Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Breath Controller with Keyboard/MIDI Melodica: Is there one?

Looking for a breath controller with a mini piano style keyboard. Has anyone ever made one, currently or otherwise?

I'm pretty sure Yamaha has made several models - however they are uncommon outside of Japan or possibly Europe. I think the one Yamaha made is called "Pianica", and I have seen them in a variety of colours.

You can search for them at Yahoo Japan Auctions, but you possibly need to enter the Japanese name of both Yamaha and Pianica into the search box.

check out Chicken Man playing a Pianica:
Chicken Man and Pianica

Ed

Looks like that's just an acoustic instrument. Looking for something like that which transmits MIDI.

..How about an Eigenharp?

http://www.eigenlabs.com/

Although not strictly a mini-piano keyboard, they're pretty damned cool!

Looks cool! But something with a mini-piano keyboard would be so "pick-up-and-play" for me. Nothing like this has been manufactured ever?

Yeah, I agree that a piano keyboard would be better, although I believe the buttons can be configured in a similar manner on the Eingenharp. All those buttons are soft-keys so they can be assigned to any pitch or function you so desire. Expensive though.

you got me looking around and I stumbled on this page, which discusses how to make a MIDI Melodica or similar device.

http://www.melodicas.com/melodica_is_a_wind_instrument_cr.htm

Try out these guys:

http://www.patchmanmusic.com/

Although you'd have to fix a solution together somehow. I reckon it actually wouldn't be too hard, however, the proof is in the making I guess.

It'd certainly enable a greater degree of expression from a MIDI module / keyboard / synth. ............... not to mention look bloody cool on stage!

My apologies for misunderstanding the requirements. It seems some of Yamaha's keytars starting from KX-1 support an external breath controller.