Wicky/ Hyden keyboard layout best for MIDI

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

It's like: "Don't be ashamed for being mentally sane and physically clean, but materialistically poor!"
These sorts of subtle, pragmatic insight one gains from observations and experiences and it surely helps to sort out, who you can safely approach and who you should avoid... Wink

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Last year I asked Japanese Chromatone when their Janko style Synth will be available and 10 month later they invited me to buy it. I had a great excuse: "Sorry I waited too long; in the meantime I built my own Janko adapter" (!) and sent them my project PDF... instead. This one: http://www.live-styler.de/home/Janko%20Project.pdf
In various forums (incl. electronics fora) I was pushing the idea of Janko in the hope to generate more interest in advanced MIDI applications, for I believe the time has come to enable hobby musicians to benefit from the latest technological advances.
In the past, electronic instrumental sounds were regarded as being unsuitable for true musical expression and values. Yet, great organists, such as my idol the late "Klaus Wunderlich", have proven the opposite to be true. Now, with the advent of MIDI wind and breath controllers we are getting again a step closer to the real thing. The way things go, computer technology is going to have the last word/ laugh, because traditional musical instruments are stay put, whereas the latter keeps on evolving. Just listen to the latest Wersi organs. It's a far cry from what we heard only a few years, ago - and that's only the beginning of PC technology, as we all know.
Chromatone is doomed, for they made the same mistake I did: they failed to do their homework and settled for the second best, because W/H, not Janko, is the unsung hero and winner! Thus, any new instrument, based on the W/H layout can only flourish.
I'm afraid, it might take a while to convince hobby musicians and Profis to embrace the W/H as the one and only truly progressive keyboard layout and I don't need the abilities of clairvoyants to predict with certainty that the W/H layout will be the keyboard layout of the future!

It's advantages are manifold (yes, promising folded money, too!) So far "Jim, the Thummer" is the only developer (apart from Ken and last, not least my humble efforts) keen on cashing in on this very insight and he's going to make it, because his concept is based on sound reasoning, progressive thinking and philosophy. He has all rights and reasons to claim that his idea of a new-age MIDI instrument (based on the W/H layout) is the easiest to learn & play instrument in the world! In a way, I feel sorry for the humble concertina... because now will increasingly play the second fiddle; i.e. never be able to catch up with the potential realm of MIDI and progressive PC technology, for even the poorest hobby musicians will eventually cross the floor to the affordable Jammer.

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

The next hurdle will be to get rid of this outdated, traditional notation and create a specially formulated notation for the W/H layout, enabling hobby musicians to learn new melodies with their proper fingering (shall Profi musicians continue to torture each other with traditional notation).

Now, after discovering the advantages of the W/H layout, I truly view the awkward, traditional piano keyboard and notation with contempt.
I just cannot believe that professional musicians prefer awkward keyboard layouts and notation to far more logically correct ones!
>>> Why have it easy... when it is possible to enjoy its pedantic, circumstantial format?
On these kinds of insane considerations the Janko layout and Klavarskribo notation were dismissed by music teachers (!) and that's how the demise
of the traditional 'zebra' keyboard and notation was procrastinated... still today and continues to be heralded as the "world's proven and unrivaled standard in piano keyboard and notion layout." Most people wouldn't dare to argue and so, just conform to claims of musicians and music-teachers.
Do we live in an selfish world?! Rolling Eyes

I got to be careful not to offend lovers of traditional keyboard and notation. I mean, I would probably try to defend it too, after decades of struggling to master the dexterity on the traditional keyboard and sight-reading of traditional notation. After all, who loves to admit having failed to notice the more progressive keyboard and notation layout? Yet, there were two great musos, who didn't have qualms to speak out about the Janko keyboard:

"If I were to begin my career anew it would be on this keyboard."
- Arthur Rubinstein

"This invention will have replaced the present piano keyboard in fifty years' time!"
- Franz Liszt

It's no secret that professional musicians aren't interested 'in relearning'; not even the most progressive keyboard layout and or notation !!!
Why not? Simply, because they struggled too hard to acquire the expertise on the "zebra" piano and the awkward notation. To them progress doesn't matter anymore, because all they wanted is to excel in one only!
If Rubinstein would have learned to master the Wicky/Hayden layout, he could have played even better, because of the considerable hand-span increase (up to four octaves!).

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Since music means really a lot to me, the discovery of the W/H layout is probably one of my life's greatest joys.
At first I thought the Janko layout is the easiest to learn & play. So, I built a Janko adapter onto my Synth ... only to discover that the C-system is even better. Yet at the end I got the bright thought of having a more thorough look at what else is there's around... That's how I gradually got onto W/H! For some "stupid" reason I totally discounted the concertina as a serious musical instrument with a great layout potential. It was just ignorance! It took quite a while until I got rid of that ignorance. Jeez, in hindsight I'm sooo glad having been able to overcome it. That much so, that I now live this joy day and night! It left some great psychological, even philosophical effect on me. It's given me a new lease of life; something new and great to look forward to.
It's, because it has taken me a lifetime (or minus childhood, 50 years!) to get there. In fact I should feel ashamed of heralding it, but if it can help a young person to avoiding the same mistake then my shame is the least to worry about. After all, Rubinstein & Liszt didn't feel ashamed to speak out, either...
My triumph march continues! At first I wanted to build my own SPST pushbutton switches, but since http://www.electronicsurplus.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=74315 have got the right type for only 13 cents each (with caps), I'm not wasting my time building them. It's pretty hard to make them equal heights etc. and so much easier to just stick and glue ready switches onto a wooden panel and wire them up from underneath. In that regard nothing surpasses machined parts. Connecting them to my Roland Synth is another advantage, costing me only time.
In Australia, I got $30 bucks from a electronics magazine for disclosing my wrapping-type of wiring technique: Onto a very thin brass tube I soldered an arm from thick copper wire, onto which I mount an empty yarn coil. The coil is then loaded with enameled hair-thin (but strong) copper wire and fed through the tube. All parts (glued on and positioned "legs up") and connections or pins are then wrapped, connected and soldered. The lacquer burns off and the wire is reliably soldered! This way I can "saw up" the whole circuit or switches in this case. The wire can be channeled via nails/pins and 300 of such wires make only a tiny cable tree. Of cause this type of wiring method is unsuitable for RF (radio) circuits. With that I successfully cabled up a number of pretty complex audio circuits, containing over 60 IC's!
Yet, another hurdle: The surplus-warehouse just emailed me that they are moving and ...cannot locate the buttons/ caps. Now they dropped the price to 10 cents each for switches w/o caps. So, I just have to wait and pray. Smile

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Since you are all speechless, I'm going to continue my mission to convince and excite you about she Wicki/ Hayden keyboard layout.

It got to succeed, simply because of the fact that it is the easiest layout to learn and to play. I mean, who wouldn't want to have it easier? In other words, if there exists a better layout I would I would promote it! I mean, it's a matter of being able enjoying musical creativity or not.

Computer music is going to stay with us for ever and it's going to steadily progress, whereas mechanical musical instruments have reached the developmental peak. Now they seem to get dearer by the year, due to it's, labor intensive manufacturing costs.

Thus, it's about time to foster computer music. This also encourages
software developers to improve Midi applications at a faster pace,

MusicScienceGuy · Joined: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 66 Location: Vancouver, Canada

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Thx for your interesting posting. We seem to 'suffer from equal ambitions'... Amazing, albeit each of us went through his own experiences, finally the "W/H-Thummer and/ or W-H Jammer" unites our ambitions. Smile

Maybe "W/H-Thummer and W-H Jammer" would be a more appropriate name?

MusicScienceGuy · Joined: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 66 Location: Vancouver, Canada

MusicScienceGuy · Joined: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 66 Location: Vancouver, Canada

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Hi Ken,

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

MusicScienceGuy · Joined: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 66 Location: Vancouver, Canada

MusicScienceGuy · Joined: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 66 Location: Vancouver, Canada

Here is an improved main page for my website, how does it look?

Ken.

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Not sure about your preference, but I prefer musical creativity away from vacuum cleaner type of noises... That's exactly how my PC sounded, before I put an end to it. Here's how:
i) First, I removed and cleaned the big heat sink from the CPU. It contains a noisy, tiny fan. To reduce the noise of this fan one needs to reduce its speed by by about 15-20%, by inserting a low Ohm resistor in series with its power supply.

ii) Next, I removed the big power supply box and its noisy fan, reduced its heights, by removing its cover and cutting down (using tin snips) its sides until almost even with the highest part in this box. Mine went slim to less than 2 inches! Caution: To protect against accidentally touching its parts I covered it with plastic grill. The whole box I then attached outside to the back of the PC so, that the opening of the power supply faces the PC' inside.

iii) Into the empty space, previouly occupied by the power supply, I position a 7.5 inch or 18cm (in diameter) fan, made from a used cassette recorder motor and thin aluminum blades (from old persiana blades) glued onto the plastic capstan.
I left the PC without its metal cover and covered it with a colored, decorative curtain, instead.
Result:
The PC stays cool and now is almost inaudible! Even the hard drives etc. benefit from the big, quite fan. Albeit the fan moves about 3 times as much air, due to its size and low velocity it generates no noise. Small fans are noisy, because they have to run fast in order to move the same air mass. I "copied" this idea from observing a household cooler fan...
I'm enjoying this arrangement already for almost 2 years now. I'm not sure though, if this arrangement is suitable for a faster, more powerful system, but it certainly works with my lousy 1GHz Pentium PC. To check it, stop the fan while CPU works hard on and touch the CPU's heat sink etc. Keeping the CPU's fan and heat sink clean allows you to reduce its speed by up to 20%, because never cleaning it reduces its cooling efficiency to 50%.
Here's picture of it:
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/0d1aa4046e.jpg

GovernorSilver · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:23 am Post subject:

GovernorSilver · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:24 am Post subject:

Hmm.. dunno why the image isn't showing up.

Another try...

[img]http://a2.vox.com/6a00cd972aa36b4cd500e398d2265a0003-500pi[/img]

And if that doesn't work, Ken's "Jammer" is here:

http://musicscienceguy.vox.com/library/photo/6a00cd972aa36b4cd500e398d2265a0003.html

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Today I suffered a brighter moment offering me a chance to improve my originally proposed notation. This one comes in five colors to define the buttons/ notes.
This virtual WYSIWYG notation simply says:
1) press buttons C & D & E from 2nd octave (at the same time)
2) then press button G, then E, then F#, then B from 3rd octave
3) then press button D#, then B, then F from 4th octave
4) then press button , then F#, then G, then B, then C from 5th octave

If you need timing, Klavarskribo's timing, in which the note's value is merely determined by the note's position in the measure (similar to piano roll timing), is the next best solution.
As an alternative to colors, insert figures 1 to 5 "as notes" onto the lines in order to indicate in which octave the particular button should be played. Hence, this novel Wicki notation can be tailored to personal preference.
Beside, this (my) innovative notation had to undergo a tough battle in the Concertina forum, yet finally gained the stamp of approval! Smile

Color Notation.jpeg

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jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Yes, I agree the Ken's Jammer looks really good... and it must have been a lot of hard work, too.
Yet, I might want to sell my Synth later on and no "zebra fan" will buy this layout. Thus, I prefer a reversible design or a plug-in adapter, which is even easier to build.

MusicScienceGuy · Joined: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 66 Location: Vancouver, Canada

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

jjj · Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 84 Location: Chile

Now, after having enjoyed the last laugh in the Concertina Forum, I'm toughing it out in other fora. I try to explain to them that... with the Thummer or Jammer one has to learn only one pattern in major & minor: i.e. a number of chord fingerings in three inversions, but only for one major and minor scale. Hard enough!
In stark contrast the common zebra piano layout requires 47 times more of the same and that explains the great advantage of the Thummer and Jammer layout over the common zebra piano layout.
After all, most hobby musicians are more interested in enjoying musical creativity than musical theory and dexterity.
My over ten years of piano accordion playing experience taught me quite a few things. I was pretty good at playing the piano accordion in C-major and A-minor and found it absurd and boring relearn to play the accordion in the remaining 11 major & minor scales and keep on practicing them forever... or longer!

Albeit it's theoretically correct to claim that the zebra piano layout as well "only" requires to shift the same fingering patterns up or down the keyboard in order to play a different scale, practically the fingering is not quite the same!! In fact the piano layout is that irregular that I'm totally unable to transfer the same same melody (I play so well in C-major) into say C-sharp!
That clearly proves, the zebra piano layout is badly designed, for it lacks uniformity!
That's where the uniform/ regular (isomorphic) Thummer and Jammer layout proves to be far superior to the ordinary zebra piano layout!
In other words, the latter creates an artificial need for learning and regular practice, which only serves to bolsters the pockets of music teachers and conservatories personnel.
The Thummer and Jammer offers you exactly the same without the undue repeated scale practice, tears and sweat; i.e. without that "masochistic bit"!
Thirdly, the Thummer and Jammer has a hand span of 4 to 5 octaves, whereas the zebra piano about only one octave!
My ultimate aspiration in this context is to play a melody, like a singer or whistler, without bothering about scales and music theory; being unaware of which scale I play. I'm confident that the Thummer/Jammer layout enables me to realize my aim. I searched a long time for that illusive "easiest to learn & play keyboard layout". If there would be something better, you bet, I would aspire to it... but so far only the Thummer and Jammer layout seems to deliver it all.
Most musicians defend their hard earned skills and almost seem to love their zebra keyboards more than their partners! The same with traditional notation. Klavarskribo, albeit so much easier to read, is flatly rejected as inferior.
That's why Thummer and Jammer will have a lot of convincing to do...
Yet, it's logically superior layout, realistic price, together with progressive Computer technology will ultimately have the last word and laugh. Smile