April 1st, 2005: Korean manufacture K-Tar has introduced the first ever 100-key USB-based MIDI controller, the K-Tar 100. The keyboard offers computer musicians a full octave of additional range over traditional keyboards.

Because of the extended range of today’s soft-synths, many notes are beyond the range of most USB keyboards. Instead of wasting all of those potential notes, K-Tar has created advanced keyboard technology to help bring Extended Range Keyboarding (ERK) into electronic music.

“It’s like a regular keyboard, except it has more keys” notes K-Tar’s US VP Ben Dover. “If this goes over well, we have plans for a 112-key version.”

Electronica artists are snapping up the K-Tar 100 because of its massive bass range. According to DJ Fools, “The bass extension on this bad boy is wicked! It lets me go waaaay down for the bass, so I can get notes a lot lower than I could before. It gives me the edge over other electronica artists.”

DJ April F was one the first K-Tar 100 users. “I couldn’t let DJ Fools smack down the rest of us, so I had to drop for the K-Tar 100. It is a little more difficult to move around because of its size, but when you blow out your first sub-woofer, you know you’re onto something kick-ass!”

Not for Tiny People

The keyboard hasn’t won any fans among short or tiny musicians, because of the 100’s extra size and weight. Rap artist Small E Biggs notes “I’m down with that, but it’s just too big for me! I’m waiting for the mini-key version to come out.”

No official ship date has been set yet.