I've been working on a side project for the last couple years that finally reached the point where I'm comfortable showing people.
It's called KEEZI, and it's essentially a hardware companion for MIDI keyboards that's comprised of an LED strip and a touchscreen. It can visualize scales, chords, incoming MIDI from a DAW, and a bunch of other tools that are a mix of educational, fun, or just helpful for creating.
The whole project started because I got tired of looking up scale diagrams or putting stickers on my keyboard whenever I wanted to experiment outside of C major. or A minor. I wanted the keyboard itself to show me the notes instantly. There were keyboards that have lights but they're expensive and I didn't want to be locked in to a specific keyboard. I found a post on this subreddit where someone had made something similiar but it wasn't available to actually purchase.
I put together a prototype pretty quickly that showed me scales on the LEDs and later decided I'd try to make it an actual product and add more features. I ended up learning PCB design, 3D printing, and a bunch of other stuff I had no idea I had to do to make a prototype into an actual product. My degree is in electrical engineering but my career is in factory automation, so there was lots of new things to learn.
One workflow I think is really cool is sending different MIDI tracks from Ableton to the LED strip so each instrument shows up as a different color across the keys. It makes it much easier to visualize what's happening in your track without staring at the piano roll.
I'm especially interested in hearing what doesn't seem useful, or what workflows you think I'm completely missing. Honest criticism is welcome.
I manufactured my first batch recently, and now that people besides me can finally use it, I'm realizing there are probably workflows I've never even considered.
I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from people who spend a lot of time making music. If you'd like to see it in action, I put together a few demo videos at keezishop.com
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