You should start to see a lot more postings here,

126% Complete

$44,141USD  Raised of $35,000 Goal

7 days left

Fixed Funding

This campaign has reached its goal and will receive all funds raised. Funding duration: September 16, 2013 - November 15, 2013 (11:59pm PT).

Good news:

1. The Dualo (an improved Sonome) has been successfully crowd-funded.

         LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/company/dualo
2. The remarkable Terpstra Keyboard is half-way to being funded.
    Check it out.

I venture to say that things are definitely heating up in the alternate keyboard realm.

 MusicScienceguy

This gentleman describes how he uses Midi Integrator (a tool for converting any PC input to a midi command) in his Music Electronics site. 

He has these comments on the tool:

I’m very surprised if, as you say, Integrator isn’t more well-used – it’s a great program and was exactly what I needed for this application. I hope I explained it correctly!

...  The idea of saving the complex note-allocations so they can be called up on request and shared with others is an excellent one – and the format of the text file wasn’t that difficult once I understood what the 5 elements of each line were.

I could have emphasized more the fact that the program can accept multiple MIDI keyboard inputs, and also has a feature for mapping mice, joysticks, etc. I’ll certainly continue using it to experiment with other layouts (The AXiS uses the Harmonic layout, I think, which I haven’t yet tried) and other input devices.

Thanks Andy, for writing these kind words.

Now that Midi Integrator is complete, a number of new things can be done easily.

1. to output the jammer's signal into old-style midi, a USB port is connected to an M-Audio Midisport 1x1 (~$35):  


2.  to input the midi signal from the midisort into the Xbox, we have this new gadget:

Ever wonder why the PC and the Midi world are separate, even though midi is often routed through and made on computers? Me neither. Having to go through arcane rituals and jump through hoops to get the PC to change the music produced was just a Fact of Life.

Until recently it was just a fact, an assumed way we had to go.

Well, not any more, I've written and tested Midi Integrator 1.0, a free, documented (!), open-source program that runs, right out of the box, on Win/Mac platforms. This is my gift to the music-geek community.

How does it "integrate" and what the heck is "midi integration" anyway?

Well, what it does is convert an input, any input that there is a subroutine for (I have provided for mouse input, PC keyboard input or joystick input), into a common message format, which is like an enhanced, human and machine-readable midi message. It does the same for genuine midi device input too; everything is converted to a common format.

This enhanced midi message is then routed to a chosen instrument pre-processor, which combines the message with other messages, converts it to a real midi commandand then fires said midi command at your sound-making device.

The above is the basic foundation, To this just add a simple set of tables to control each input's translation to enhanced midi, and setup becomes a lot simpler and a lot less costly than buying ReWire.
Your PC and Midi equipment become as integrated as you wish.

For more details, see Mid Integrator.
for downloads, see Midi Integrator Downloads

News: Michael Eskin has developed jammer applications for Apple products:

• mJammer is a WiFi-based wireless MIDI jammer-style control surface for the iPhone/iPod Touch
• iJammer is a WiFi-based wireless MIDI jammer-style control surface for the iPad
• HexJam is a high-quality, easy-to-play, jammer-style hexagonal layout "Jammer" concertina for the iPhone

 These present a cool new way to try out jammers

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As well, Musix  is a fully-customizable multiple-layout isomorphic musical keyboard generator with sounds. 

  They give a good digest of what some isomorphic layouts are good for:

• Gerhard (- Maj. 3rd; + Min. 3rd; Vertical) Designed specifically for the iPad and Musix, this layout attempts to balance the advantages and disadvantages of other layouts listed below. Scales are tight and chords fit naturally on the fingers.
• Park (- Min. 3rd; + Maj. 2nd; Horizontal) A variation on the Wicki-Hayden (listed below), this layout, white notes are together making patterns easier to see, and scales can be played by sliding fingers along the screen. Alternate and jazz chords are compact, which means this pattern sounds great when button mashing.
• Wicki-Hayden (- Perf. 4th; - Perf 5th; Horizontal) This is the classic layout used for centuries on Accordions and Concertinas. White notes are together, and the I-IV-V pattern of many many songs forms a compact triangle. Scales play linearly left-to-right (like a piano) with jumps for each semitone. Whole-tine scales are linear. Simple chords are comfortable, more complex chords are more challenging. This is also the preferred layout for "jammer" instruments.
• Harmonic (- Maj. 3rd; - Min 3rd; Horizontal) Also called the Harmonic Table, this relatively modern layout was developed and popularized by C-Thru Music, the makers of the excellent Axis line of isomorphic MIDI keyboards. The harmonic table provides impossibly easy chords, with major and minor triads in triangles playable with a single finger. Scales are somewhat cumbersome, but as with all layouts, once learned in one key, all other keys are the same pattern.