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Anyone tried DIY keybed upgrade?


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I love my Novation Lauchkey controller capabilities, size and weight but the key actions are not even close to my taste (my standard is the FS action in my Triton Extreme).

Now I wonder if its worth trying to improve the action in any way also thinking about make its case sturdier.

Is this a crazy man writing?

 

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If you really want to make the best use of your keyboard and know it'll be a long term possesion, then yes, you can certainly try to upgrade your keybed.

 

I upgraded my Roland JV-90 keybed years ago with balanced weights, so that it feels like a semi-weighted keyboard (it is originally synth-weighted). To me, the upgrade was well worth the effort as the resulting keybed feels better than a supposed great semi-weighted XP80 by a mile. I've repaired the switches on my JV90 so many times, just so I can keep making use of the synth...because of its keybed.

 

But yeah, you've gotta be crazy to upgrade your keybed :)

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Aside from trying different springs (which I believe someone here has done), what can you do with a synth-action keybed to change the feel? The resistance & bounce, everything that makes up the "feel", is in the spring, no?

 

I know someone who took a saw to the lead weights in his 88-key DP, and claimed it improved things for him. That takes stones!

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Aside from trying different springs (which I believe someone here has done), what can you do with a synth-action keybed to change the feel? The resistance & bounce, everything that makes up the "feel", is in the spring, no?

 

The biggest change you can make besides changing weights and springs is changing the depth of travel. If you are careful, you can sometimes narrow that without screwing up the bottom velocity sensor. If you have a pressure sensor, it can sometimes be raised also.

Moe

---

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
mission failed.... Novation Lauchkey does not have springs to work with..., they are just the plastic from each key triggering a "spongy" silicone part that hits the sensors....

If you managed to get to this point without demolishing what you already had, I'd call it a win.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

-Mark Twain

 

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I'm sure that I'll be called a dunderhead for this, but...

 

Why not just use another keyboard whose action you like to drive the Novation via MIDI? That way the Novation retains resale value (don't know about you guys, but I tend to cringe when I read that some piece of gear has been "upgraded") and you can change the keybed again and again to suit your mood. Yes, you'd end up daisy-chaining things, but if nothing else it would give you lots more control options along the way.

 

I took the keybed idea to an extreme and built a red oak and black cherry case for the Fatar keybed out of a defunct Kurzweil K2500*. Looks good and gives me a set of keys for all my rack mount synth stuff. One thing I learned along the way is that the velocity mapping may not work out the way you expect, so beware that potential pitfall.

 

Grey

 

*Footnote: I'd like to say thanks to Moe and the others who assisted and advised while I was building the new keyboard. It was an interesting and educational project.

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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