C-Thru's Axis 49 could start the ball rolling

C-Thru's Axis 49 is in production (Updated March 2009)

Last summer at a company called C-Thru Music announced that it would be making a smaller-scale version of its Axis-64 pro midi Controller , an interesting keyboard that had several major drawbacks.
(As always this is from my perspective – your mileage likely varies).

While the Axis-64 had the critical 2-dimensional hexagonal, finger-sized keys needed to make an truly player-friendly keyboard, in early 2007 the Axis-64 had these hindrances:

1.   It was expensive - initially over $2000 Canadian, and available only from England.
The problem is not so much the price; $1500-$2000 is cheap for a good keyboard.
The problem is that the personal value of the unit was a total unknown.

2.   It used the 'somewhat different' keyboard note layout, the harmonic table , which I understood only to a limited degree, and did not explain it or demo it well.

3.   The initial website, late 2006/early 2007 was really geeky (worse than mine!) (this may have been the website of the inventor, now set up for a related company Shape of Music).
For example, it gave not one hint that I could find that the keyboard was velocity sensitive. Imagine a website advertising monitors, with every single picture in black and white.
[correction: apparently it was here all along - I missed it.]

In other words, two years ago my thoughts were "So close, yet So far - Rats!".

The Axis-49 midi Controller , on the other hand , has the potential to be a true industry changer.  
Consider:

1.     It’s one fourth the price: $500 US, and available from the US. The price hits the crucial musical-hobbyist entry range, with room to grow. (It's a bit high; $300 would further triple the market, IMO). $500 for a unique keyboard can be worth it to us music geeks simply for the musical education it provides (and to be honest, the sheer geek bling).

2.     While it uses the harmonic table layout, it’s now easy with simple tools (i.e. Max/MSP) to remap keys from one layout to another. I have done so.

3.     The website has really improved from the “invent it and they will understand it” ancestry. They now mention prominently the crucial “velocity sensitive” phrase. And the demos have improved, although still a tad esoteric and some use boring Rolland midi sounds.

    4.     They have also added a forum, an excellent way to get feedback
    5.      They are gathering many fine testimonials.

In other words, if I buy it, can I play ‘Doe-Rae-Me” on it to my friends that night?

(update: Actually, I played Happy Birthday to my wife on the second night, using the Wicki layout.)

At last the dream keyboard looks within reach

The smaller size of the Axis-49 turns out to be an advantage over the larger Axis-64. If the first Axis-49 works out, I'll buy a second as a practice machine to take everywhere.

Twisting on the Axis.

As an example of the flexibility, with 2 of these units and a couple of Wii-sticks,  one could make a not half-decent two-handed Thummer  or jammer, quite easily.

Perhaps, at long last the quest for the fabled practical "isomorphic' (I hate that geeky term) keyboard has found it's first major goal. 

____________________________________________________

Does this mean that my work creating my own keys is a waste? No! I'll tell why later.

 

Comments

[Keats' Handwriting]

[this is good] Hey Ken-

Thanks so much for bloggin on the axis.

[Taylor Livingston]

It's interesting that they have Jordan Rudess doing the video demos. On one hand, I'm sure that will get keyboard geeks more interested. On the other, I figure the point of these videos is to convince people that the harmonic table is easy to use, and I don't think they're getting that across as well by using an insanely technical keyboard legend.

People will be saying, "sure, Jordan can do all that stuff, but what about us mortals?" They would do better to have some chump indie musician who can barely play, because then the implication would be, "if this guy can do it, surely you can".

[MusicScienceGuy]

Hi, Good observation.

There are at least two alternatives - and remember I can change the configuration with the touch of a key - I can try both.

1. Turn it end-on. That gives one a keyboard 7 keys wide and 14 high. That covers the major and minor scales with one and two flanking notes. 
That's 97% of the notes I've commonly had to play in my drills so far. Musical notes tend to cluster around the key root (one would almost suspect there's an underlying principal) ... At worse one would have to play, horrors!, the C# instead of the Db, and move 10 cm right or left - something a pianist does routinely.

2. Cant it at an angle.  That gives me 7 row3 over 9 keys wide, plus 4 useless rows of 1-5 keys. Not bad at all compared to the hoops I've done with keyboards.

Re: Semitone spacing;
I don't mind the semitone being so far apart; it helps prevent mistakes and after a while seems natural to my fingers. OTOH, on the Axis the spacing of the Octave, and the jumps you have to do to do inversions is weird to me.

Ken.

Ken.
I'm currently looking to see

[Taylor Livingston]

Ken, unless I'm looking at it wrong, I don't think you can remap the harmonic table to the wicki layout. Although they both use hexagonal keys, the harmonic table's keys are "tilted" in comparison with the wicki. However, the harmonic table is kind of cool, in that you can play major or minor triads with just one finger. One thing I find offputting about all isomorphic layouts I've seen is that the semitone up or down is not right there - it's especially counterintuitive to me iun the wicki where the semitone is up a row and several keys to the left. This is disruptive to my thought process when I'm trying to do anything chromatic or outside diatonic.