Originally posted by Chris A:
Speaking from a design standpoint, the only reason a manufacturer places the wheels at the top is when the instrument in question has an 88 note keybed (as in each of the examples given).
Placing the wheels at the left side of an 88 note keybed renders the instrument way too long to fit inside any case. There is also the general belief that an 88-note instrument is purchased primarily for it's pianistic appeal and that performance wheels, when provided at all, are more of a "bonus feature" to facilitate optimal use of non-piano-type sounds.
Thus, a compromise will generally be accepted by buyer's of 88 note synths/controllers. In the case of 61 or 76-key instruments however, these restrictions do not apply.
Chris, I think that most of us in this forum are interested in instruments which are easy to carry, and are concerned with the size and weight of the instruments. I will submit that the same logic which you apply to the 88-key instruments (which usually are not even portable enough to be frequently moved from gig to gig by a solo performer) should be applicable to the 76 key instruments (as in Ketron SD1).
However, there is also an alternative solution - Yamaha used it on one of the eraly PSRs, and I thought it was quite practical. They used a rotating cylinder under the keys, so that you could control it with your thumb or even a heel of your palm. I think this could be a good approach to keep the frame and size of the instrument short and light.
Another concern with the Neko/Liontracks - for any kind of studio functionality we would need a totally silent computer - no fans, and (preferrably) no disk. I am not sure that either one is addressing this problem.
Regareds,
Alex
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