Yesterday I was chatting on the internets with two gentlemen (I think) herr_prof and k9d-925. Our intention was caught about and Arduino synth with Stylophone input method. That and a hex input methods like this and the Thummer these pages and all those Arduino synth’s that is coming out now made us fuse together an idea of making a hex input device for the Arduino. perhaps as a shield. Yes a shield. As I see it there are three solutions.
1. make a shield with touch plate and a pen. old school Stylophone style. Pro’s Easy to make, easy to build and dead cheap. Cold use many pins. Introvert playing. Only one not at the time.
2. Same as above but with buttons. Removes the con’s of one note at the time, and you could be more expressive. But it’s more expensive.
3. A touch-screen. like on the Nintendo DS or. It’s 9 dollars but you only need 4 lines to it. Or a touch pad from a laptop. Pro’s less pins from the Arduino, still easy to make use. The touch pad is transparent so you could put different layouts behind it. It’s also customizable that way, and you probably cold use all the different synths easier for the Arduino since it’s already uses so few pins (like the critter and guitari piano shield) still, it’s pretty introvert.