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I recently bought an Intuitive Instruments Exquis, thanks to my wife.

The documentation for this controller is a little fragmented and curt, so I am sharing here some succinct notes on how to configure and use it.

Writing Exquis notation

I find the characters ⬡ (U+2b21) and ⬢ (U+2b22) useful for writing out chord shapes or similar.

In the default layout, this is how you can play an open minor triad (0 + 7 + 15).

 ⬡ ⬢
⬡ ⬡ ⬡
 ⬢ ⬡
⬡ ⬡ ⬡
 ⬢ ⬡

I don’t know what standards exist for defining layouts, but privately, I’ve been using the convention [±n/±m], where n is how many semitones you move when you move 1 hex to the right, and m is how many you move when you move up-right.

The default layout is thus [+1/+4], which can be visualised as follows.

    ⬡
+4 ↗
  ⬢ → ⬡
   +1

Configuring the keyboard

Buttons

I’ll refer to the encoders by their number, starting from the left. "Turn" means rotate the knob; "click" means press it.

The "gear" button ⚙︎ is the "keyboard settings" button, which is really just a grab bag of stuff that includes both "technical" (MIDI clock, LED brightness) and "musical" (tonic, scale) aspects. The "squiggle" button ∿ is the "MIDI and layout settings" button.

Shortcuts

  • MIDI output

    • Toggle MPE/poly aftertouch (aka non-MPE): ∿ + click 1

    • Choose MIDI output channel (poly aftertouch mode): ∿ + turn 1

      • Set to 1 to use with non-MPE hardware while retaining some pitch bend facility

    • Choose number of MPE channels: ∿ + turn 1

  • Keyboard layout

    • Change note layout: ∿ + turn 3

      Click for list of layouts

      1. Default

      2. Default with duplicates

      3. Chromatic

      4. 4×4 drum pads

      5. General MIDI percussion

      6. Rainbow

    • Adjust tonic note: ⚙︎ + turn 2

    • Adjust scale: ⚙︎ + turn 3

      Click for list of scales

      1. Major

      2. Natural Minor

      3. Melodic Minor

      4. Harmonic Minor

      5. Dorian

      6. Phrygian

      7. Lydian

      8. Mixolydian

      9. Locrian

      10. Phrygian dominant

      11. Major Pentatonic

      12. Minor Pentatonic

      13. Whole Tone

      14. Chromatic

    • Transpose keyboard stepwise: ⚙︎ + ⌃︎/⌄︎

  • Adjust tempo: ⚙︎ + turn 1

  • Hardware

    • Adjust sensitivity: ⚙︎ + click & turn 4

    • Adjust brightness: ⚙︎ + turn 4