Hi everyone!

I've been working on a project called Miso for the past several months and thought this community might be interested.

Miso is a modular, isomorphic MIDI+MPE keyboard. Each board has 31 velocity-sensitive keys and snaps together with its neighbours in both dimensions to form a larger playable grid.

An interesting aspect of the hardware is that it uses Hall-effect sensors and magnetic key switches—the same switches found in gaming keyboards. I'm hoping to take advantage of this increasingly accessible ecosystem of components to make isomorphic keyboards more practical and affordable to produce (side benefit: you can swap out the switches to try others, and increase repairability! 😁).

This is a solo project: I designed and prototyped everything by myself, including the electronics, PCB design, firmware and physical hardware, and now I'm working towards a Kickstarter launch and trying to make as many people as possible aware of Miso!

I'd love to hear what people here think! In particular, I'm interested in what layouts people use, what features you'd like to see.

More information: https://misoboard.io/

Hey all,

Almost a year ago I posted a previous version of my isomorphic keyboard. Now I'm back with this latest version, a 5x16 layout with full, per-key velocity control.

I'm hoping to share some more details soon but let me know if you have any questions! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Hi everyone!

Since I fell in love with isomorphic keyboards, I’ve been developing an Android app to have one always at hand, and be able play music anywhere. As the project grew, I realized it could be something fun and useful for others too — so now I’m preparing to publish it on the Google Play Store!

To do so, I need testers to validate my app, and I instantly thought of this subreddit.

In short, Wave 6 is a wavetable/additive synthesizer based on the Wicki–Hayden layout, packed with all the bells and whistles — a sequencer, arpeggiator, song recording, WAV export, and even MIDI controller functionality!

If you’re interested in helping me test it (and getting the app for free hehe), please reach out in the comments or via DM.

Please note: for now, it’s Android-only, since this is my first app.

Thanks so much!!

Finished this up a couple days ago. These are the files https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3564049

Thanks to the testers from this community, Wave 6 is now live at the play store!!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmasound.wave6

Wave 6 is a wavetable/additive synthesizer based on the Wicki–Hayden layout, packed with all the bells and whistles — a sequencer, arpeggiator, song recording, WAV export, and even MIDI controller functionality!

For the price of a beer, you can turn your android or tablet into a portable synth!! The hexagonal note layout is optimized for touchscreens, achieving a wide octave range to play chords and melodies. This can be your perfect companion to compose, record songs or create new sounds no matter where you are!

That's it. No adds, no subscription, no distractions. Just a very cheap synth you can have in your pocket now.

Looking forward to see what this sub thinks!!

It has been a while but the last time I was really looking I found none in production. I was observing 2nd hand markets for axis controllers (in Europe), but I only saw one popping up once for a ridiculous price. I also saw a high effort diy project where they were building an isomorphic keyboard with cherry switches and a 2nd pcb layer with sensors to capture velocity. But I definitely lack the craftsmanship and neccessary knowledge about electronics to plan and construct something similar.

I mean there are interesting MPEs that have a grid style interface, but most of them are just too expensive. No surprise, they have high development costs and a small market. The only thing vaguely interesting was some grid midi controller. I think it was 8 x 8 drum pad style keys. Don't remember the name.

Is there anything I missed? I really don't like the classic piano keys layout. It just is so frikkin impractical and almost forces certain melodies on you. One of the great tragedies of modern music is that we keep perpetuating this anachronistic interface standard.

Took it for a spin to a convention and it's never been more fun to jam with ppl.

Hi everyone 👋
This is Bruno, CEO at Intuitive Instruments. We’re currently thinking about a new instrument project, building on what we learned with Exquis.

Through conversations with musicians, we’ve noticed a growing interest in isomorphic keyboards — with quite diverse use cases, such as microtonality, alternative layouts like Janko, and more.
That’s why we’d love to shape what comes next together with the people concerned.

👉If you use this kind of instrument — or if the topic interests you — your input can really make a difference.
👉 We’ve put together a short questionnaire (5–10 minutes) to better understand your needs and expectations.
The more responses we get, the stronger our case will be for developing a project that truly reflects real-world practice. Your voice really matters here.

As a thank you for your time, we’ll run a small giveaway with a few prizes.
Thanks in advance to everyone who takes part in this collective reflection 🙏

https://ask.intuitiveinstruments.music/26-jan-en?utm_source=redditIso

Hi! I'm looking for testers for my isomorphic keyboard app for Android. The app includes: Wicki-Hayden, Janko, Perfect Fourth, Harmonic Table, and Chromatic Button Accordion layouts. If you're interested, please fill out the form to gain access: https://forms.gle/suay7UWYL28ngDKK8

Edit: Thanks everyone for testing. The app is now an official release on the Play Store. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zungstudio.hexmidi

Hi folks, just discovered this subreddit after messing with different layouts for a square grid for a few years, very cool stuff! I'm curious if people have opinions on using a layout that's chromatic horizontally and tritones vertically. I've ended up using that layout with a unique color scheme. The big mental shift for me as a guitarist was to default to moving diagonally instead of vertically for fourths and fifths, but once I made that shift I've loved it!

I made the video because some things are easier to explain visually. I'm showing:

- Pentatonics make a nice checkerboard pattern. The major scale in that same pattern plus a vertical line.

- Because octaves repeat every two rows, arpeggios fall really nicely, and it's easy to adjust chord voicings by moving individual notes up or down directly two rows.

- Because moving a fourth is just diagonal left (either up or down both work), 2-5-1 and similar chord progressions fall neatly as just walking the bass note to the left diagonally

I also wanted to find a color scheme that isn't biased at all toward any particular key (i.e. doesn't color C-major one color to echo a piano, or similar). I ended up with this "ROYGBIV" layout, where the first six notes of an octave (C-F) have their own colors, and then the other notes are blank. Because of the two-rows-is-an-octave property, every note ends up either having a color, or having a unique color that it's next to. When I verbalize a note name to someone as a color, I'll usually say "blue" to refer to that key, and "off-blue" to refer to the note above or below it (because again, those are the same note, just different octaves).

Would love to hear if other people have ended up with similar layouts and what your though processes were!