Is it possible to control any Synth's keyboard via MIDI ?

[jjj]

If this is possible, manufacturers could create a couple plug-in keyboards, such as a Janko and Wicki/Hayden pattern. The latter then could be mapped to suit concertina and (button) CBA/ BCA accordion or any other configuration.
The keyboard could look like a PC Kbd and could be used with any MIDI Synth. At the moment only that lousy-sounding Chromatone Janko Synth is available. It's far too expensive. For that money I can buy a Yamaha Tyros 2 and adapt the awkward zebra piano Kbd to whatever layout I prefer.
The problem is that nobody thought of manufacturing the above type of adaptable Kbds... and it's a waste of time to hand-make them.
Incidentally, the Roland V-Accordions have got mappable Keyboards for CBA/BCA , but not for Janko or Wicki/Hayden.
These things were all impossible before the advent of computer music.
The very fact that a number of innovative Kbd layouts sprung up is, because it's about time to benefit from computer-age advantages.

In the concertina forum I argued around with a Russian born concertina freak ...until he threatened to return to Russia , who insists that PC music is bad for our health! Read more about it, here:
http://www.concertina.net/forums/ind...7328&start=100

[Enzo]

In general, any synth or synth sound module THAT IS MIDI COMPATIBLE can be controlled via MIDI. In other words it if has MIDI jacks, then it will be controllable by MIDI. Many old synths that predate MIDI and may or may not use CV interfaces, would not be then. They used to make MIDI kits you could install on many non-MIDI keyboards, and someone may still, but they were mostly to add MIDI send capability to older boards. For example you could add a MIDI out from a piano or an organ. It would not however allow the piano or organ to be played remotely via MIDI.

Midi controllers, which is what you are describing, come in all shapes and sizes. Many are conventional keyboards, but they also have controllers in the form of wind instruments like clarinet/sax. And percussion as in drum pads. And stringed instruments like guitar. Anything you can manipulate somehow turns that manipulation into MIDI note numbers. The receiving sound module then executes the note specified in whatever voice you select there. SO anything that spits out MIDI note numbers can play a MIDI sound module.

The problem is that nobody thought of manufacturing the above type of adaptable Kbds

No, people think of it. No one makes them because there is no market for them. A handful of people who might want one is not a market. Left handed guitars is just barely a market, and there are a hell of a lot more left handed guitarists out there percentage wise than there are keyboardists who want to play concertinas instead of legit piano keyboards..

The very fact that a number of innovative Kbd layouts sprung up is, because it's about time to benefit from computer-age advantages.

No, the reason they spring up is that unlike decades past, now it is cheaper to make odd things. With the advent of MIDI, you can make the controller only, without having to dedicate an entire synth to the odd keyboard. With advances in CAD and manufacturing, not to mention the entire east end of Asia working cheap, you can now knock out small runs of most anything without expensive tooling. THAT is what is new.

[jjj]

Thank you Enzo for your resourceful comments.

So in other words, anyone wanting to obtain a Janko Kbd is forced to buy the expensive Chromatona Synth or tinker his own plug-in Kbd!

The only way I can do it, is by mechanical means (as I already did!) or by parallel connecting a plug-in keyboard to my MIDI Synth.
I prefer the latter solution, because it allows me to shrink the size of a 61-key zebra Kbd by almost 20% (from 84 cm to a 67 cm) and to shorten the contact action time. The dynamic range of touch sensitive keys is futile.
Beside, exist there a "more elegant way" of connecting a plug-in Kbd to my MIDI Synth, other than via a separate Kbd encoder, such as http://www.largonet.net/midiboutique...s/products.htm ??
Yet, dynamic control of otherwise "dead" soundfonts is vital. It's just impossible to control rapid, subtle sound volume variations via left hand bellow movements, the way accordion/ bandoneon etc. players handle it via touch-sensitive keys. My idea is:
To use an old 120-button accordion bass box for manual and automatic accompaniment. There it would be possible to suspend the bass box control via springs in a frame.
By pressing down or shaking the whole box volume/ tremolo variations could be introduced (...just like accordion players do). A lever attached to the bass box then varies a lasting vinyl potentiometer or the light source from the Morley volume pedal (freely available schematic) using one (only) PH resistor for stereo.
Below is my latest idea on using Klavarskribo with a Janko Keyboard: