If you don’t need anything fancy, both the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 and the Logitech UltraX Premium Keyboard are great. They probably have the best price/quality ratio out there, since they are only around 15 or 20 dollars.
For $15-20 they most likely don’t deal with keyboard ghosting well.
Which is kind of handy if they do, especially if you want to play chords on the keyboard.
Easy test, press Q-E-T at the same time (in other words a C-E-G chord).
Unless the keyboard deals with ghosting well or not at all then you’ll only hear two of the keyed sounds.
Another reason to buy that expensive gaming keyboard 
I have the Logitech UltraX myself and I really love the overall feel of it, but it does suffer a little bit from this ghosting issue. It’s no problem to press Q-E-T together - in fact I can even manage Q-E-T-U-O-[ and some other weird combos. In some areas it’s possible to press 6 keys at once, but in other areas it’s limited to 2 or 3.
You can play around with this test applet:
http://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/KeyboardGhostingDemo.mspx
Yup, it differs from keyboard model to keyboard model how it deals with ghosting and there are other tests 
Since FPS-games is “quite” popular most companies need to deal with it better and better I guess.
But if I look back to the keyboards I used just a couple of years ago, it was quite few who did it well.
I use Logitech Illuminated. Perfect for work!!! I haven`t seen better for ages and it even glows in a dark 
Has anyone used: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emprex-5105GU-Gaming-Keyboard/dp/B002GP7HTO/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2IE0DYYGXPRS&colid=101IRXE8JLQO4
Were these the Dell ones mentioned: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emprex-5105GU-Gaming-Keyboard/dp/B002GP7HTO/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2IE0DYYGXPRS&colid=101IRXE8JLQO4
I believe we should have a computer keyboard that goes hand-in-hand with Renoise.
I am about to make one here:
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/104-key-cherry-mx-keycap-set.html
It needs a bit of a know-how in order to use the software and the templates they give you, if you want to make your own.
I was wondering if anyone here has done something similar? I have seen somewhere in the pictures section, someone who had changed the keycaps to black and whites with respect to the piano (sharps being black - the other white).
Using the above manufacturers website, we can print out the note name i.e. C, C#,D,D#, E etc. while still keeping the standard characters on the key,having two small characters printed on the key. Also, have a symbol for the metronome and others.
After giving it a try - I can say - it is easy to get the grasp of how to make a keyboard layout. I haven’t tried how to change the colours of the keys yet, but after seeing the gallery section on their page, I bet it’s easily editable.
I like the idea and I will make a template for Renoise use. This keyboard will be second to my main one, which also has G keys (logitech term for macro keys) G510s, and it works wonders! Adding a keyboard to the usb hub is nothing and will give me access to a mechanical keyboard, customly built for Renoise.
If you decide to do the same, it would be nice to share the template for Inkscape here? so we can edit the layers and built more and more…
The Esc key will definetely be red. No need to mention white and black keys. Then, grey for the F1-8, and other grey shade for the F9-12?
After giving it a try - I can say - it is easy to get the grasp of how to make a keyboard layout. I haven’t tried how to change the colours of the keys yet, but after seeing the gallery section on their page, I bet it’s easily editable.
I like the idea and I will make a template for Renoise use. This keyboard will be second to my main one, which also has G keys (logitech term for macro keys) G510s, and it works wonders! Adding a keyboard to the usb hub is nothing and will give me access to a mechanical keyboard, customly built for Renoise.If you decide to do the same, it would be nice to share the template for Inkscape here? so we can edit the layers and built more and more…
The Esc key will definetely be red. No need to mention white and black keys. Then, grey for the F1-8, and other grey shade for the F9-12?
I will be in the market for a new keyboard soon I think (as my current one is showing signs of wear), interested in how this goes. I like your ideas for color coding, on a black keyboard it would look good as well as being functional. The option to have glowing keys would be cool (not sure if this is possible). I also like the idea of marking out notes, metronome etc.
I decided I am going to put the effort and design the keyboard, decide on whatever parameters I have access to, as in the type of components, the standad of layout 104 or 105,(from my own observation, the 105 is the keyboard with the whole Enter keycap. This should make it one button less, so why not 103? I don’t know).
As I said, this keyboard will be a second keyboard attached to the usb hub, so when I switch the usb hub with my midi controllers on it, from my mac to the pc laptop, I will still have a keyboard on my mac, plus the renoise keyboard on my pc laptop. I will be using the second monitor screen in a similar fashion.
I would kindly ask for any considerations I should take into account while building this little project. I am currently following the guide of WASD keyboards, using inkscape and their template file.
What mechanism would you recommend ? Blue, red, blacks?
Concerning the above:
A month ago I picked up a SteelSeries Apex RAW/300, which so far I really like. My main objective was to find a full-size keyboard that is suitable for gaming (anti-ghosting for at least the most commonly used keys in games) and that has flat keys. Low-profile keys, almost like on quality laptops. That ruled out mechanical keyboards, and pretty much reduced the choice to almost nothing, at least for stuff that is easily findable over here.
The Apex RAW is pretty bulky and heavy, and feels tank-like; not suitable for crowded desks. It is very responsive (like all new membrane keyboards) and has a ton of extra keys for user-defined macros. Took me a few days not to hit those extra keys when trying to use shift and control, but that phase went by fast. It has a curiously large space bar, which isn’t as obnoxious or in the way as it seems. Large escape key, too.
I paid around €70, which is pretty much the absolute maximum I’m comfortable paying for keyboards. You can get entry level mechanical keyboards at that price point too, which probably last longer, but I do like low profile keys. And I like to replace my keyboard every so often, so cheap is better (easier than not snacking and drinking at the computer, though so far my new year resolution still stands, swaying, but upright!).
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