Keyboard

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Pianos, harpsichords and organs are suited for microtonal music insofar as the strings/pipes can, within limits, be tuned to anything desired.

In the case of harpsichords and organs, the probablity that tuning issues arise is even slightly higher than average since there is often "old" music (baroque and older, from the pre-well-tempered age) being played on them.

For electronic instruments (syntheszers), there is, in theory, absolute freedom for the pitches anyway - not in practice, though. But nowadays, many synthesizers have a built-in retuning functionality. A broad overview over the microtonal capacities of synthesizers can be found on [[http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com|www.microtonal-synthesis.com]].

A side-remark: Synthesizers, even without retuning functionality, often have a special functionality that is principally also suited for microtonality: the modulation wheel. An impressive example of how to make microtonal music with the modulation wheel can be found [[http://www.timomusic.ch/video_Spiros_Kottis.htm|here]]. This is, however, not a particularly easy way to do it...

==Strategies for more than 12 tones per octave== 

A potential source for troubles is the traditional keyboard design, which is optimized for diatonic scales and 12 tones per octave.

For microtonal music with not more than 12 tones per octave, this is not such a problem - fingerings for non-standard scales can be learned. But it becomes a problem if you need more than 12 tones per octave, or even want a non-octave tuning, such as [[http://www.wendycarlos.com/resources/pitch.html|Wendy Carlos]] or [[BP|Bohlen-Pierce]].

There exist several solutions for this problem:

===1) 12 Note Octave Scales[[#twelvenoteoctavescales]]=== 
(Terminology from [[http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com|www.microtonal-synthesis.com]])
Use several keyboards whose keys are slightly detuned against each other.

Advantages are that the keyboard layout keeps the familiar property that 12 key steps span one octave, and the pitches typically need only minor retuning. This is not unimportant for acoustical instruments, where we usually have physical limits to the amount a pitch can be retuned. For this reason, this approach is widely used, especially in the field of contemporary classical music.

The disadvantage is, of course, that you need several keyboards. In the case of acoustic pianos, this means in practice that the maximal number of pitches per octave you can obtain is limited - to the number of pianos you can put on the stage together... [[http://www.universaledition.com/Georg-Friedrich-Haas/komponisten-und-werke/komponist/278/werk/13386|"Limited approximations" by Georg Friedrich Haas]], for example, a piece in [[72edo]], is written for six (!) pianos and orchestra.

Electronic keyboards sometimes have the possibility to play in "split" mode, i.e. the upper and the lower half of the keyboard can send to different midi channels. Some keyboards offer up to 4 split areas. In this case, you need only one keyboard - but you still have the disadvantage of having to jump between the areas.

[[SeventeenTonePianoProject#pianotuningdetails|12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 17edo]]
[[http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/MakeMicroMusic/message/16483|12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 19edo]]
[[http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/MakeMicroMusic/message/9296|12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 22edo]]
[[24edo#instruments|12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 24edo]]
[[http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/74155|12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 41edo]]

===2) Full Keyboard Scales[[#fullkeyboardscales]]=== 
(Terminology from [[http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com|www.microtonal-synthesis.com]])
Tune each key of the keyboard to a different pitch. The pitches of the keys keep the property of being arranged in ascending order - but the octave pattern will be different, and there are larger amounts of retuning required.

Some synthesizers support this, but not all (see, again, [[http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com|www.microtonal-synthesis.com]]).

A possible "full keyboard scales" piano tuning for [[22edo]], mapping two keyboard octaves to one acoustic octave, is decribed in [[http://lumma.org/tuning/erlich/erlich-decatonic.pdf|Paul Erlich's paper on 22edo]], on page 11.

In the case of acoustical instruments such as pianos, tuning full keyboard scales may even require major changes in construction. It has been done, however, e.g. on the [[http://www.sauter-pianos.de/english/pianos/microtone.html|16th tone (96edo) piano]].

===3) Get an alternative keyboard![[#alternativekeyboard]]=== 
This is actually quite an old idea, since in historical tunings of the pre-well-tempered area, there was a demand for differing between flats and sharps.

[[http://www.denzilwraight.com|www.denzilwraight.com]] has some beautiful examples of historical harpsichords with up to 24 keys per octave.
A list of existing church organs all over the world with split semitone keys can be found on [[http://www.goart.gu.se/ortgies/Subsemi.htm|Ibo Ortgies' homepage]].

In modern times, the idea of generalized keyboards has come up again. Generalized keyboards can host the same fingering for multiple tunings. See, for example:

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomorphic_keyboard|Wikipedia article isomorphic keyboards]]
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_keyboard|Wikipedia article on generalized keyboards]]
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Holford_Macdowell_Bosanquet|Wikipedia article on Bosanquet]]
<span style="background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_table_note_layout|Wikipedia article on harmonic table note layouts]]</span>
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicki-Hayden_note_layout|Wikipedia article on the Wicki-Hayden note layout]]
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard|Wikipedia article on Janko]]

For electronic music, there is meanwhile a number of generalized keyboards that are available or are soon to be available, see followng list

||~ Product ||~ Manufacturer ||~ Layout ||~ No. of keys ||
|| [[http://www.cortex-design.com/projects_terp1.htm|Terpstra keyboard]] ||< Cortex design ||< 2-dimensional, hexagonal ||= 280 ||
|| [[http://www.thummer.com/|Thummer]] ||< Thumtronics ||< 2-dimensional, hexagonal ||= 114 ||
|| [[http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#U-PLEX_buy|Tonal Plexus U-PLEX]], [[http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX2_buy|Tonal Plexus TPX2]], [[http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX2s_buy|Tonal Plexus TPX2s]] ||< Hπ Instruments ||< 2-dimensional, rectangular ||= 422 ||
|| [[http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX4_buy|Tonal Plexus TPX4]] || Hπ Instruments ||< 2-dimensional, rectangular ||= 844 ||
|| [[http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX6_buy|Tonal Plexus TPX6]], [[http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX6s_buy|Tonal Plexus TPX6s]] || Hπ Instruments ||< 2-dimensional, rectangular ||= 1266 ||
|| [[http://www.h-pi.com/protoMiniMOD.html|MiniMod]] ||< Hπ Instruments ||< Various (hexagonal, rectangular, 1-dimensional et al.) XXX ||= XXX ||
|| [[http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49|AXiS-49]] ||< C-Thru Music ||< 2-dimensional, hexagonal ||= 98 ||
|| [[http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-64|AXis-64]] ||< C-Thru Music ||< 2-dimensional, hexagonal ||= 192 ||
|| [[http://www.theshapeofmusic.com/|Opal Chameleon, Opal Gekko]] ||< Opal ||< 2-dimensional, hexagonal ||= 192 ||
|| [[http://monome.org/devices|Monome 64]] ||< Monome ||< 2-dimensional, rectangular ||= 64 ||
|| [[http://monome.org/devices|Monome 128]] ||< Monome ||< 2-dimensional, rectangular ||= 128 ||
|| [[http://monome.org/devices|Monome 256]] ||< Monome ||< 2-dimensional, rectangular ||= 256 ||
|| [[http://www.newkeyboard.de/|New Keyboard (Johannes Kotschy)]] ||< XXX ||< 1-dimensional, 3 tiers of keys (black/white/colored) ||= XXX ||
|| [[http://daskin.com/page2/page2.html|Daskin 5]] ||< Daskin Manufacturing ||< [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard|Janko]] (2-dimensional) ||= 203 ||
|| [[http://daskin.com/page2/page2.html|Daskin 6]] || Daskin Manufacturing || [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard|Janko]](2-dimensional) ||= 244 ||
|| [[http://verticalkeyboards.com/keyboardoptions/microtonalkeyboards/index.html|Vertical keyboard (Elaine Walker)]] || Elaine Walker || 1-dimensional, 2 tiers of keys (black/white), with customizable black/white pattern ||= 61, 76 or 88 ||
|| [[http://www.starrlabs.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=64|ZB2 Z-Board]] || Starr Labs || 2-dimensional, rectangular ||= 288 ||
|| [[http://www.starrlabs.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69/microzone-u-648&product_id=66|Microzone U-648]] || Starr Labs || 2-dimensional, hexagonal ||= 288 ||
|| [[http://www.starrlabs.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69/microzone-u-648&product_id=67|Microzone U-990]] || Starr Labs || 2-dimensional, hexagonal ||= 810 ||

A very special class of microtonal midi controllers are "keyless" ones, for example by:

[[http://www.hakenaudio.com|Haken]]
[[http://www.doepfer.de/R2M.htm|Doepfer]]
[[http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/products/linnstrument/index.html|Roger Linn]]

==Links== 

[[http://sites.google.com/site/altkeyboards/|Alternative Keyboards group (on Google groups)]]

Original HTML content:

<html><head><title>Microtonal Keyboards</title></head><body>Pianos, harpsichords and organs are suited for microtonal music insofar as the strings/pipes can, within limits, be tuned to anything desired.<br />
<br />
In the case of harpsichords and organs, the probablity that tuning issues arise is even slightly higher than average since there is often &quot;old&quot; music (baroque and older, from the pre-well-tempered age) being played on them.<br />
<br />
For electronic instruments (syntheszers), there is, in theory, absolute freedom for the pitches anyway - not in practice, though. But nowadays, many synthesizers have a built-in retuning functionality. A broad overview over the microtonal capacities of synthesizers can be found on <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com" rel="nofollow">www.microtonal-synthesis.com</a>.<br />
<br />
A side-remark: Synthesizers, even without retuning functionality, often have a special functionality that is principally also suited for microtonality: the modulation wheel. An impressive example of how to make microtonal music with the modulation wheel can be found <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.timomusic.ch/video_Spiros_Kottis.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a>. This is, however, not a particularly easy way to do it...<br />
<br />
<!-- ws:start:WikiTextHeadingRule:0:&lt;h2&gt; --><h2 id="toc0"><a name="x-Strategies for more than 12 tones per octave"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextHeadingRule:0 -->Strategies for more than 12 tones per octave</h2>
 <br />
A potential source for troubles is the traditional keyboard design, which is optimized for diatonic scales and 12 tones per octave.<br />
<br />
For microtonal music with not more than 12 tones per octave, this is not such a problem - fingerings for non-standard scales can be learned. But it becomes a problem if you need more than 12 tones per octave, or even want a non-octave tuning, such as <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.wendycarlos.com/resources/pitch.html" rel="nofollow">Wendy Carlos</a> or <a class="wiki_link" href="/BP">Bohlen-Pierce</a>.<br />
<br />
There exist several solutions for this problem:<br />
<br />
<!-- ws:start:WikiTextHeadingRule:2:&lt;h3&gt; --><h3 id="toc1"><a name="x-Strategies for more than 12 tones per octave-1) 12 Note Octave Scales"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextHeadingRule:2 -->1) 12 Note Octave Scales<!-- ws:start:WikiTextAnchorRule:10:&lt;img src=&quot;/i/anchor.gif&quot; class=&quot;WikiAnchor&quot; alt=&quot;Anchor&quot; id=&quot;wikitext@@anchor@@twelvenoteoctavescales&quot; title=&quot;Anchor: twelvenoteoctavescales&quot;/&gt; --><a name="twelvenoteoctavescales"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextAnchorRule:10 --></h3>
 (Terminology from <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com" rel="nofollow">www.microtonal-synthesis.com</a>)<br />
Use several keyboards whose keys are slightly detuned against each other.<br />
<br />
Advantages are that the keyboard layout keeps the familiar property that 12 key steps span one octave, and the pitches typically need only minor retuning. This is not unimportant for acoustical instruments, where we usually have physical limits to the amount a pitch can be retuned. For this reason, this approach is widely used, especially in the field of contemporary classical music.<br />
<br />
The disadvantage is, of course, that you need several keyboards. In the case of acoustic pianos, this means in practice that the maximal number of pitches per octave you can obtain is limited - to the number of pianos you can put on the stage together... <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.universaledition.com/Georg-Friedrich-Haas/komponisten-und-werke/komponist/278/werk/13386" rel="nofollow">&quot;Limited approximations&quot; by Georg Friedrich Haas</a>, for example, a piece in <a class="wiki_link" href="/72edo">72edo</a>, is written for six (!) pianos and orchestra.<br />
<br />
Electronic keyboards sometimes have the possibility to play in &quot;split&quot; mode, i.e. the upper and the lower half of the keyboard can send to different midi channels. Some keyboards offer up to 4 split areas. In this case, you need only one keyboard - but you still have the disadvantage of having to jump between the areas.<br />
<br />
<a class="wiki_link" href="/SeventeenTonePianoProject#pianotuningdetails">12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 17edo</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/MakeMicroMusic/message/16483" rel="nofollow">12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 19edo</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/MakeMicroMusic/message/9296" rel="nofollow">12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 22edo</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link" href="/24edo#instruments">12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 24edo</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/74155" rel="nofollow">12 note octave scales piano tuning instructions for 41edo</a><br />
<br />
<!-- ws:start:WikiTextHeadingRule:4:&lt;h3&gt; --><h3 id="toc2"><a name="x-Strategies for more than 12 tones per octave-2) Full Keyboard Scales"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextHeadingRule:4 -->2) Full Keyboard Scales<!-- ws:start:WikiTextAnchorRule:11:&lt;img src=&quot;/i/anchor.gif&quot; class=&quot;WikiAnchor&quot; alt=&quot;Anchor&quot; id=&quot;wikitext@@anchor@@fullkeyboardscales&quot; title=&quot;Anchor: fullkeyboardscales&quot;/&gt; --><a name="fullkeyboardscales"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextAnchorRule:11 --></h3>
 (Terminology from <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com" rel="nofollow">www.microtonal-synthesis.com</a>)<br />
Tune each key of the keyboard to a different pitch. The pitches of the keys keep the property of being arranged in ascending order - but the octave pattern will be different, and there are larger amounts of retuning required.<br />
<br />
Some synthesizers support this, but not all (see, again, <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com" rel="nofollow">www.microtonal-synthesis.com</a>).<br />
<br />
A possible &quot;full keyboard scales&quot; piano tuning for <a class="wiki_link" href="/22edo">22edo</a>, mapping two keyboard octaves to one acoustic octave, is decribed in <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://lumma.org/tuning/erlich/erlich-decatonic.pdf" rel="nofollow">Paul Erlich's paper on 22edo</a>, on page 11.<br />
<br />
In the case of acoustical instruments such as pianos, tuning full keyboard scales may even require major changes in construction. It has been done, however, e.g. on the <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.sauter-pianos.de/english/pianos/microtone.html" rel="nofollow">16th tone (96edo) piano</a>.<br />
<br />
<!-- ws:start:WikiTextHeadingRule:6:&lt;h3&gt; --><h3 id="toc3"><a name="x-Strategies for more than 12 tones per octave-3) Get an alternative keyboard!"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextHeadingRule:6 -->3) Get an alternative keyboard!<!-- ws:start:WikiTextAnchorRule:12:&lt;img src=&quot;/i/anchor.gif&quot; class=&quot;WikiAnchor&quot; alt=&quot;Anchor&quot; id=&quot;wikitext@@anchor@@alternativekeyboard&quot; title=&quot;Anchor: alternativekeyboard&quot;/&gt; --><a name="alternativekeyboard"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextAnchorRule:12 --></h3>
 This is actually quite an old idea, since in historical tunings of the pre-well-tempered area, there was a demand for differing between flats and sharps.<br />
<br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.denzilwraight.com" rel="nofollow">www.denzilwraight.com</a> has some beautiful examples of historical harpsichords with up to 24 keys per octave.<br />
A list of existing church organs all over the world with split semitone keys can be found on <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.goart.gu.se/ortgies/Subsemi.htm" rel="nofollow">Ibo Ortgies' homepage</a>.<br />
<br />
In modern times, the idea of generalized keyboards has come up again. Generalized keyboards can host the same fingering for multiple tunings. See, for example:<br />
<br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomorphic_keyboard" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article isomorphic keyboards</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_keyboard" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article on generalized keyboards</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Holford_Macdowell_Bosanquet" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article on Bosanquet</a><br />
<span style="background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;"><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_table_note_layout" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article on harmonic table note layouts</a></span><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicki-Hayden_note_layout" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article on the Wicki-Hayden note layout</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article on Janko</a><br />
<br />
For electronic music, there is meanwhile a number of generalized keyboards that are available or are soon to be available, see followng list<br />
<br />


<table class="wiki_table">
    <tr>
        <th>Product<br />
</th>
        <th>Manufacturer<br />
</th>
        <th>Layout<br />
</th>
        <th>No. of keys<br />
</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.cortex-design.com/projects_terp1.htm" rel="nofollow">Terpstra keyboard</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Cortex design<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, hexagonal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">280<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.thummer.com/" rel="nofollow">Thummer</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Thumtronics<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, hexagonal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">114<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#U-PLEX_buy" rel="nofollow">Tonal Plexus U-PLEX</a>, <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX2_buy" rel="nofollow">Tonal Plexus TPX2</a>, <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX2s_buy" rel="nofollow">Tonal Plexus TPX2s</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Hπ Instruments<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, rectangular<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">422<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX4_buy" rel="nofollow">Tonal Plexus TPX4</a><br />
</td>
        <td>Hπ Instruments<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, rectangular<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">844<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX6_buy" rel="nofollow">Tonal Plexus TPX6</a>, <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.h-pi.com/TPX28buy.html#TPX6s_buy" rel="nofollow">Tonal Plexus TPX6s</a><br />
</td>
        <td>Hπ Instruments<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, rectangular<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">1266<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.h-pi.com/protoMiniMOD.html" rel="nofollow">MiniMod</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Hπ Instruments<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Various (hexagonal, rectangular, 1-dimensional et al.) XXX<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">XXX<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49" rel="nofollow">AXiS-49</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">C-Thru Music<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, hexagonal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">98<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-64" rel="nofollow">AXis-64</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">C-Thru Music<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, hexagonal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">192<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.theshapeofmusic.com/" rel="nofollow">Opal Chameleon, Opal Gekko</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Opal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, hexagonal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">192<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://monome.org/devices" rel="nofollow">Monome 64</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Monome<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, rectangular<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">64<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://monome.org/devices" rel="nofollow">Monome 128</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Monome<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, rectangular<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">128<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://monome.org/devices" rel="nofollow">Monome 256</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Monome<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">2-dimensional, rectangular<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">256<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.newkeyboard.de/" rel="nofollow">New Keyboard (Johannes Kotschy)</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">XXX<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">1-dimensional, 3 tiers of keys (black/white/colored)<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">XXX<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://daskin.com/page2/page2.html" rel="nofollow">Daskin 5</a><br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;">Daskin Manufacturing<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: left;"><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard" rel="nofollow">Janko</a> (2-dimensional)<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">203<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://daskin.com/page2/page2.html" rel="nofollow">Daskin 6</a><br />
</td>
        <td>Daskin Manufacturing<br />
</td>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard" rel="nofollow">Janko</a>(2-dimensional)<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">244<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://verticalkeyboards.com/keyboardoptions/microtonalkeyboards/index.html" rel="nofollow">Vertical keyboard (Elaine Walker)</a><br />
</td>
        <td>Elaine Walker<br />
</td>
        <td>1-dimensional, 2 tiers of keys (black/white), with customizable black/white pattern<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">61, 76 or 88<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.starrlabs.com/index.php?route=product/product&amp;path=69&amp;product_id=64" rel="nofollow">ZB2 Z-Board</a><br />
</td>
        <td>Starr Labs<br />
</td>
        <td>2-dimensional, rectangular<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">288<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.starrlabs.com/index.php?route=product/product&amp;path=69/microzone-u-648&amp;product_id=66" rel="nofollow">Microzone U-648</a><br />
</td>
        <td>Starr Labs<br />
</td>
        <td>2-dimensional, hexagonal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">288<br />
</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.starrlabs.com/index.php?route=product/product&amp;path=69/microzone-u-648&amp;product_id=67" rel="nofollow">Microzone U-990</a><br />
</td>
        <td>Starr Labs<br />
</td>
        <td>2-dimensional, hexagonal<br />
</td>
        <td style="text-align: center;">810<br />
</td>
    </tr>
</table>

<br />
A very special class of microtonal midi controllers are &quot;keyless&quot; ones, for example by:<br />
<br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.hakenaudio.com" rel="nofollow">Haken</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.doepfer.de/R2M.htm" rel="nofollow">Doepfer</a><br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/products/linnstrument/index.html" rel="nofollow">Roger Linn</a><br />
<br />
<!-- ws:start:WikiTextHeadingRule:8:&lt;h2&gt; --><h2 id="toc4"><a name="x-Links"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextHeadingRule:8 -->Links</h2>
 <br />
<a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://sites.google.com/site/altkeyboards/" rel="nofollow">Alternative Keyboards group (on Google groups)</a></body></html>