written by: karmacomposer
I, for one, am dying to get my hands on a Tau. However, the price is still too prohibitive for me.So - who's ordering this? I'm kinda on the bubble. It's somewhat more expensive in US dollars then they quoted at NAMM (what's up with THAT?) and the software is still a mess, so even though it's seems like what I've wanted, I may wait a little to see what happens to price and the software.
Or maybe not, he he.........
Tony
I'm still going for the Alpha :-)
I'd still love to know if ALL the 72 Tau keys are actually PLAYABLE keys by default - i.e. not dedicated to a function like the Pico scroll keys are. I've asked this question about 5 times already with no response. Can someone from Customer Support answer this?
For some reason, it seems like it's really hard to get pre-sales info here on product FUNCTIONALITY from Customer service. Tech support here, however, is fantastic. :)
Tony
Give them a call, they're very responsive on the phone.
That's a call from the USA though, and my cell phone can't do it. Too expensive on my land line.
Tony
Did you try the contact form, instead of posting on the forum?
I've not tried it THIS time, but I;ve probably send a message through the contact forum about 5 or 6 times over the last 4 months and have yet to received a response EVER, so I pretty much gave up on that.
Tony
Hi Tony
We're currently setting up the Tau factory setups in a similar manner to the Alpha, with the bottom row of playing keys used for overall functions, one of which will be a scroll key for the browser. The Tau does have the additional switch keys that will be usable as mode keys though, so we may not use the whole strip for this, and there's been some discussion here about making the scroll keys modal - ie, you have to push one of the switches to activate them which seems like a nice idea to me. We may well try this on the Pico in a setup beforehand as this would enable people to use the additional two keys for playing if they wish (although the natural fingering patterns for me on a Pico make this a bit daft - I'd rather wire them up as expression controllers). Given the key layout on the Tau is different to the Alpha or Tau, we're still experimenting with various options.
I hope that answers your questions. I'm concerned that you haven't had a response from your email to customer services - we really try to reply to 100% of incoming questions as fast as possible and please accept my apologies if we have not done so in this case. Could you let me know what actual address you sent your email to, so that I can try to track down the problem?
John
Thanks for the response!
I'm still a little confused though. Are you saying that it's possible that the entire bottom row of keys may not be available as note PLAYING keys? That's something like 16+ keys? Or am I misunderstanding?
I REALLY wish that ALL of the playing keys on the Tau (and the Pico as well) can be configured in some way to actually be playing keys, and that the mode keys can switch their functionality if needed.
Tony
I'd just like to add that not everyone uses the standard Pico fingering. I program my scales to run up the two rows, akin to a stringed instrument . I also use a mini trackball controller to operate the navigator... therefore I would love for the bottom two keys to be configured for playing.
Hi Tony
The key arrangements are actually very flexible - they're configured by our musicians not in software so I suspect that, as we do with the Alpha (but not yet the Pico) we'll ship with several Factory setups. I haven't yet personally had a chance to play with the first Tau setups so I'm not sure what makes sense for that, but there's no reason that we would not make part of the setups have all the keys in a playing keypgroup - there are enough mode switches that we can put the scroll keys in a subset of splits. The Alpha has some nice setups that allow nearly all the keyboard to be one big single instrument. I personally don't play it much like this but some people like it - it's particularly useful if you want to play chromatically over a wide range. There is nothing special about the scroll keys in this respect - the browser is just a desitination for those keys, they can be connected to an instrument quite easily.
I'll see if Sam has time in the next week or so to make a setup for the Pico that makes all the keys drive instruments in a secondary split - no reason at all this can't be done although we won't have time to document this or do a tutorial video in then near future. I did actually start off with the Pico Factory setup having all 18 keys drive sound but found the fingering a bit counterintuitive, needing a positional shift while playing, which I didn't like much. There was enough complexity in the first place that we just simplified it for first release, but we'll make a setup that allows the option.
Oh, and the mode key functions can also be easily rearranged. If you have some suggestions (on the Pico the ones that are easily modified are the metronome start/stop and the octave keys - I'm not sure how you'd survive without the main mode key) then I'll ask Sam to have a go at scripting them.
John
Thanks again for the reply and clarification!
I'm one that would like to play chromatically over a large range in the Tau, similar to most string instruments. Hopefully it ships with a factory setup for this with all 72 keys playing notes. :)
As for the Pico, once again what I've been dying for is to extend the range of this thing on the fly. To me, that would entail using those darn two scroll keys as playing keys (heck, it's not much of a stretch for the little finger at all), but also to have some kind of MODIFIER key that changes the played note to be a half step sharp or flat. This would allow me to be able to set the Pico in a scale mode but still play chromatically in I need an accidental. Having 18 keys with being able to shift each key up one half step is like having 30-36 keys (depending on the scale) without shifting octaves. I'm not sure which keys the modifiers would be though, as I also don't want to lose the octave keys. Ideally it'd be controlled with the thumb in some way as not to lose a playing hand - maybe the strip controller can be configured for this?
Tony
How much would the upgrade to an Alpha base station be ? It would be great to be able to control some things with pedals.
We have two things in the pipeline to increase the range of the Pico (or any group of keys on the Tau or Alpha) ranges. Firstly we have a feature ticket for a modification to the Stringer agent (the one that adds courses and course based polyphony control to groups of keys) to add fingerings in so that conventional wind instrument fingerings are possible for monophonic instruments. This will have the additional side effect of making it possible to play two sounds independently at once on the Pico by dividing the keyboard into to keygroups. The second feature ticket is for scale modifiers in the Scaler - I've talked about this elsewhere in the Forum before. There's no ETA on either of these features as yet but it'll be sometime in 2010. Lots of people (including me) want these, so it near the top of the queue.
I don't yet have a price on the Base Station upgrade but we'll try to make this available on the website as soon as possible. It'll probably (and please don't hold me to this!) be in the £2-300 range - the Alpha Base Station has a high grade PSU which makes it expensive to manufacture and test (multi territory safety testing and compliance has been a nightmare - I now understand why so many products ship with Wall Warts).
John
Just came across this thread when looking for information about the base stations...
Can you run an Alpha off of a Tau's base station?
Dear Tenebrous,
Yes you can run the Alpha off the Tau's base station should you wish to do so.
If you have any more questions about the Tau please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards
Aaron
Customer Support
I've sent a message via the contact page but I understand you guys are probably busy with Musikmesse ;)
I, for one, am dying to get my hands on a Tau. However, the price is still too prohibitive for me.
The Pico was JUST BARELY affordable for me, but I love how the Tau looks and is configured. I definitely would like more keys than the Pico provides.
My thinking is to get good at the Pico (practice, practice, practice) and then, when I save up enough $$$, purchase the Tau and go to town on it!!!
I barter (lol).
Mike
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