Xavier Dumont's Isomorphic Keyboard Is an Espressif ESP32-Powered Breath-Driven Thing of Wonder

Maker and musician Xavier Dumont has designed a DIY keyboard with a difference: not only does it use an isomorphic layout designed specifically for musical tinkering, but each key is velocity-sensitive — and you can use your breath as an input.

"This [is] an isomorphic keyboard with 48 individually-lit, velocity sensitive keys, breath control, and display screen," Dumont explains of his creation. "The build consists of three custom PCBs, a machined aluminum case, and 3D-printed keycaps. It has configurable layouts and color patterns, and velocity settings."

DIY keyboards are nothing new in the maker sphere, of course, but Dumont's creation isn't designed with text entry in mind. Inspired by the Lumatone, it's an isomorphic keyboard — a layout that provides a two-dimensional grid of note controls, which map sequences to key-shapes shiftable across keys, octaves, and tunings. Unlike a standard text-entry keyboard with digital keys, each key is also analog — providing data on the velocity at which it was pressed, rather than just whether it has been activated or not.

Inside the housing are a keyswitch and a central "brain" board, each featuring an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller. Each key has an RGB LED beneath it for reactive lighting, and rather than a mechanical switch uses a Hall-effect sensor — allowing for variable inputs. "The more you press [a key]," Dumont explains, "the more the signal changes, and what I'm doing is detecting the rate of change of each key press and I use that to determine the velocity."

The final board of the trio is a "breath board," featuring a pressure sensor linked to a tube. Blow into the tube, and the keyboard treats it as an input — turning the device into a wind-driven MIDI instrument as well as an isomorphic keyboard. "The entire design is fairly straightforward," Dumot says of the project as a whole. "[It's] designed to be modular […] if I wanted to make a bigger version I could just buy more of these boards, more switches, assemble it, and that's it."

More information is available in the video embedded above and on Dumont's YouTube channel, as well as the project's Reddit thread; design files and source code have not been released, but Dumont has expressed interest in making the design available in kit form in the future.