Apparently Icon thought the same and developed a new keyboard series "8" with at least one octave having 19 semitones.



I think it's a great idea, because I was really tired of the old chromatic scale. It's time for some new tones. Imagine how K♯/L♭ would sound...

Here is the official product page for the new 8x:
https://web.archive.org/web/http://iconproaudio.com/product/ikeyboard-8x/

Can't wait to try them out.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2017

Hmmm, seems that iconproaudio does not care how many keyboards they will sell ?!?

I don`t know of any piano player that would trade his "standard" keys for a 19 semitones layout ...
A very daunting business decision IMO

 

it is just a bad made photoshop, or render of the product, nowhere in the description of spec tech is mentioned that the keyboard has a different scaling. its a 88 Piano keyboard

 

You don't say...

 

Very interesting, however Icon is a dubious manufacturer with an non existing tech support

 

It won't ruin any "harmonic language". The normal major/minor/whatever chords will be still there (but with different fingering/hand position), but you will have access to other (at least for keyboard style instruments) impossible voicings. There are many modern jazz chords that sound pretty bad on 12 tet piano, but are cool, if you play them with woodwinds or strings.
Actually, many modernist scales and voicings are inspired by Eastern Asian tunings (Javanese Slendro pentatonic scale and the impressionists using whole tone scale to approximate it and so on.)
You can already retune your vsts and play 19tet with a normal keyboard, but the notes won't match...
Or use any good isomorphic keyboard.

 

yes true, i love my Push 2 for doing these oriental scalings etc

 

The piano is a compromise when it comes to be in tune - basically it´s out of tune! If you add semi-tones the whole consept of a piano doesnt works any more!

Modwheel?

 

Modwheel is imprecise. You can use mod/pitchwheel to get some rough impressions of arabic scales.
I personally don't like 12tet for music that uses the major scale - the thirds sound ugly.

http://www.kylegann.com/histune.html

 

Respect, but if you want a 19 tones instead of 12 tones.... if you know anyting about Indian music Ia solutoinm sure 19 tones will not do it! A keyboard is build as it is - good/bad - from the invention of The well tempered Clavier... Ever Mr. Moog had issiues when he started selling his first keyboards - was the traditionel piano with a 12 notes pr octave really the right way to do it - but he never invented a solution!!

Cheers

 

It sounds weird at the beginning (like everything we have never explored/felt before), but later you can like it every time more and more

 

Very interesting.

Good for ICON, I hope it sells, though there are man musical systems where even 19 tone clavier is insufficient.

If you started out on a non tempered instrument (my first instrument was a violin, many many moons ago) a keyboard will always feel very limiting. Adding more tones is a good step forward, but the keyboards are still semi percussive instruments and will always be a little lifeless for it.

BTW adding more tones doesn't remove the ones that already exist, fingering might be different and reach will be harder if the keys are full size, but all the same chords from a 12 tone system will still be there.

 

No, they won't because the "same keys" will produce different pitches, so trying to play a regular song will always give a out-of-tune result. Also, it'll be a pain in the butt to work with as no VIs (think: Kontakt, synths, whatever) will accept it. And MIDI would have to go out the window, as it's defined for a standard 12-note scale.

TL;DR it's a photoshop fail, don't get your asses excited

 

that sounds awsome

 

That can't be real. That 88-key keyboard only has 83 keys. Only one octave has 19-tones making it useless as a pseudo-microtonal keyboard or a 12-tone. Subtract the extra 7 in that one fucked up octave and you have 76. Add a normal 12-tone octave and you have 88.
The only thing it has going for it is it's alphabetically correct. It starts on an 'A'.

 

There are other options as well, saw this on another thread and figured Id post it here too

As for playing out of tune on a controller without designated pitches, I guess it would be akin to playing a fretless bass. Practice makes perfect, muscle memory etc.

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2017

I want a Continuum so bad.

 

Years ago, a friend and I were selling a Mellotron and we encountered a man who had a unique Moog product he says was made for military use, it had 37 notes per octave, it had white keys, black keys and gray keys and they were sort of arranged diagonally. They were not shaped like regular keys, they looked more like large tabs. The unit was modular and he said there were only two ever made. The keyboard hooked to the modules with two big ass connectors. He did not have it hooked up so I could not hear it, but trust me.... I saw it.