DIY midi keyboard 3 dimensional keys

[Vincentw96]

Hi guys,

My name is Vincent and i'm currently working on my own midi keyboard with 3 dimensional keys, Moving from front to back you can modulate the sound (in any way desirable) and from left to right you change the pitch. (see video below)

YouTube

Now was i wondering if maybe someone did a similar project? i would love to see your project and have a chat about it.

Also i'm not a electrical engineer so i'm a bit struggling with the sensor i should use to modulate the sound (to replace the current buttons). (i guess it would be some sort of pressure sensor but i cant find a good one).

So any opinion or help is very much appreciated.

Greetings,
Vincent

 

[scottjoplin]

Hi. Like aftertouch? I wonder how the side to side pitch bend would work though due to adjacent keys?

 

[Vincentw96]

hi scott,

Its more like a mod wheel incorporated in every key. a little bit like the seaboard but with solid keys.

I know thats also going to be a challange. I first want to make 1 key work. I guess that in the end the movement of the pitchbend wont be as big as shown in the video.

 

[Gerrit Boers]

Interesting project, although it's not entirely clear to me how this would work with a whole key-bed full of keys.
Did you have a look at force sensitive resistors? For example the ones available at Sparkfun? They are quite expensive but perhaps they are available for less elsewhere.

For any MIDI related stuff I'd advise a Teensy arduino compatible. The Teensy has a very comprehensive MIDI library which includes serial, USB and USB host capabilities.

Here's a post on the Teensy forum on force sensitive resistors.