Connecting a Music Keyboard to a Modular Synthesizer

[Inventor]

How does a music keyboard interface to a modular synth? Does it generate a sound and send that in on one connection, or does it connect with configurable analog sitches or multipliers? Do some of them connect in different ways? Are there digital interfaces for doing this?

I'm asking because I've written a software modular synthesizer closely modeled after real hardware ones and I would like to interface a keyboard to it. Actually, I'm using the computer's keyboard, not a music keyboard, and I plan to configure it like a Jammer hardware music keyboard. I can emulate just about any type of interface with the programming language, so I'd like to do it the best way possible. Or a few ways if that's more useful.

Also if you're so inclined, I'm open to suggestions on what else to put into a good modular synthesizer. What's on your wish list, a funky custom oscillator or an arbitrary waveform generator? Perhaps a filter that varies it's characteristics according to the input signal properties like some auto-WahWah gone mad? Just let me know and I'll probably take a shot at coding it up.

[blue hell]

[Inventor]

Yes, ChucK is ChucKtastic at MIDI! There are MIDI events that I have not used yet, and at some point I will have to add a MIDI interface. At this time, however, I have no music keyboard with which to test it. I do plan to get a guitar in a few months and hook it up to the system, but that will be analog in. Actually I'm taking someone's suggestion from another thread (deKnow I think), and thinking about sending in each pickup as a separate signal. I'll need a multi channel soundcard for that though.

Getting back to the topic, I do ramble sometimes don't I? It's the computer keyboard that I'm interfacing right now. I'll be configuring it as a Jammer layout, though right now it's just "a" key is 100 Hz, "b" key is 150 Hz, "c" key is 200 Hz and like that. Just for the time being, that is.

Shall I emulate MIDI with this keyboard? I guess I could do that. It would be a good way to transition the code to real MIDI whenever I look into getting a music keyboard. I'll give that a try. Any suggestions of what to do with the simulated MIDI codes?

[derekrevell]

On the original Analog Synth's the keyboard generated two voltages, one to control a Voltage Controlled Oscillator, perhaps, usually the voltage started at 0V for the lowest note on the keyboard, and went up at 1V per octave to the highest note maybe 5 octaves, i.e. 5 volts. The second voltage was a pulse or trigger voltage, the gate or trigger was either a voltage switching from say +4V to 0V or rising from 0V to a higher voltage (v), this Pulse was generated each time a key was pressed Some keyboard could generate 2 independent voltages for the octave scale, thus it was possible to play two notes at the same time, as normally the synth's were of course Monophonic. I hope that helps, or am I way off the mark.

[Inventor]

That helps a lot, it seems like I have a good interface for a keyboard to an early synth, but to make it more authentic I should convert it to control voltages. Thanks for your reply.