

It never took off, but you would have thought that the idea of being able to enter the world of technology from your piano keyboard had legs.

This was a three-octave bar with little switches that sat on top of a piano keyboard: when you played a key, a switch moved down with the key and sent a signal down a wire to what I seem to recall was a control box with preset sounds.

In the early pre-MIDI '80s, someone came out with a product called the 'Pianomate' or suchlike. So what if you just can't do without the real thing, but need to have your notes output as MIDI? Enter the Piano Bar from Bob Moog and Don Buchla. Even the best weighted keyboards and sample libraries offer only an approximation to the feel and sound of an old-fashioned piano.
