The Dualo du-touch has arrived

My Christmas present arrived today, courtesy of my very understanding wife.  It's a Dualo du-touch, made in Fr ance and invented by an group of young enthusiasts. Price: about $1000 and change in Canadian loonies.  Duty and taxes added a bit over 20% to that. 

  Big caveat: anything I say about the Dualo people is impressions gathered by reading their websites and facebook postings and will not be 100% accurate.   

This is the second round of Dualo production: the first, in August & September, was almost late-stage prototypes. This batch, I gather, is a much more stable product, although they are still getting up to speed on side issues like English manuals.

Now, to get to the central question that my many blog readers (all three of you)  are asking: what gives;  have you given up on the jammer keyboard?

By no means; I'm just starting to do well on the jammer (and more on that shortly). I bought a Dualo because it has many "must-have" features for any practical portable 21st-century instrument, and I need to see how they are implemented so I can the design the next-generation jammer. I am not disappointed, the Dualo has solid features.

My wife has her own motives. She wants me to have an instrument that is not tied to a computer,  trains my ear, can be taken to parties, and does not lock me into a single instrumental view of music.

First impressions

Here on the west coast of Canada, we are swamped by devices made in Asian countries. they tend to have a standard, shiny "plastic-y" look and feel. It's nice to have in my hands a device that has a nice heft and feel; the texture is that of high-quality rubber/powder material; it's not slippery. 

The buttons are ... interesting ... They don't move like the keys of my Axis-49, instead they are rubbery and move by less than .5mm. Yet they have velocity sensitivity. My best guess is that they sense the shock-wave of the impacting finger, perhaps with tiny accelerometers? I'll reserve judgment pending some solid practice sessions.

The controls seem, at first touch, complicated but are starting to make sense.  The reality of holding the instrument and actually getting an audible response from it is very vivid; much more "real" than expected.

 

My fingers and mind are reeling

However, now I know exactly now an old-time pianist feels when I show him my jammer keyboard and gush that it's bigger than the invention of the grand piano.

After months and months of playing music on the jammer, and learning its particular "layout of music" deeply in my fingers and brain, it's a heavy shock to encounter a different layout. My fingers are having tough time even playing "Mary had a little lamb", and my brain - not too strong at the best of times - is reeling.

 

Shock! - someone actually was influenced by this blog ...

I recently e-conversed, with Bruno, one of the co-inventors of the Dualo, and he floored me with:

Many many thanks for your email. I know your blog and your website, and you were one of the first we saw on internet when we started to build the company. That was for us a source of motivation as we though that this is a proof of the existence of a community (and a market) for new layout.

Well knock me over with a feather. I'm glad that I was of help in deciding to get the Dualo into production. :)

Ken.

 

 

Comments

[Ken Rushton]

The Dualo People do indeed have a special notation for their keyboard - it's not bad at all. See their site. I hope you speak French. :)

[Johannes K. Drinda]

The most interesting on the Dualo is its ergonomic layout.
After finishing my Janko adapter project, I will try to create a Dualo type of Kbd and wire it like a 4-row Janko accordion and connect it via MIDI to my Tyros3.
I wished I could add a compact, great sounding sound generator so, it would be portable. Maybe via Android?
Also, adding bellow shake would make it close to a Roland accordion... on the cheap! :)

[Johannes K. Drinda]

Interesting thing! I wonder if there's any special notation for it, because that's the fastest way to learn playing this layout?

[Ken Rushton]

The battery died on my Dualo, just as i was going to give it a review and I've only just got it back (the Dualo people were great at repairing it BTW).

The buttons are indeed the least part of the instrument, at least to one who is used to a piano or jammer action. However, the fingers may adapt: time will tell.

A review will only be slowly forthcoming: Im busy having summer fun.

Ken.

[David Taylor]

Thank you for your three blog entries on the Dualo; I am very interested in this instrument and it's not an easy one to explore. The one point not touched on in your blogs is: How *playable* is this instrument?

Specifically, what are the key surfaces made out of? Are they smooth and easy to glide over, or are they made out of that rubbery silicon that makes it hard to play smoothly. What is the action like -- is there tactile feedback so you can feel when you've triggered a note? Are the notes easily triggered, or does it take a deliberate press to get each one?

As I'm sure you know, the difference between a wonderful idea and a truly playable instrument can be vast if the keyboard itself isn't properly executed. I have a number of exciting pieces of technology on my shelve to prove it. '-/