The Mellotron features prominently on the 1968 album, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, more commonly referred to as The Village Green Preservation Society. The weird, eerie quality of this electronic keyboard, which uses pre-recorded tapes of individual sounds such as strings and woodwind instruments, worked well with singer/songwriter Ray Davies' nostalgic, backwards looking sensibility. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Jan 16, 2009 - 26 comments

Keyboardist Danny Federici, founding member of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, has died.
posted by digaman on Apr 17, 2008 - 44 comments

Dead musical instruments... brought back to life by YouTube? Check out this mellotron demo film, a rare trautonium keyboard in some guy's garage, trautonium music by composer Oskar Sala, an original Ondes Martenot, a documentary on the telharmonium (parts 1, 2, and 3), and the Sonovox (used to funny but not-suitable-for-work effect in this parody of Sparky's Magic Piano). Meanwhile, avant-gardists have revived the art of prepared piano, but more mainstream acts such as Tori Amos and Ferrante & Teicher have also experimented with it. Last but not least, another performer of prepared piano is Margaret Leng Tan, but I think she should get more accolades as the best virtuoso of the toy piano since Schroeder from Peanuts.
posted by jonp72 on Jan 31, 2008 - 14 comments

Some people care about their keyboards. The Northgate OmniKey (now resurrected) was once legendary. There are those who mourn the passing of the space cadet keyboard and its successors, and those who campaign for its revival. The late, lamented (though not by everyone) Apple Extended Keyboard was finally recreated.

But, for the purist, there is only one true keyboard, the best ever made: the IBM Model M. [more inside]
posted by enn on Nov 3, 2007 - 124 comments

The Sancho Plan "create live audiovisual performances and installations for your listening and viewing pleasure." Spacequatica, recently performed at Martyn Ware's Future of Sound event, is an intriguing mix of live sound and animations triggered by electronic drums -- worth a few minutes on a Friday.
posted by diastematic on Jun 8, 2007 - 5 comments

You may have never heard of it, but you've damn near certain heard it. The Mellotron (FortuneCity link) is a keyboard instrument; each of its keys triggers a tape with a pre-recorded instrument on it. It was effectively the world's first sample player. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 7, 2006 - 38 comments

The Top Ten Weirdest Keyboards
posted by Falconetti on Apr 4, 2006 - 24 comments

"Circuit bending is the electronic art of the implementation of the creative audio short-circuit. This renegade path of electrons represents a catalytic force capable of exploding new experimental musical forms forward at a velocity previously unknown. Anyone at all can do it; no prior knowledge of electronics is needed." - Reed Ghazala. More proselytizing from Ghazala, and a LiveJournal for up-to-the-minute advice, feedback and opinions.
posted by jon_kill on Jan 28, 2004 - 20 comments

A keyless keyboard designed to reduce RSI and other typing related injuries - sounds interesting, but slow, and of course useless for gaming. Bit pricey as well.
posted by Orange Goblin on Jul 23, 2003 - 14 comments

What lies beneath. Confirming what you probably already knew, "as we juggle eating, drinking and working at our work stations, the tight shadowy crevices between our keyboard become the computer equivalent of a black hole, sucking in pizza toppings, contact lenses, paper clips, the odd insect...". Germ freakery or a genuine hygiene concern?
posted by netsirk on Sep 30, 2002 - 43 comments

An astonishingly obvious advance in interface design Your mobile phone's keyboard has been rendered obsolete by this inspired rethinking of buttons and the spaces between them. The manifacturer's home page is here
posted by hmgovt on May 20, 2002 - 40 comments

I've been using a folding, portable keyboard with my Visor for about a year now. Very handy. On Monday, Siemens unveiled an even more portable one at CeBIT. (My first post. Hope it's appropriate.)
posted by dobbs on Mar 22, 2002 - 32 comments

Who needs 204 keys? I know I do. Damned shift keys. [via the big H.]
posted by jcterminal on Aug 22, 2001 - 19 comments

Where's the dubya? Shenanigans by departing whitehouse staffers.
posted by ritualdevice on Jan 23, 2001 - 18 comments