Getting a custom macro keyboard for Reason (longread).

[Bonkhead]

Tldr; After browsing the web for a over week looking for a way to enhance my workflow I just bought a relative cheap programmable keyboard which will be here soon.

First I dove into motorized fader controllers (x touch, mcu pro, icon platform/qcon, command 8). Not always rock solid and often pricey was the conclusion. Eventually via a second hand marketplace I was offered a mackie control pro for 380 euro's but that had firmware v3.0 with the older obsolete faders (60 euro's a piece to repair). Couldn't justify that price for a 9+ year old midi controller. The Command 8 looks nice and the price is cheap, with some scripting done by a reasontalk forum user to make it work, but still couldn't pull the trigger on something that big to put on my desk. I backup up and analyzed my workflow, and the bottlenecks in my workflow. I often do everything in the insert slots building combi's and mostly use my keyboard shortcuts (ctrl + x,c,v,k. shift alt mousescroll etc.). And also switching a lot between mixer, rack, sequencer, file browser. It's sometimes distracting looking at my keyboard to exactly press the right key, and I always forget which one is zoom in or zoom out (g,h). I need to simplify those mouse- and keyclicks. The Elgato streamdecks looks ok, but the buttons are still rather small and I don't need fancy LCD keys. The Elgato streamdeck XL (32 buttons) is 249 euro's. That's 7,78 euro/key.

So after some research I got into programmable "point of sale" (pos) keyboards for gas stations, restaurants, airports, shops etc. The choice is rather small when it comes to brands to pick, to name a few:
- Active Key: https://activekeyboards.eu/Programmable ... s:::8.html
- PrehKeyTec: https://www.prehkeytec.com/products/keyboards/
- XKeys: https://xkeys.com/xkeys/keys.html
- Genovation: https://store.genovation.com/index.php/ ... ables.html

I found a second hand PrehKeyTec MCI 128 for 100 euro's which is on its way. That's 0,78 euro/keyspace.
The most important reason to choose this one is it is also easy to get extra wide 2x and 4x keysize keys to customize it.
Having big 4x keysize keys to bang on to get into the mixer, rack, sequencer already puts a smile on my face.
I could use 4x size keys and get the same amount of buttons as the streamdeck XL, but less finicky to use. Just slam 'm like they are arcade buttons. Also combining shift+leftmouse click on a key with my lefthand so I only need to move the mouse on faders and knobs is something to look forward to. And to make the transport easier, cloning the numpad functions on bigger keys.

Some examples of the MCI 128:






There is also the smaller mci 84, but I couldn't find that unit second hand. I'll keep you people posted of my experience with this keyboard.

Anybody used these kind of (pos) keyboards before for Reason ?