Another keyboard for Dr. Octopus

(Credit: Cortex Design)

If you read Crave regularly, chances are you've got at least one gadget fetish; we, of course, have many. But there's one in particular that even we can't explain: keyboards. Not just any types, mind you, but exceedingly complicated ones, which are often expensive as well.

The "Terpstra" from Cortex Design is a MIDI keyboard controller that looks more like an unraveled beehive than a piece of studio equipment. Its 280 keys are "velocity sensitive," which supposedly gives it more control flexibility in handling microtonal music, according to Gizmowatch. Take that, Optimus Maximus.

[Syntheus]

Good golly miss molly, someone has to know about keyboards there.

Velocity sensitivity - is used to simulate how the volume and tone of a piano keyboard would change based on how hard you pressed the key down. This is similar to the change in the sound of a guitar based on how hard you would strum the strings.

After touch - is not a native ability of a piano keyboard but a synth many have the abilty to alter the quality of a note after the key has been struck. This is similar to the use of finger movement on a guitar string after the string has been plucked.

Microtonality - is totally foreign to the piano keyboard and the fretted guitar. It is used to simulate perfect intervals in orchestral instruments or have flexabilities in notes approaching a fretless guitar. To work in this realm requires much understanding of music theory and the manual dexterity of an octopus.

Sorry for the "good golly miss molly" but I was incensed. I hope that does not get me banned from posting.