Tag: sensors

Music: why not a finger-sensing keyboard?

Electronic keyboards like the Yamaha Motif or Korg M50 often have a “Split” feature, allowing different patches to be assigned to different sections. For example, the bottom 18 or 20 keys can be assigned to a bass patch, leaving the rest of the keys assigned to an electric piano sound. These splits allow not just the patch to change, but the pitches as well. For example the bottom keys can sound an octave lower than they ordinarily would.

Small keyboards often have buttons that shift the octave to the left or right on the fly, effectively increasing the number of keys without the weight.

There is another split type that is possible nowadays but apparently no manufacturer has done it yet. What if the patch or pitch range were assigned to each key in real time by which finger or which hand touched the key?

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