I’ve been following the Rainboard for a while via YouTube videos and it’s official blog. And it looks like a really fun controller. It’s comprised of 61 RGB backlit arcade buttons housed in an acrylic unit, a touchstrip, and an accelerometer that adds some velocity sensitivity to the buttons. Most interestingly, it is designed to allow users to interact with music in a very different way than slightly comparable MIDI controllers thanks to it’s isomorphic keyboard layout. It can be played as an instrument (think: piano… guitar… and Ableton Push) as opposed to just being used as a controller, and since it’s a general purpose MIDI controller it can also be used with a computer, synthesizer, and iPad!

Through some simple comment stalking on YouTube (and this NAMM interview with Sound on Sound) I’ve been able to find out that (while it is still a long way from release) whenever it does hit the market it’ll retail for somewhere between $600 and $800 (USD).

I’ll try to keep with the work happening on it and post new info when it’s available. Meanwhile, feel free to follow Shiverware and the via the Shiverware website and the Rainboard’s official blog.