Discontinuing TouchKeys production

[Andrew McPherson]

Hi TouchKeys community,

I thought I should share with you all the unfortunate news that I have decided to stop producing TouchKeys kits and instruments. It has been awhile since the kits were in stock anyway, but after consulting with the other members of the company, we've decided to cease commercial operations rather than invest in further production runs.

A variety of factors went into that decision, including the global semiconductor shortages and associated costs, and also other demands on my own time which make it infeasible to continue giving TouchKeys the level of attention it deserves.

For existing TouchKeys customers, I hope to continue supporting your hardware and software as best I can. I may not continue monitoring in...@touchkeys.co.uk, as the email gets a large volume of spam, so please contact me via my website andrewmcpherson.org or using other emails you might have for me from previous communications.

As a reminder, the TouchKeys software is open source and available at the following link: https://github.com/apmcpherson/touchkeys

I don't have plans to add more features in the future, but I'd welcome any contributions from the community if you have the interest and skills to contribute to the code base. If I'm able to continue supplying bug fixes and updates to keep TouchKeys running on new OSes, I will try my best to do so. In practice I am most easily to provide Mac builds for TouchKeys as this is the platform I use; Windows updates are likely to be more infrequent unless someone wants to volunteer to make updated builds when I push updates the source.

I still receive regular queries from interested customers, so if anyone is ever looking to sell a used TouchKeys keyboard or unused kit, let me know the details of your instrument and I can try to connect you to an interested buyer.

Thank you for all your support over the years! Even though I'm not taking the technology further, I've learned a tremendous amount and I'm happy with what we've collectively showed to be possible musically. I hope your instruments continue to serve you well for many years to come.

Best wishes,
Andrew

[RadBrad S]

Andrew!!!! This is a terrible idea… aghhh!
I’m just joking, but not really though… I have been playing the touch keys a lot lately, and they are the best thing that’s happened to music in a very long time, hands down! I was really hoping to see a full on new instrument with touch keys already embedded in the keys themselves. I picture a beautiful sleek design with a mid size screen to manipulate the software. I know people would buy this, no doubt in my mind… in fact I own 2 kits and I am one of the individuals who is looking for more kits. Preferably another 88key kit, but I will settle for any size really.
Andrew, I honestly do love this technology! And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making your dream a reality and sharing it with all of us. I do believe you and your team and this amazing tech never got the recognition it deserved from the mainstream. Perhaps that was never your intention??
I sincerely hope you reconsider your decision in the future! I will be praying that I will be one of the first to own a Touch Keys MKII…
Much love!
-Brad Sawaya


Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 15, 2023, at 6:12 AM, Andrew McPherson <andrew.p....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi TouchKeys community,

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[Joan Touzet]

Hey Andrew,

Thanks for all your hard work over the years.

Would you consider open sourcing the PCBs, schematics and gerbers as well?

Cheers,
Joan

[Andrei Kudryavtsev]

Agree with Joan, 

it would be helpful for all of us left without spares. 

[Andrew McPherson]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your supportive messages!

Regarding open-sourcing the technology, it is not in my immediate plans (except for the software which is already open source), though it is something I'll consider in the future. I do have a sufficient stock of spare parts to handle replacements for existing users for a while.

Open source designs aren't a panacea in the maintenance department -- to properly be able to build and test a device requires either existing familiarity with the build process (which is mainly limited to myself) or an intensive documentation effort to transfer all of that knowledge to someone else. Even then, my experience is that it's rarely feasible to properly support an open-source project without dedicating plenty of time for Q&A. Unfortunately, the problem in the first instance is that I don't have enough time for all the projects I'd like to do!

Although I'm not planning on building and selling further kits at the moment, I still believe in the potential of the technology. If someone else wants to take TouchKeys forward commercially in one form or another, I am very open to having a conversation about how that could work. In the meantime, the time I have for the project will be focused on making sure that existing players are supported as best I can, so lots more great music can be made with TouchKeys in the coming years.

Best wishes,
Andrew

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