reduced, than it is only natural that that when the fifths and octaves are close simple harmonics, the notes obtained are the intervals our brain understands. Everything in frequencies in ratios between powers of two in relation to powers of three.
I used to prefer 5 limit intonation, but that isn't how your brain hears music holistically. Holistically, it is very out of tune especially when scrutinized and put through tests, in different pieces of music in various timbres.
12 tet is just slightly detuned Pythagorean. People may prefer something lesser, but that does not make the quality completely subjective.
When you spend a lot of time tuning and retuning pieces as I have, you see, and hearing 12 tet and then Pythagorean, and comparing against different timbres, it is clear what the true intonation is. When I say holistically in tune, I mean that the music is simultaneously perfectly coherent to a relaxed yet aware state of consciousness both vertically, that is harmonically, and horizontally, that is melodically. Pythagorean tuning is the only tuning where you get both dimensions in tune at once.
There is a reason our writing system for music has more than 12 notes, it has over 21 with just the naturals, sharps, and flats, not to mention the double sharps and flats and beyond. The reason our system of music is not based on 12 like 12 tet is, is because music itself is not based on 12. 12 is an important number in music, but it is in no way a fundamental backdrop on pitch class in general, locally it can serve as a backdrop, but not in terms of functional harmony or in terms of the infinite spiral of fifths. Even for the vicinity of C major you need 7 naturals five flats, and five sharps, for a total of 17, 12 is not enough. Another reason that our notation system is not based on 12 pitch classes, is because you can't really make a 12 tone music notation system that is better than our current Pythagorean one, because again, 12 does not go together with our music, and how we perceive music, it is not fundamental enough.
When in 12 tet, you can tell there is something off because you have multiple names for the same pitch, for no real apparent reason. When dealing in Pythagorean tuning suddenly all of music theory makes sense as does our music notation system. All the seemingly arbitrary parts are seen and heard as logical and coherent.
Much gratitude for sharing this as an open-source project! Impressive work; I'm eager to embark on building one myself. Quick question - any specific reason behind not opting for a fabricatable PCB board? I'm curious to understand if there's a potential pitfall you've navigated that could be insightful for my future build. Thanks in advance!
Will this eventually have hexagon keys? That would be super cool
Subscribed! so, will it be Tindie or Kickstarter? 😁
Emperor approved.
🤯
Thank you so much for making a build guide. I was wondering, what was the total $$ of this project? And does this instrument work well with Bohlen Pierce tuning?
Edit: My bad, just saw the cost on the website. It'll probably still be higher for me considering that I'll have to buy a lot of the tools. My question about BP tuning still stands, though.
You would likely need to devise a new way to map the keys. As such it would no longer be anything I could conceive of looking like Wiki-Hayden or Harmony.
Haue you euer tried putting this into Pythagoꝛean tuning ſo all the fifths are pure 3:2 ratios? This would make the flats and ſharps different pitches and allow moꝛe keys to modulate to as well as giuing pure iuſt intonation. I would loue to ſee and hear that. This inſtrument would be perfect foꝛ that. There are not enough people playing in this tuning and by the looks of the melodicade MX, you do haue the ability to with this and your other keyboards. You then would haue two types of maioꝛ and minoꝛ choꝛds. Foꝛ example G B D and G Cb D, both would ſound quite good. Same way in minoꝛ G Bb D and G A# D. It would allow you many moꝛe pleaſant coloꝛs to play with.
Take my money
Amazing!! Can you share some detail about how you are achieving velocity sensitivity? You cut away the middle plastic cap on the bottom of the switches so the stem hits the tact switch?
He uses activation times to determine it. this is much like many modern keyboards. the difference is in the switch type choices.
@@dracozny can you elaborate? what you do you mean by "activation times"? measuring the timing different between the actual keyboard switch and the tactile switch beneath it?
This really is a wonderful project. A quick thought, instead of requiring a huge print bed like on the CR-10 could this be built with mounting the switches into a PCB, then another pcb below with the tac switches?
yes. It's a little tricky and you will want to create shared landmarks on the boards to help populate accordingly.
Hi. This is great. Are the MX keys velocity sensitive?
Hi, Michael, we are quest soulmates! I designed an "Vincent" layout, a piano-shaped 2-rows Janko when I was 16 (1986) and still behind you in execution, but pretty much on the same quest of isomorphic+MPE instruments. I tested opticAL and magnetic solutions for continuous "pressure"/velocity. It would be great if you are still into these matters to collab on your next chapter. I'm into MCUs and started dabbeing into FPGAs.
❤ Ein tolles Midi Projekt! Glückwunsch dazu !
Bauen sie doch mal ein MIDI Akkordeon ( mit Piano Tasten links und mindestens 60 Bässe auf der rechten Seite )
Wenn das gelingt , wäre ich für eine Bauanleitungen dankbar !
Viele Grüße Deutschland 🇩🇪 und weißer so 💪 . ❣️
I looked at your website. It's great you are sharing this project.
Could you maybe elaborate on how you did the velocity sensitivity? I could not find any info on that, or did I miss something?
There is a second switch below every cherry switch that gets pushed down by the stem of the cherry switch. By knowing the time delay between pushing the first and the second switch you know exactly the velocity.
I guessed as much, but didn’t find the information. I just finished a 49 key keyboard, in my next project I will try to make a velocity, sensitive keyboard.
Have you tried/considered using electrostatic capacitive keyboard switches or analog keyboard switches for velocity detection?
I really love this project. Ive also wanted to learn normal keyboard but realized it just doesnt jive with me. I think I might give a shot a building one of these, if I get stuck would you help me out?
I imagine it's fairly straight forward considering the well documented BOM and instructions.
@@samueldyer4100 Did you look at the project? It's not exactly simple.
This is really beautiful. Interesting that you play it vertically, like a stringed instrument. As a piano player I would want to rotate it with the bass at left and treble at the right (rather than the top). With no design changes necessary! The meta keys would then be on the top, just like most synths!
Question - your earlier models used arcade buttons (similar to concertinas). Why have you settled on square keys? Hex would seem best for visualizing diagonal axes, no?
on a concertina your fingering for cords would be sideways. I would think that would cause unnecessary turning of the wrist and be very uncomfortable. the benefit to this design is that your left and right hand can play close together and not have to do strange over and under passes to hit keys. Sure it looks great but it's definitely a challenge. this instead relies on conservation of movement.
how does it detect velocity? I'm extremely interested in that part!
Great job….❤ & Plz confirm can we use this on IPAD ( iOS ) as a midi or We can only use this on Pc/laptop ? Plzzz reply
its standard MIDI, so it is OS agnostic.
this layout seems mega inconvenient for chromatic runs
yes chromatics are more of a zigzag.
Yes it's a big trade off. With WH, scale tones are made super easy on a diatonic scale. Chromatic runs are made harder. It's a trade-off that's totally acceptable to me
Following along with your build guide but having trouble picturing the exact details in my mind's eye. Just buying normal keyboard keycaps (with a bit of trimming) would work for this instead of printing them all, right..?
it would work
Amazing! How reliable is the velocity sensing?
It's not as wide as what a good store bought keyboard would offer, but there's a definite difference between light and hard hits. With this specific keyswitch and tact switch pairing, there's about a 1500 microsecond difference on hard hits, 6000µs on medium hits, and above 30000µs, I just assume a light key press and send it. Since the key sometimes doesn't completely bottom out on light hits, and it's better than dropping the note. It's adjustable, but I have the velocity range mapped from 78-127 to keep things sounding consistent.
I tried a few different methods of capturing velocity, and this was definitely the easiest to implement without sending away for a custom PCB and using carbon dome switches, which I was trying to avoid for this DIY project. Basically all that's needed for this is a SPDT on-off-on momentary push button switch, but finding switches for less than $3/ea, much less ones with interchangeable keycaps seems to be an impossibility.
@@KOOPInstruments Thanks! I looked through your build document and I don't understand how the tactile switch is pressed if you hot glue in the keyboard switches?
The stem of the key switch plunger pokes out of the bottom and activates the tact switch when fully bottomed out. Because the key switch actually activates about half way through the throw, you can count the time difference between the buttons activating to arrive at your velocity.
@@KOOPInstruments oh that is genius, thank you!
@@KOOPInstruments Hey, here's a crazy idea - have you considered instead of the switch plunger pushing a tact switch, it pushes into a force sensitive resistor? That might be able to mimic the effects of velocity, as well as add aftertouch! Do you think that's feasible? I might give it a go
How did you get mechanical keyboard switches to do velocity detection?
Did build a testpiece but the tactile Button needs really high actuation force ... I have to play really hard to have it registered - did you find a special brand which need less force or is this the way ist is?
Sorry, how did you achieve velocity sensitivity again? I didn't understand that part. Did you add another contact point on each switch? I'm designing a similar project with smaller form factor, piano key arrangement, though, also trying to use MX switches, but I didn't think velocity was possible.
By the way, super cool project! You got a new subscriber!
A diatonic harmonica layout chart looks like a crossword puzzle. Just make it playable, since harmonica players already know how to play such a board by numbers. With velocity sensitive buttons marked 1-10 add a knob to select "key" and a knob to select "musical instrument". ruclips.net/video/3x65uo9WWtc/видео.htmlsi=Ztj2DA6sJWfUkmV9
Could this print be split up so that it's printable on an ender 3? Or is this what's going to get me to upgrade? 😂
I mean, you could probably cut the larger pieces into halves or quarters and glue them back together, but think of all the cool stuff you could make with a larger print bed. 😉
@@KOOPInstruments I know right. I guess I should get that rat rig kit i've been thinking about for a while.
In all seriousness, this is a fantastic project, thanks for sharing it. I struggled with the piano as well, but as a guitar player, having chords/scales take the same shape across the instrument makes a lot of sense to me.
how does the velocity work with these switches?
Looking at the linked project guide, it's using a second push button tactile switch on the bottom. The stem of the cherry switch protrudes to hit the second switch for velocity.
will you ever sell these?
Considering the long time it takes to build one of these by hand the price must be upwards of 3k-4k, so probably no
just the printing alone is a small fortune.
looks kinda uncomfortable
really isn't. much more comfortable than playing Piano.
Cool item. Your mic is too sensitive. Mouth noises are very off-putting.
Sorry about that. 🙁 I have a better mic now, so I shouldn't need to eat the microphone to get an adequate volume level anymore.