Having viewed Matrix Synth on a daily basis for pretty much the last year, i've finally decided to post a message of my own. I'm a fan of soft synths and hardware synths alike, my preference being for the older analog sound. As well as classic synths (I own a Pro One) i'm also quite interested in the modern analog modeling synths, and have admired the Creamware hardware synths for some time. However I have a mental block with keyboardless synths, so i got the idea of adding a keyboard to a PRO 12. In order to help visualise it i did up these photoshops of the various options and i though the bloggers here might appreciate them and also answer a few of the practical issues.
The first is a basic Module with keyboard. The keyboard in the image is scaled to the module, a 32 key keyboard will fit perfectly. I also did an angled version to help get a better idea.
The second one is what it might look like if you added a pitch bend and modulation wheel, plus two octave up/down keys (cant work out if the module has an octave up/down function built into the front panel). Again, this is to scale, the wheels are from an Arturia Analog Factory experience keyboard, as are the keys. This makes the synth deeper to allow for the wheels and buttons and would be a lot more work. I rarely use Pitch bend and modulation occassionally, so i wouldn't miss them.
The final image is inspired by the Roland SH-3a, but it actually looks a bit like a Monomachine keyboard. It has a three octave keyboard in the image but could be any length. Its probably less practical, but it looks pretty cool.
The questions I would pose regarding this modification are these:
1. Is it possible to piggyback the power for the midi keyboard off the power for the Pro 12? I'd rather not have 2 power supplies.
2. Is it possible to wire the midi out of the midi keyboard to the midi in of the pro 12 from 'inside' the unit? This would make the synth appear to be a self contained keyboard version of the PRO 12.
3. There are very few 32 note midi keyboards on the market and most are fairly expensive. Is it possible to cut down a 37 note midi keyboard to 32 notes or is this impossible?
Its amazing how much the end result looks like a 21st centry Pro One and it really is a shame Creamware havn't strapped a keyboard on to their ASB modules as I'm sure they'd sell.
Anyway, enjoy this bit of imaginary Synth Porn!
