W-Audio today introduced a new MIDI keyboard controller that they describe as ‘a game changer’.
The Whole Tone Fixed-width keyboard MIDI controller features a unique keyboard layout that maintains a consistent relationship between black and white keys across the full range of the keyboard. By standardizing the key relationships, the whole tone fixed-width layout makes playing intervals and chords consistent, no matter what key you play in.
“Many musicians don’t realize that the standard musical keyboard was originally designed to slow down players,” notes designer Ellen Qwerty. “Early organs and harpsichords had mechanical limitations not found in modern electronic instruments. If you played notes on two adjacent keys in short succession, the mechanisms would become entangled.”
“The whole tone fixed-width design is derived from the Dvorák Standardized Keyboard, created by composer Antonín Dvorák in the late 19th century,” explains Qwerty. “While this keyboard was impractical in Dvorák’s day, today’s technology makes it not only possible, but desirable.”
Practicing Scales Now ‘A Thing Of The Past’
The new keyboard simplifies learning to play by eliminating the need to learn fingerings and practice scales, according to the designer.
Steinberg has announced that it has resolved an issue with Nuendo 5.5 activiation codes, and that it is stopping the activation code stop and restarting activations with new codes.