Re: "Dragging Instruments Around" meets "laptop live"...

[Catilyne <catilyne@icicle.net>]

At 11:29 AM 3/17/2003 -0800, Jesse Ray Lucas wrote:
>Interesting idea.
>
>I have been waiting for a QWERTY virtuoso to pop up, but haven't found
>him/her yet.  Write a program to map your computer keyboard keys to MIDI
>notes.  A good typist, with a little practice, could seriously shred.  
>Strap
>on your computer keyboard like a guitar and go at it.

Check out Trollo (http://www.axxeom.fsnet.co.uk/trollo.htm).  That's 
supposed to let you do just what you're talking about.  However, I haven't 
been able to get it working properly yet (doesn't like Muzys for some 
reason).

>Can anybody recommend a computer keyboard manufacturer that supports
>velocity sensitivity???
>
>That is a joke.  Although, who knows...  I can't imagine that I am the 
>first
>one to think of this idea.  It seems pretty obvious.

Nope, you're not the first to think of it.  I figured out a way to make it 
work a few years back, although I've never quite gotten around to actually 
doing it:

I've had quite a bit of luck using homemade triggers (simple piezos) with 
Pad-MIDI converters for various bits.  Personally, I've got a couple of 
Roland PM-16's laying about for just this type of thing.  Just get one of 
those converters and solder some triggers into a $10 replacement keypads 
from Rat Shack.  It should be roughly velocity-sensitive -- at least, they 
are when you make drumpads out of them.  The PM-16's, for example, have 16 
inputs apiece, so two of them should be able to cover most of the 
keypad.  They're cheap on ebay as well.

Just an idea...

         -c-

_____
"i want to reach my hand into the dark and *feel* what reaches back"
                                                 -recoil