Elsewhere I tell you how to make a pedalboard from scratch and add the electronics. Here I tell you how to make a classical looking two manual keyboard out of a couple of standard, and so cheap, MIDI keyboard controllers. Here's how it works. You buy two MIDI keyboard controllers, in my case, my client wanted a 61 key manual for the great and a 49 key manual for the swell. You will see from the pictures that this produces a very neat, compact layout.
But, I hear you say, 'What is a MIDI keyboard controller and is it the same as those MIDI digital keyboards floating about in junk shops etc?' There is a difference. A keyboard controller is just a keyboard that sends MIDI signals to whatever is going to make the noises. A MIDI keyboard player makes the noises as well. You can probably take the keyboards out of these and use them in the same way as I shall go on to describe. However, that's not described here. Here I use an M-Audio Keystation 61es and its 49 key sister. The former I bought for £170 from Amazon and the latter came out of a local junk shop for £10! You should be able to get what you need online or via Ebay etc at a reasonable price. Apart from the wood for the casing there's nothing else to buy. Cables come with the keyboards.
When you get the keyboard controller home, you turn it upside down and undo all the outer screws so you can split the plastic case to expose the keyboard and some computer boards and controls. If you are going to use Hauptwerk or Miditzer on your PC, you don't need the volume and wheel controls and they just unplug. However, you will see that there is a control panel in the upper half of the case. This sets the Octave and allows access to advanced settings. You can also unplug and discard this but I recommend that you keep it. It allows some configuring that might be useful, setting channels or changing which octave range each manual uses. Unscrew the circuit board and leave it floating. The volume and wheel controls you can leave on the case top for now.
What is now left, still in the bottom half of the case, is what you are going to use. You now unscrew the main computer board (the encoder that turns keystropkes into MIDI signals). The keyboard itself has a frame and two rows of support stalks. Unscrew to liberate the keyboard and encoder from the casing. Do exactly the same for the 49 (or other 61 key) keyboard. You now have your two manuals with encoder boards and octave panels floating about on flat cables. The volume controls and wheels are unplugged from the encoder boards and sit out of the way in the case tops.
You are pretty well there, now! The rest is just woodwork to whatever level you want. You need a base board for the 61 key board and a bridging board to carry the upper and overlapping 49 key board. The nominal upper board position is 2.5 (63.5mm)inches above the lower and the front of its keys should be 4.25 inches (108mm)further back than the lower. Arrange the baseboards and screw the keyboards to them to arrange this and allow for the floating encoder boards to sit side by side, or one above the other. The octave boards will still be floating around at this stage but think about where you will fix them and carefully adjust cable runs to allow for secure positioning later. You can cut the labelling and button holders out of the plastic cases ready to fit into your own casing for a neat, professional look. This is a good place to smooth any sharp moulding edges off the keyfronts with very fine wet and dry paper (a minor fault with my M-Audio keyboards).
Now set the keyboards up with your PC and Hauptwerk or Miditzer, and your pedalboard if you have one. Plug in the cables and you should be good to go, given a little configuring and manual digging, if required. If all is well, you can just get on with finishing the casing and you are done. There you have a custom built, brand new two-manual keyboard block for well under £300 plus the cost of casing materials.
Click here for pictures of how I did it
Click here for a Swedish 3 manual version
Here's the panelling under construction
The empty bit is for books and the console goes between the wings.
Pedalboard, PC and woofer will go under the desktop
