About the Keyboard

The Syntoniq Keyboard (syntoniq-kbd) allows you to configure a supported hardware keyboard to play notes from a Syntoniq scale. Note that the keyboard is a separate application from the Syntoniq language compiler. You can use either one without the other.

The keyboard exposes several capabilities:

• Flexible layout engine that allows isomorphic and manual layouts
  • Isomorphic layouts have the property that the interval between notes is based only on the notes' relative positions. For keyboards arranged in rectangular or hexagonal grids, this means you can play in any key by just shifting your hand position.
  • Manual layouts allow you to place any note in any position. On the Syntoniq keyboard, manual layouts can automatically tile using specified rules.
  • The keyboard can be divided into regions to allow more than one scale to be used at the same time
  • Multiple layouts can be loaded, and you can switch between them and play notes from multiple layouts at the same time
• Sustain mode where pressing a key toggles the note on or off
• Flexible transposition and layout shift mode
• Console output that shows information about each note as it is played or, in sustain mode, shows the complete list of all notes that are sounding, making it a very useful transcription or harmony experimentation tool
• Read-only web UI that shows a view of the keyboard with labeled keys and other information

Hardware

The Syntoniq Keyboard works on the following devices:

• Novation Launchpad MK3 Pro
• HexBoard MIDI Controller with firmware version 1.3 or later. You can check your firmware version by entering the Advanced menu.

Adding support for additional devices may be possible as the device support parts of the keyboard are isolated. To support Syntoniq Keyboard, the device must support some kind of external control where external software can receive button events and send light events. It would also be possible to create a software-based keyboard application based on an existing software programmable controller or on a custom tool. I highly recommend one of the hardware solutions. Both of the options above are affordable in comparison to many microtonal keyboard options. The HexBoard gives you 133 notes vs. the Launchpad's 64 and also works as a capable microtonal keyboard in its own right. The Launchpad is also an excellent device that has other uses, particularly as a controller for a digital audio workstation.

The Syntoniq keyboard application has a prompt mode. In this mode, you type notes at a command prompt to build chords a note at a time, and send sounds to Csound or a MIDI device. It can function in lieu of a keyboard if you don't have the hardware, and it can be a useful tool for transcribing microtonal music, especially if you're not sure what the tuning system is.

The Syntoniq Keyboard application is covered in depth in SYNTONIQ KEYBOARD.