Although I am not an instrument player (although I do admit to having been a bad player of the violin for over 15 years during my early life), I have been intrigued by instrument design from the point of view of usability. So here are various experimental keyboard layouts (currently all Lumatone, but that is due to availability rather than philosophy) that I have collected after seeing them demonstrated by others (with links to demonstration videos whenever possible), plus some that I have created (often inspired by the ones I have collected) in case someone wants to give them a test drive.
Bryan Deister has used the 10L 1s layout for 83edo, as demonstrated in microtonal improvisation in 83edo (2025). The octaves slant downwards (with a wraparound in the first full octave) while moving to higher pitches, and the contiguous range (with all notes represented at least once, not counting non-contiguous notes in the upper left and lower right corners) is slightly over three octaves (although due to the Lumatone only being set up for a single MIDI channel in this video, the video only demonstrates approximately one and a half octaves). The generator is the semi-flat version of 27/25, as in ripple temperament, although it is necessary to constitute it as (3♭×3♯×3♭)/25 (using both the flat and sharp fifths in alternation) in order to map it correctly. Alternatively, since 83edo is at the intersection of ripple and miracle temperaments, the generator can be constituted as a flat secor (16/15 ~ 15/14), using the 83b val — not in the optimal tuning spectrum of miracle, but only needing to use the flat fifth.
61edo (demonstrated to work, but awaiting verification)
Bryan Deister has used the 12L 1s layout for 61edo, as demonstrated in microtonal improvisation in 61edo (2025). The generator is a nominal but very flat ~16/15 (5\61, actually closer to 18/17, but only if constituted as (3♯×3♭)/17); this supports a very hard 10L 1s scale, although the color scheme used in the video does not reflect this. The range is a bit under 4 octaves (and the octaves slant up) with provision of repeated notes, or actually a bit over 4 octaves if one is willing to accept some awkward positions in the left and right extremes of the layout.
(This was copied from Lumatone mapping for 31edo, for comparison with the larger EDO Valentine mappings below.)
The Universe of Music has used the following layout, demonstrated in Her Gentle Touch (2025). In this video, even notes are mapped to red keys, and odd notes are mapped to purple keys). This layout uses the valentine as its scale of construction, inspired by the Ultra-Compressed version of the Lumatone mapping for porcupine, but even more compressed. Octaves are in horizontal rows, but stretched out over a large distance (which would be even longer if the layout were not made extremely compressed), so that the range is just slightly over 3 octaves (not counting some gamut fragments in the upper left and lower right corners), while notes are repeated multiple times vertically (at a slant), which allows an easy reach for octaves and other intervals that would require very long fingers if only available purely horizontally.
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46edo (proposed and untested)
Octaves start to slant down a bit. Playability not tested.
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61edo (proposed and untested)
Octaves slant down more, but all notes still represented at least once. Playability not tested.
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76edo (proposed and untested)
Octaves slant down severely, but all notes still represented at least once. Playability not tested.
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77edo (proposed and untested)
Octaves now slant up; all notes still represented at least once. Playability not tested.
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78edo (proposed and untested)
What happens if we go softer than Valentine should be? Octaves now slant up only slightly, and all notes are still represented. Playability not tested.
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77
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68
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74
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77
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68
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0
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41
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79edo (proposed and untested
What happens if we go even still softer than Valentine should be? Octaves now slant down slightly, and all notes are still represented. Playability not tested.
Bryan Deister has used a layout for 28edo that was inspired by the layout for 29edo (rather than being made for any specific temperament), as demonstrated in minuet in 28edo (2025). The right-moving generator is a somewhat sharp Pythagorean whole tone (~9/8, or near-just 17/15, 5\28). The up-moving generator is an almost-just tridecimal supraminor second (~14/13, 3\28). The range is a bit over five octaves, with octaves alternating near/far and middle with an overall small upwards slant. Although this layout was not designed for any particular temperament, it so happens that the right-moving generator matches Machine.
Bryan Deister has used a layout for 30edo that was also inspired by the layout for 29edo (rather than being made for any specific temperament), as demonstrated in minuet in 30edo (2025). The right-moving generator is a somewhat flat Pythagorean whole tone (~9/8, 5\30; and in the video, the row segments that include note 0 are colored solid red). The up-moving generator is a somewhat flat tridecimal supraminor second (~14/13, 3\30); neither would be able access the full gamut on its own, but together they cover the full gamut with a generous allotment of repeated notes (indicating that if this layout was to represent a particular temperament, that would have to be a rank-3 temperament if having an octave period, or a rank-2 temperament dividing the octave into multiple periods). The range is a bit under five octaves, with octaves slanting up (while wrapping around) at the same angle as the right-moving generator.
