Floyd Tatum Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Remember the Prodikeys? The computer keyboard with a built-in midi piano keyboard? It was made by Creative Labs, the same people who made the SoundBlaster music card for PC's. This would be useful to me now, I would use it when watching tv or browsing internet. If it had a rudimentary built-in piano sound in addition to midi, even better. The keys need to be accurately velocity-sensitive. They don't have to be full-size, although full-width would be nice. If the length is only, say, 2" for white, and 1 1/4" for black keys, that would be ok (maybe a bit longer than that) - it's not about playing piano. It's just about being able to input some "piano-like data". A musician needs a piano keyboard handy at all times. Right now, I'm typing on a Logitech wireless keyboard. Logitech seems like a good candidate to make such a thing. Logitech, if you're listening, what do you say? Or Creative Labs - I think they're still in business. Hey Creative Labs, how about it? Here's a picture of the original Prodikeys. It came with a cover for the piano keys - to rest your palms on, when not in use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analogika Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 ❤️ 1 2 1 Quote "The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk) The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 "This is rock and roll" 😁 Actually, he's kinda right. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthaholic Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 On 2/11/2024 at 12:53 PM, Floyd Tatum said: Remember the Prodikeys? The computer keyboard with a built-in midi piano keyboard? It was made by Creative Labs, the same people who made the SoundBlaster music card for PC's. This would be useful to me now, I would use it when watching tv or browsing internet. If it had a rudimentary built-in piano sound in addition to midi, even better. The keys need to be accurately velocity-sensitive. They don't have to be full-size, although full-width would be nice. If the length is only, say, 2" for white, and 1 1/4" for black keys, that would be ok (maybe a bit longer than that) - it's not about playing piano. It's just about being able to input some "piano-like data". A musician needs a piano keyboard handy at all times. Right now, I'm typing on a Logitech wireless keyboard. Logitech seems like a good candidate to make such a thing. Logitech, if you're listening, what do you say? Or Creative Labs - I think they're still in business. Hey Creative Labs, how about it? Here's a picture of the original Prodikeys. It came with a cover for the piano keys - to rest your palms on, when not in use. I'll sell you mine. I say that half-joking. Creative didn't update the driver past Windows XP, I think, so unless you can make it work with a Mac or Linux...It's why I haven't used it in ages. And let me just take this time to say that Creative sucks. They never update any of their drivers, although they made some cool stuff 20 years ago. Then abandoned it. Quote The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthaholic Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 2 minutes ago, Floyd Tatum said: Seriously? Which version (year, model number)? Condition? Price? I'll have to look. Quote The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 9 minutes ago, Synthaholic said: I'll have to look. Ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaJockey Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 I remember thinking it was aimed at the same audience as the Milton Bradley games But I did half seriously consider one, as there wasn't much around computer based with mini keys for portability at the time. But I did get excited when Creative brought out the AWE32 on the long ISA card with the standard RAM slot expansions. I ended up fully populating it with 64mb, and could load some monster soundfonts into my DAW.....then the little PCI AWE64 came out, and the 32 was relegated to history😔 Quote The companions I can't live without: Kawai Acoustic Grand, Yamaha MontageM8x, Studiologic Numa Piano X GT, Other important stuff: Novation Summit, NI Komplete Ultimate 14 CE, Omnisphere, EW Hollywood and Fantasy Orchestra, Spitfire Albion and Symphony, Pianoteq 8 Pro, Roland RD88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 3 hours ago, Synthaholic said: I'll sell you mine. I say that half-joking. Creative didn't update the driver past Windows XP, I think, so unless you can make it work with a Mac or Linux...It's why I haven't used it in ages. And let me just take this time to say that Creative sucks. They never update any of their drivers, although they made some cool stuff 20 years ago. Then abandoned it. Yeah, XP would (most likely) be a problem. I'm running Windows 10, on a 15-year-old desktop, so I might be able to get it to work, but this system needs to be upgraded before too long anyway, so it doesn't make sense to add obsolete peripherals. What I was trying to get across in this thread, is that it would be nice if some company would make a current version of this product. I'm currently thinking of buying a small lap-top-size synth that could be within arm's reach when I'm browsing. Rather than interrupt the flow of what I'm doing, to get up and go to the piano or synth, I could use such a laptop thing. So if the keyboard were already there in the remote pc keyboard, that would be good. The trick is integrating it the right way. DeltaJockey: re your point about marketing it as a toy; if it would be useful to me, I wouldn't care about the marketing. It's not like I would be going on stage with it. 🤓 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJoB3 Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 On 2/11/2024 at 5:07 PM, analogika said: ❤️ Oh god I remember this. Hahah. So ****ing killer. "Sure. I'll do a demo video for ya" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 Imagine if the piano keyboard were very thin, and could slide underneath the pc keyboard when not in use. Bingo! Is that technically do-able? I don't know. It might be nice, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaJockey Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 1 hour ago, Floyd Tatum said: DeltaJockey: re your point about marketing it as a toy; if it would be useful to me, I wouldn't care about the marketing. It's not like I would be going on stage with it. 🤓 Yes, of course. It was more about the style of marketing itself at the time that I was meaning. I saw a number of advertisements when it was just released, not just the one above. The product itself I thought was nifty at the time, which is why I considered it for a specific purpose back then. 1 Quote The companions I can't live without: Kawai Acoustic Grand, Yamaha MontageM8x, Studiologic Numa Piano X GT, Other important stuff: Novation Summit, NI Komplete Ultimate 14 CE, Omnisphere, EW Hollywood and Fantasy Orchestra, Spitfire Albion and Symphony, Pianoteq 8 Pro, Roland RD88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 1 hour ago, DeltaJockey said: Yes, of course. It was more about the style of marketing itself at the time that I was meaning. I saw a number of advertisements when it was just released, not just the one above. The product itself I thought was nifty at the time, which is why I considered it for a specific purpose back then. I'm with you on that. 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElmerJFudd Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 On 2/11/2024 at 8:07 PM, analogika said: ❤️ Way more Rock’n’Roll than the quantized and pitch fixed rock we get these days. 😉 1 Quote Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markay Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Musta been playing Leisure Suit Larry back in the day and looking for luv in all the wrong places and totally missed this. 1 Quote A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthaholic Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 @Floyd Tatum I found it! Finally. I don't see any revisions, though. Quote The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 39 minutes ago, Synthaholic said: @Floyd Tatum I found it! Finally. I don't see any revisions, though. 👍 I think at one point you said "I'll sell you mine", although you added that you were half-joking. And I may have expressed interest, although in further posts, I added that it really wouldn't work for me for various reasons. So, long story short, I hope I didn't give the impression that I was seriously interested in buying it. And if that wasn't clear before, then I apologize if you went to the effort of finding it based on that impression. I would be interested if some company were to make a modern version of it, using remote usb, or bluetooth, or something like that. I wonder if that will ever happen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthaholic Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 4 hours ago, Floyd Tatum said: 👍 I think at one point you said "I'll sell you mine", although you added that you were half-joking. And I may have expressed interest, although in further posts, I added that it really wouldn't work for me for various reasons. So, long story short, I hope I didn't give the impression that I was seriously interested in buying it. And if that wasn't clear before, then I apologize if you went to the effort of finding it based on that impression. I would be interested if some company were to make a modern version of it, using remote usb, or bluetooth, or something like that. I wonder if that will ever happen. No worries, Floyd. I'm still holding out hope that someone will come up with a driver, or that one day I abandon Windows and find that Ubuntu has a working driver. Actually, I've never plugged it into my iPad Pro, so maybe it works with that. I'll check and report. I hate to see it being unused, at least the keyboard function, since it's practically brand new. 1 Quote The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 23 minutes ago, Synthaholic said: No worries, Floyd. I'm still holding out hope that someone will come up with a driver, or that one day I abandon Windows and find that Ubuntu has a working driver. Actually, I've never plugged it into my iPad Pro, so maybe it works with that. I'll check and report. I hate to see it being unused, at least the keyboard function, since it's practically brand new. Ok, so we're cool, good to hear. 🙂 Just out of curiosity, which version of Prodikeys do you have? There's 3 according to Wikipedia: Prodikeys, Prodikeys DM, and Prodikeys PC-MIDI. Not sure what the difference is, the Wiki page doesn't go into much detail. As far as I can tell, all versions connect to the computer via a PS-2 port. For those that don't know, PS-2 is a mini-DIN port used on older IBM-PC's to connect keyboards and mice - it was popular for quite a few years. It looks like a miniature MIDI port, often green or purple. Would your iPad Pro have such a port? Or is there some way to jury-rig a connection? EDIT: I just did some googling, and answered my own question: there are PS/2-to-USB adapters available. But that still leaves the driver problem, which is what you're facing. Correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthaholic Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Mine has a USB plug, no PS/2. I posted a photo of the model # and that's all I know about it. I didn't even know there were multiple versions. I'm going to plug it into my iPad via the camera adapter. 1 Quote The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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