Yes, semi-weighted is fine for me at least. Actually I used to insist on it because my fingers were spongy and weak but 6 months ago I bought a weighted action controller (a Sudiologic) and have been practicing like a fool on it, even to the point I’m prepared to play organ parts on it if need be which I once swore a mighty oath I would never do.
1 Like
Hm, my take seems to be atypical here 
. I’m a) used to playing on a weighted keybed and b) I find dragging 2 keyboards about even more of a hassle than dragging one 88 key piece around. My Arturia Keylab88 weighs only 15kg (which is about half my Kronos 88 weighs - I’d been hauling that one for the last 5 years…).
I don’t mind being atypical - hope the rest of you get to purchase a great keyboard which meets your needs!
2 Likes
That’s pretty much the way I see it
Add
- transpose +1 -1 buttons below the octave buttons
- Next/Prev song
- Next/Prev state
what’s the difference? never heard about it.
2 Likes
That’s pretty great. I like having “shelf space” on the right, I tend to like to park my interface over there where I can get to the main knob on the front. I assume “organ mode” is to invert the sliders so value 0 is at the top and 127 at the bottom- drawbars operate upside down!
“Organ mode” is a way to configure your keyboard so that it triggers on the first contact. All synth keyboards have two contacts - one that triggers very early in pressing the key, another further down. Normally, they measure the time between the first and the second contact, and then calculate the velocity based on that. That means that a note is only triggered once you get past the second contact, which in turn means that you have to press the key pretty deep to trigger a note.
If you have a keyboard that triggers on the first contact, you lose the velocity information, but get very early triggering of notes with far less key travel - great for those cool organ glides.
That’s not what I meant - see explanation above - but it would be cool to have as well. I personally don’t need it because I simply invert my sliders in the background rack 
I use my transport buttons for that
I figured you did the inversion in C3 for current setups but having the device do it would save a lot of programming! Never thought about how the contacts respond. Would be interesting to see if it makes a really appreciable difference.
Hi all,
let me add my 2c :
- instead of sliders, I would prefer endless rotary encoders with leds: so you don’t need motorized faders anymore
- 61 keys with good action yes! (I love my ancient Korg T3 / M1 )
- what about a joystick instead of pitchbend/mod wheels?
- at least 3 o 4 footswitch inputs please!!! so that I can control cantabile with my left foot
Great discussion!
Luigi
1 Like
To give you a short update:
I’m in discussion with Torsten about a MIDI keyboard. We will let you know what we came up with as soon as we are done.
1 Like
Transport buttons are what they are and i use them on stage also.
Hey people,
planing and 3D Design is done. As already said I’m in close contact with Torsten to get it perfect… at least for him.
Here are the specs:
- FATAR TP/8O with 61 keys and channel aftertouch
- Pitchbend & Modulation
- 10 Fader (can be used f.e. for 9 drawbars + masterfader)
- 4 Faderbanks. Illuminated switches next to the faders show selected faderbank.
- 9 Potentiometer
- 2.4" OLED which can be controlled via SysEx row by row with different font-sizes.
- 2x4 Arcade-Buttons for firing samples or other useful stuff
- Panic-Button
- 2x4 illuminated general purpose buttons (f.e. can be used for transport)
- 1x3 illuminated buttons above the pitch&modwheel. They send standard midi CC but can be assigned to whatever you like within Cantabile (f.e. transpose)
- MIDI I/O
- power and MIDI over USB
- 4 pedal-inputs in a selectable configuration (selection (if switch or if expression) needs to be done in my workshop)
- Housing made from 1.5mm black powder-coated aluminum
- Sidepanels made from plywood painted with black warnex
- Dimensions: 980 x 291 x 111mm
- Weight: Hard to tell now. Less than 10kg for sure.
Here is a short animation of the 3D Modell:
Pricing:
This really depends on the quantity in total:
1-2: 1600€
3: 1300€
4: 1200€
5: 1150€
6 -10: 999€
Prices incl. 19% German VAT excl. shipping.
But please note: I can not make individual changes on the housing. The price-drop comes from manufacturing the exact same parts over and over again.
With that said: If you are really interested in one of these boards but you are not happy with something, tell us now! I can not make any changes later on. And if Torsten is happy with your advice and wants me to include it, okay. But otherwise it’s take it or leave it more or less.
Changing the keybed to another synth action is not possible due to a different mechanical layout.
You can decide over fader-/pot-caps, arcade-button-color and pedal-configuration though.
We will wait for any suggestions or people who wants to join the group-buy till the 17th of April.
Best,
Chris
2 Likes
Hi,
that fatar keybed: is it for organs, correct?
Luigi
Yes!
Given that the keyboard isn’t to my liking I’d be more interested in a control surface only that I could velcro to any keyboard. The lighter and slimmer the better.
At the moment I’m starting to code an iPad Cantabile control surface in MIDI Designer Pro.
It took a long time… but finally it’s ready…
I hope @Torsten enjoys the keyboard(s) and it was worth the effort. I’m very happy with design, layout and construction.
6 Likes
Very nice Christian!!
It’s an amazing piece of kit - does exactly what it was planned to do - and is really nice-looking as well!
The possibility to switch the keyboard between “organ mode” and “synth mode” is just amazing - takes Hammond clones to a whole new level.
Superb job, Christian!
3 Likes
Wow! So cool!
Hi Christian,
It would be great to get a brief walk through on video to see how it works with Cantabile.
Thanks,
Doug
Well done! Looks industrial strength, which is great.
Did it end up with weighted keys?
Great great job!!