New Midi Instrument Design & Development

paddyjfeeney

Hi everyone,

Im designing a midi controller for my thesis in DIT Product Design.

Is the the initial stages and I am looking for some feed back.

So... What do ye think, would anyone buy one? - how much would you pay? - What would you add to/take from it

Feedback Needed!!

IceFjoem

It's an interesting idea to have features like the chord buttons and scale modes, seems like something that could be popular with beginners or hobbyists, could be a handy educational tool too! Are you designing software for it though? Surely the buttons are just sending signals to the computer?

As an idea I think it could be great for plenty of people, I think your software's gonna be much more difficult to design than the keyboard though.

As an interface it would be great to have a couple of assignable pots too, things you could use for volume, filter control, expression etc... seems kind of redundant to have a transport section for looping and recording if there's no way to control filters and stuff. Good job though, it's a great start!

paddyjfeeney

Hi, thanks for your reply. Yes Ill will be writing as much of the software as i can and outsourcing if it gets too much for me. I might also see about getting a soft-synth along with it too.

You you be interested in it your self? - how much you you pay for it if so, if not.... why not? :P

Thats a very good point about the expression and modulation control - exactly the type of into im looking for!

Miloglow

Looks cool, reminds me of the Teenage Engineering OP-1.

As mentioned previously it would be a great tool for a person who was a complete beginner in music theory or even somebody who wasn't confident in music theory.

Before I can put my own estimated price on it I have a few questions.

1. Will these chord buttons ad scale selector work with any soft synth or just the software provided with the product.

2. Will there be an option to buy the controller and software separately or are they both needed for each to work?

IceFjoem

Miloglow wrote: »

1. Will these chord buttons ad scale selector work with any soft synth or just the software provided with the product.

2. Will there be an option to buy the controller and software separately or are they both needed for each to work?

Very good questions, you've probably already considered this Paddy but I'd like to add that the chord buttons should, rather than sending an individual midi message to your software, that being a 'chord message', it should send three individual note messages together (to build the triad) so that it will trigger chords regardless of the soft synth being used.

To answer your question anyway Paddy, I wouldn't buy one myself as I know all my theory and have midi keyboards already, and if I really wanted to play chords at the press of a button (if I was playing live or something) I'd just load chords into a sampler and use my Akai MPD to trigger them.
I'd imagine anyone who knows how to use samplers would do the same.

I'm no business guru but having said that I could definitely still see a big market for this in education services!

Also depending on the quality of materials used and the general feel of the keys and buttons I'd expect to pay between €30 - €60 for it. Good luck man!

Miloglow

I also think that if it was marketed as an educational product you might be able to push the asking price a little bit further but i think IceFjoem set a good price from between €30 - €60

I personally would not buy it as I would not have any need for this kind of controller at the moment, but if it was maybe a year back I probably would buy it for sure

paddyjfeeney

Hi,

thanks guys, I havent started the development stage yet (starting in feb). I definitely want to have it work seamlessly with any softsynth but just for my prototype, it may have to be linked to a particular synth.

I was hoping it would be more then just educational. I was hoping it to be a sidekick for the conventional keyboard. When you get stuck in a song: pick your scale and start belting out ideas in your selected mood or scale - and the chord variations can add color to the progressions and save time learning all the chords. Can anyone see that or am i misplacing it?

The OP1 definitely influenced its look, i will probably have to change it a little going forward - just wanted to show the functionality mainly.

Neurojazz

paddyjfeeney wrote: »

Hi,

thanks guys, I havent started the development stage yet (starting in feb). I definitely want to have it work seamlessly with any softsynth but just for my prototype, it may have to be linked to a particular synth.

I was hoping it would be more then just educational. I was hoping it to be a sidekick for the conventional keyboard. When you get stuck in a song: pick your scale and start belting out ideas in your selected mood or scale - and the chord variations can add color to the progressions and save time learning all the chords. Can anyone see that or am i misplacing it?

The OP1 definitely influenced its look, i will probably have to change it a little going forward - just wanted to show the functionality mainly.

Could you add a pivot chord option? - or would that muck things up too much?

paddyjfeeney

Hi guys, The possibilities of chord variation is endless really. The computer chip will do it all. Here is an update on the design. Feedback is highly valued.

Miloglow

Really like the gui design simple and to the point with no fancy pointless stuff.

However, I think the whole thing being a dark colour is a bit unpleasing. I think by even adding lights to the numbers and chord intervals so just the symbol lights up would brighten it up a bit. Or you could possibly just as easily develop 2 different colour ones? One dark one like the picture and maybe a white one as well just for people to choose which they prefer? just a thought.

Really like the design though reminds me of the korg nano stuff the darker ones.

Any chance of a cheeky demo product to test? :D I joke, but great job so far keep us updated

paddyjfeeney

Thanks for the feedback.... Here is an update on the form of it.... still in development so any more points & ideas are still welcome!!