OptoKey Minimoog D contacts now in production

[Voltor07]

There's a difference between buying a fancy sports car to have, like Kevin and Rob, but chances are they did not swindle a bunch of people to get it. The RX-7 TT was opulent at the time, and around here, if you had one it put you in the same category as a Porsche or Lamborghini owner...which meant, type A personality, alpha male, in need of compensation for certain parts of his body.

It seems to me, Don had all those characteristics and more.

[Rob Smith]

By the way, Herb Deutsch drives a Porsche Boxster.

[Voltor07]

By the way, Herb Deutsch drives a Porsche Boxster.

Now, it's not such a big deal. One of my patients has a Cayenne. Porsche doesn't have the status it did in the 90's. Now if Herb drove a Rolls Royce, and used it as a wet dog transporter (a guy in Lake Forest here in Illinois does that) THEN I'd think he was a complete and total douchebag.

[Rob Smith]

A Porsche GT3 will turn my head every time. One of my favorite days of the year is the Porsche Club event at Lime Rock in CT. Great racing and beautiful cars. Porsche, Moog, Boston Whaler and Harley Davidson are all Legendary products that will stand the test of time. Some might say Iconic Mr. Voltor.

[thealien666]

My very first car was a rusted Russian made Lada. And it sure turned heads, but not for the same reasons !

[Voltor07]

A Porsche GT3 will turn my head every time. One of my favorite days of the year is the Porsche Club event at Lime Rock in CT. Great racing and beautiful cars. Porsche, Moog, Boston Whaler and Harley Davidson are all Legendary products that will stand the test of time. Some might say Iconic Mr. Voltor.

Indeed. I'm not arguing that. Around here, a Porsche GT3 will turn heads too...I imagine they'll turn heads anywhere. That is a true driver's car. Most people who have Porsches in this area have Cayman's or Cayman S's...in other words, a budget Porsche. The Little Phatty compared to a Voyager XL.

[Rob Smith]

My very first car was a rusted Russian made Lada. And it sure turned heads, but not for the same reasons !

Yes, But it still turned heads my friend and thats all that counts. Let me know how the OptoKey works out. Kevin is quite the pro at this stuff!

[Voltor07]

And the understatement of the year award goes to...ROB SMITH for calling Kevin quite the pro!

[Rob Smith]

And the understatement of the year award goes to...ROB SMITH for calling Kevin quite the pro!

No, Its called a complement.

[Voltor07]

And the understatement of the year award goes to...ROB SMITH for calling Kevin quite the pro!

No, Its called a complement.

I know that. I was kidding. All kidding aside, I see a lot of potential for the OptoKey to be implemented into many synths, not just the Mini, but also the Micro, Prodigy, and even maybe some newer synths. I told Kevin a while ago how awesome it was...before I found out the final cost, I wanted a MIDI keyboard made using the OptoKey.

[thealien666]

And the understatement of the year award goes to...ROB SMITH for calling Kevin quite the pro!

No, Its called a complement.

I know that. I was kidding. All kidding aside, I see a lot of potential for the OptoKey to be implemented into many synths, not just the Mini, but also the Micro, Prodigy, and even maybe some newer synths. I told Kevin a while ago how awesome it was...before I found out the final cost, I wanted a MIDI keyboard made using the OptoKey.

One of the synth world's best kept secret is that the Ensoniq SQ80 and EPS models use something similar to Kevin's OptoKey. But instead of infrared light they use induction coils, with a metal plate glued under each note. When you press a note, the metal plate moves closer to the induction coil and triggers a signal. No mechanical contact whatsoever, as in the case of the OptoKey.

Moreover, these keyboards offer polyphonic aftertouch too. They make excellent, low cost, MIDI keyboard controllers that will last a lifetime. They're getting a little harder to find, being 24 years old, but when they show up they're usually very inexpensive.

Note: the ESQ-1 and all other models from Ensoniq don't have that technology, however.

[Voltor07]

I was unaware of that. Induction coils would be super-expensive to implement now, with copper being as expensive as it is. A cool design, though! I'll be sure to keep an eye out for the SQ80.

[Kevin Lightner]

I always thought the Ensoniq contacts were capacitive, not inductive.
Either way, they too had their problems sometimes.

[thealien666]

I always thought the Ensoniq contacts were capacitive, not inductive.
Either way, they too had their problems sometimes.

Like I said, there was absolutely no physical contacts on those inductive keyboards. But only on those 2 models. All the other ones had either mechanical contacts or capacitive ones (latest models before they went bankrupt). The schematics of that keyboard are here:

http://memi.de/~buchty/ensoniq/schemati ... 80-kpc.jpg
http://memi.de/~buchty/ensoniq/schemati ... -lower.jpg
http://memi.de/~buchty/ensoniq/schemati ... -upper.jpg

Ensoniq did not continue to use those keyboards on later models because the were too expensive to produce. They required two transistors per note, (61 notes = 122 trannies !) and a 68HC11 dedicated micro-controller with external eprom just to scan the keys. Remember that this was in 1988-90 and was rather advanced technology back in those days, and memory was still expensive.

The 61 coils were ingeniously made from flat spiral copper traces on a long printed circuit board under the keys.

[MC]

I always thought the Ensoniq contacts were capacitive, not inductive.
Either way, they too had their problems sometimes.

Kurzweil MIDIboard had a capacitance contact system. Ensoniq was inductive. Both lent themselves to a cost efficient poylphonic aftertouch system.

Something about the feel of the Ensoniq keybed never felt right to me.