Overtone Keyboard
An alternative MIDI keyboard that provides a velocity sensitive bank of keys for each hand.
It can be used with any instrument or application that recieves MIDI data.
The keyboard shown above is used as a new interface for electronic music performances.
While triggering individual sounds assigned to different keys is a long-standing idea, the layout of the keys
on the Overtone Keyboard allows for emerging non-standard mappings, and gives musicians a unique outlook on
the allocation of their sounds to the performance interface. The configuration of keys is split into two halves, one
for each hand; this allows the performer to choose the placement of each half (e.g., one on each side of a laptop
computer). The interface sends MIDI, and is velocity sensitive -
performers can manipulate three continuous parameters as well with a pair of rotary knobs and an expression footpedal input.
Publications
On Musical Gestures and New Performance Interfaces for
Electronic Music
Accepted to the 5th International Gesture Workshop (Genova, Italy, 15-17 April 2003).