Instruments
TouchKeys
TouchKeys is a capacitive sensor system which transforms a MIDI keyboard into a multi-touch control surface. Sensors on the key surfaces measure where you place your fingers, and software converts this data into MIDI or OSC control messages for a synth or DAW, with flexible data mappings. An important advantage of TouchKeys is that it retains the familiar feel of the piano keyboard while augmenting its capabilities.
Starting from a 2013 Kickstarter campaign, TouchKeys was available commercially until 2022 in the form of DIY kits and prebuilt keyboards. It was featured in over two dozen press articles. TouchKeys has been discontinued from production, but the open-source mapping software remains available, and secondhand kits sometimes become available. Trill, an open-source hardware tool also coming out of the lab, offers similar capacitive touch sensing capability for a wide variety of maker applications.
