Programming a Light-Up Keyboard

[gnt]

Hi, I'm a software developer with an interest in music. I'm looking for a keyboard with light-up keys which I can control via external signals - ie: to adjust the lighting in real-time (not a pre-programmed file) in response to external input.

I gather this would be done through MIDI Sysex, which is highly manufacturer-specific and often poorly documented. I'm wondering what it would take to build something like this for, say, the Yamaha EZ-300 or some other keyboard with illuminating keys. I'm still in the exploratory stage and want to pick the best keyboard for this project - I don't currently own one.

Thanks for any help or suggestions about this!

 

[happyrat1]

Casio makes something similar with an LK prefix.

 

[Lee Borrell]

Not sure what you're trying to accomplish, as light up keyboards tend to respond to note numbers not sysx.
If lighting is your bag, midi is not specifically built for it, dmx is.
I have both midi lighting and dmx. I've not figured the dmx system but it's similar to midi. I suggest you look at dmx and midi light controllers like the ryger and njd stuff that exists. Ryger use midi to control lighting, which uses note velocity, the same thing that controls lighting keyboards.

 

[gnt]

Not sure what you're trying to accomplish, as light up keyboards tend to respond to note numbers not sysx.
If lighting is your bag, midi is not specifically built for it, dmx is.
I have both midi lighting and dmx. I've not figured the dmx system but it's similar to midi. I suggest you look at dmx and midi light controllers like the ryger and njd stuff that exists. Ryger use midi to control lighting, which uses note velocity, the same thing that controls lighting keyboards.

I've never actually used a light-up keyboard (I'm trying to decide if it's worth buying one for what I'd like to do), so this might be an obvious question, but - how do light-up keyboard differentiate between pitch and illumination? I would guess they are designed to process a .mid or .smf file, but illuminate the notes rather than playing the pitch.

For context, I'd like to do something like this: hook up two keyboards, (presumably via some sort of software interface) so that one illuminates the notes that are currently being played on the other. Not sure if this is at all possible with any existing illuminating keyboard, if what they do is just "play" a midi file.

 

[happyrat1]