geekhack
geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: squishygnomes on Sun, 02 August 2015, 02:07:21
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I don't really know what to call it, just look at the picture - $50 + $8.20 shipping
(http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271945899977?)
[attach=1]
Some sort of white Alps, It looks like it has slits and 2 tabs so my guess is legit Alps
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No clue what it would actually type if you plugged it in but I figured someone might like it since it's right size to make an navigation cluster + numpad with some extras at the top or just an Alps macro pad.
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It's definitely some sort of keyboard for writing music.
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"Not For Resale" :confused:
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Looks like Creams, could even be the rare undamped version. Never saw something like this before, cool find :) .
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Not that I'm considering getting it, but anyone think that this device would be of value if purchased and used for the purpose for which it was originally created?
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It's laid out in a piano arrangement, so I can only think of it being a weird alternative to a piano keyboard.
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This pad was bundled with a Mac music-notation application called Music Publisher, by a California company called Graphic Notes.
Notation software was so specialized and pricey in those days, only publishers and well-to-do music hobbyists bought products like these; I wouldn't be surprised if this package was over $1000. (Nowadays there are inexpensive notation apps, and at least one free open-source one (https://musescore.org/); and for note input, you can use an cheap MIDI piano keyboard from any music store.)
Because it was produced in such small numbers, I've found only a couple of brief references to Music Publisher on this forum page (http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=448920&sid=5eb3ca36d4d99224527e2798c66d2d12). However, a trademark search (http://www.logosdatabase.com/logo/music-publisher_73702303) shows that Graphic Notes registered the product name in 1987, which is about right.
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Just to finish this thread. This keyboard plugged into a Macintosh ADB port. It was used for the Music Publisher app which I believe ran around $500USD.
The company was in Santa Cruz, CA on 7th Ave and was called Graphic Notes.
The program was written in Object Pascal and was developed in Australia. Tech support and product demos were done in the US and the competitor was Finale (which is still going).
The program was pretty GREAT and was really fast due to the dedicated keyboard. But the program did have some flaws and the venture capitalists wanted their money after a short while.
It was a great place to work at the beginning!
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Most of them are! ;?)
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aronnelson: welcome to geekhack, and thanks for the info! Did people use two hands with this keyboard, or just one hand?
It would be neat if more people around here tried to build custom special-purpose keyboards like this. Most of the ideas here are focused on typing, plus some on video game play, but I’d love to see more ideas about how to optimize for other types of software tasks.