KMI- Keith Mcmillen

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Has anyone bought and received a KMI k-board pro 4 ? They cost around 600 bucks from what I have found . I have listened to all the promo stuff on U-tube ,and the instrument interests me .Would like to hear from someone who owns one and there honest opinion on how they are to play ,build quality , etc. Have they actually been sent out to the public ? Any info would be appreciated and thanks
 

happyrat1

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I've never heard of it before reading this thread.

Here's a vid for all the other clueless people out there.


It looks to me like it's pretty much a ripoff of the Roli Seabord.


There is a seaboard user here on the forums but I can't recall his name at the moment.

As for the K-Board? Are they even shipping yet or are these all pre-release vids we're looking at?

Gary ;)
 

happyrat1

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Apparently it's still a kickstarter project and only prototypes have been put out for review.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kmi/k-board-pro-4-smart-fabric-keyboard

Seeing as they've only raised less than $60,000 USD for production I wouldn't hold my breath on this ever seeing the light of day.

Another one was the VAX MIDI Controller on the kickstarter road to hell of good intentions.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1200817609/vax-midi-keyboard-controller

The prototypes looked beautiful. They finally shipped them out as a kit last year with so many design and production flaws that they ultimately killed the project.

My advice is don't give them any money until you can buy one at Guitar Center. :p

Gary ;)
 
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Hey, sorry I'm late to the party.

Looks very interesting. I'm really excited for all these new experiments in keyboard tech. Here are my thoughts. The Seaboard is pretty different from a keyboard, built from the ground up to put the player in a different mode of playing. The lack of distinct keys is very purposeful, it drags the player (kicking and screaming) out of traditional piano territory, where frankly, most of these products don't excel. The K-board takes a much more conservative approach, and while it might look initially attractive, it might be a somewhat limiting and disheartening. i.e.: the Seaboard is an absolutely terrible piano, but no one cares because it doesn't try to be one.

Now, one of the caveats of a Seaboard is playing vibrato on the B/C and E/F keys. On these particular keys, the distance to a half step is twice as far as it is for all other keys, so vibratos are quite a bit reduced, you have to train yourself to be more aggressive on those keys. Since the K-board's shape doesn't really allow for glissandos between notes, it may approach each note individually, in which all vibrato zones can be tweaked to be identical, even if the key is a "half step key". This is an advantage, but sacrifices one-hand glissandos.

Like any instrument, it takes time to really work with it's idiosyncrasies. Any instrument you learn to work with. And most advantages also come with disadvantages too.

Personally, I'm far more excited about the Neova ring controller, which is the first and only kickstarter campaign I've actually funded. It handedly reached its first stretch goal, was incredibly well received at NAMM. Totally different concept than the rest, very original. Love the idea of being able to play any controller, but with expression.
 
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Ouch, I took a closer look at their Kickstarter page, and it looks pretty dubious. Supposedly they had originally planned to deliver by Sept 2017. Since then, there have been a number of comments from the company, but they are hidden from anyone but backers. That's pretty shady. Suspect they've had trouble and are trying to calm people down. $57k is low, but their original goal was $50k. That sounds low, but I wouldn't know. Also it's likely they've got other funding beyond the kickstarter campaign. But the fact that they blew past their deadline after they already supposedly set a fairly long deadline in the first place and are only responding to backers is pretty suspicious.
 

happyrat1

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Let's face it. $60K is about a half a mill short of opening a Burger King, much less setting up a reliable production and supply chain. :p

They're going to have to make a lot of serious compromises even if they were to sell these in kit form.

Considering the Roli Seaboard is a proven product sold in reputable stores and new skews coming out every year I'd say if the OP is looking for an expressive instrument then the Seaboard is probably his best bet.

Roli has been making serious efforts in the past couple of years to bring down their price point and offer budget alternatives.

I vaguely remember when the Seaboard came out as a kickstarter as well but they somehow managed to get the product from prototype to market in record time.

Now their latest product, the modular Seaboard Block sells for a measly $299 USD.

https://roli.com/products/blocks/seaboard-block

These guys were first to market and they ran with it.

Gary ;)
 
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Without a doubt. Roli are probably my hero company right now. Along with Audio Modeling (which actually share an employee). And they've been positively unbelievable in how they've been able to bring down their prices in record time. They've run an incredibly operation, their target marking has been on the nose, they've done a fantastic job catering to both pros and novices without alienating either.

Keep in mind that behind almost every successful kickstarter campaign, there's probably 3x the money being matched by the employees along with bank loans and other campaigns. By-in-large what Kickstarter really ends up being is a good marketing platform. It gives you a reason to hype your project on a public forum, get people involved by pre-ordering and tracking it, and creates a springboard for modern social media and blogs. You also can get user feedback and collect beta testers. I'm not saying this to defend the above product here, but that it's kind of difficult to judge a product's success on a kickstarter alone.

Keith McMillen isn't a startup, either. They've been around since 2005 and have released a number of successful products. I also just learned that Keith founded Zeta and developed the famous line of electric string instruments back in the late 70s. This is not his first rodeo. In fact, by comparison, Roli are the new kids. That said, even if this does pan out, I suspect Roli have the superior product.
 

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