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TimeOfDeath

how to turn my computer keyboard into a music keyboard?

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Do you guys use any programs where you can play keyboards (music) with your computer keyboard by remapping the keys to play music notes?

I'd like to record keyboards and use them in music. I have a music keyboard with different sounds but it's old and crappy with terrible sound quality. Programming midi keyboards in Powertab works great, but I like playing the keyboard much better. I don't want to buy a new music keyboard or a midi keyboard to hook up to the computer, so are there programs that I can play keyboards with my computer keyboard?

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There are virtual pianos out there but I can't say I recommend any. I prefer manual note entry even to the one that comes with my MIDI software. You may want to look into a full-fledged MIDI interface with your keyboard if that's your intent.

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I'm not sure how well it will work: usually keyboards have a quite strict limit on the number of keys that can be pressed at the same time. You might not be able to play a lot of accords.

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I recall that a lot of module trackers (e.g. TheraMed, Screamtracker, etc.) actually had a crude "piano mode" which mapped one or two octaves to the alphanumeric keys.

E.g. "Z" would be C, "S" would be C#, "X" would be D and so on. Didn't think it was something special....I thought nearly all computer MIDI and MOD editors had it.

This "piano mode" usually was on by default, and for some programs it was also the only way to enter notes. You could enter them either singly, or in real time, with the pattern scrolling according to the selected tempo (one channel at a time, of course).

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Yeah, I do it the way maes described in 'open modplug tracker' (but I just hand enter notes in 'frozen' time, I don't type f7 to have time move while playing notes.. I don't even think there's a quantize function so they would be off and need repositioning. You get better accuracy with faster time speed). I haven't done music stuff in a long time though cuz my comp sound card decided to stop working. You have to edit preferences to make stuff not suck, like don't center the active row. and remap the keys, mine are set to:
qwertyuiop = c-5 through e-5 (no black keys, all white keys)
zxcvbnm = c-4 through b-4 (wraps up to top row, essentially giving you a longer row of white keys).

Then I trained my ear/mind to only 'think' in those 7 pitches because 12 is too many for my brain to handle I guess. If I want a major song think of it as cdefgab (mainly using ceg, fac, gbd chords), if I want a minor song I think of it as abcdefg (mainly using ace,dfa,egb chords) its all white keys either way. Then later you can highlight all notes and transpose to any other key you want. Even if I want a weird 'hungarian minor' or something song I just do a white key minor song then later transpose the necessary notes up or down.

Main shit to know: go to sample tab. In the left you should see a bunch of folders, open the gm.dls folder in some non obvious location, you'll see all these lame ass dinky sounds, pick one and drag drop to the sample area (i almost never use instrument tab). Now u see like that was sample #1 or whatever, make another for #2/3 etc. Go to pattern tab. click left-most on a row. type 'q' (might be a c note), change to desired 1/2/3 sample. make page down/up move 4 rows if it doesn't already to easily navigate. type f7 to play the pattern, f6 to play whole song (add new patterns and it will play all). type / * to lower/raise octave. u can highlight notes and raise/lower by key or octave, edit input for doing so in preferences. f8 stops. on a row u can enter volume of a sample, the last part of a row is 'effects' which are all shit like s80 through s8f (hexadecimal) pans left/right. I think gxx or something slides a note to another note.

The brain is basically a supercomputer so mine at least can easily spontaneously imagine melodies (not polyphony though.. I think birds have 2 sets of vocal chords or something weird so they can sing polyphony if I remember), but entering them into the computer correctly is a different matter. Sometimes if I don't use my brain wired vocal chords to hum a note while carefully playing a note to see if its the correct one, I can mis-guess the note completely by like half an octave or something retarded, some people have perfect pitch but I sure don't.

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Also, if you don't want to spend $$$ on a MIDI keyboard, something like Akai LPK-25, MPK Mini, or Korg Nanokey-2 is the way to go. With luck you can find the Nanokey-2 or LPK-25 for $50 or less. These are all USB-MIDI keyboards with velocity sensitivity, the main difference is the LPK-25 has mini-piano-style keys, the Nanokey-2 is more of a quickie shallow-action thing. They're both slightly less sensitive to low speeds than full-size keyboards, but the difference is less than most people think (from their silly looks perhaps).

To tell you the truth, the best feel is still from a large semi-weighted piano-style keyboard controller attached through a Firewire interface with a classic DIN MIDI socket. USB is somewhat laggier than Firewire, and it is somewhat noticeable on MIDI controllers too, though it does begin to get obvious when latency is around/below 2 msec (which many USB sound interaces can't manage anyway). That is a bit expensive setup though (large keyboard hooked up through a Firewire sound/MIDI interface).

The trouble with mapping typing keyboard to MIDI notes is, it's all usually at a fixed velocity, unlike a normal MIDI controller, which transmits different velocity values. Hence everything tends to sound like a machinegun - maximum-loudness.

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I'd be interested in a real-time note transcriber based on microphone input. I could just babble into a microphone and hear my "singing" turned into something more tolerable as a midi instrument.

I wonder if one exists, but a preliminary Google search has left me with no relevant results. Closest I could find are those things that export a midi file from a pre-existing wav file input, but I'm more interested in running such a tool as a real-time soft midi controller.

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Sodaholic said:

I'd be interested in a real-time note transcriber based on microphone input. I could just babble into a microphone and hear my "singing" turned into something more tolerable as a MIDI instrument.

I wonder if one exists, but a preliminary Google search has left me with no relevant results. Closest I could find are those things that export a MIDI file from a pre-existing wave file input, but I'm more interested in running such a tool as a real-time soft MIDI controller.


There was something like that... There actually was a craze about "wave to MIDI" at one time, though that was like a dozen years ago. Some digging might reveal results...

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I bought melodyne when I used to have money. you can record anything or input a wav/mp3 file and it will convert it into visual 'blobs' you can move up/down to different notes or (not midi though) stretch blobs to be longer etc. It was interesting, but in practice vocal sounds often have too many nuances for blobs to be defined to one pitch. Still had interesting results after quantizing (snapping blobs to a time grid) or simplifying the waves by removing static/white noise. Haven't used autotune to see if it works better. I'd like to program music stuff myself, I hate most modern music software like fruity loops, way too cumbersome/complex and I like tracker style where time goes downward way better than piano rolls and all these plugins that cost 30+ bucks each etc.

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Akai LPK-25


I bought one a few months ago. My key presses fail to register half of the time, couldn't find a way to use this for real time input. Keys are sticky and awkward to touch, too.

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Weird, the one here's been working fine for years, in spite of riding in the backpack most of the time. The only trouble with it is, label paint's been shedding.

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Perhaps a bad unit, or unreasonable expectations. I've never used a midi keyboard before, only actual pianos and synths which obviously aren't in the same price range.

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What's your latency? Playing with high latency can have a similar effect (keys register, but notes trigger with a lag). Also, never, ever connect it through an unpowered USB hub. The LPK-25 (as most higher-power/speed USB devices) requires a PC USB socket connection, or at least an external high-speed powered hub.

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I'm not sure what latency means in this context. I'm not a musician or even an audiophile, just a very casual hobbyist. I plugged the LPK-25 into one of the USB ports on my tower (I tried different ones just to make sure). It plays notes fine right as I press the keys, but just as often keys don't register. They don't sound off later either, just... nothing.

Thanks for your help, but honestly, I'm too lazy to try for a fix. Only brought this up earlier because I thought maybe you weren't talking from first-hand experience in your recommendation, but seeing as you are, I'm more than willing to accept the issue is on my end. :)

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Latency is the time it takes for a sequencer to process notes. As an example, a good latency time with an ASIO driver on a Firewire sound interface is 1.5 milliseconds. That is the combined delay of a multicore CPU running a soft synth plus all the overhead of the MIDI controller driver, OS kernel, and whatever else gets in the way (low-level Firewire driver, bus drivers, etc.).

Without a professional sound interface, working in Directx/waveout/KS/whatever else mode there is with a soundcard, the best latency time is likely around 15-20 msec. That's more or less tolerable for slow pads, but not for percussion or fast playing.

What might be happening is that you've set the latency too low for your soundcard, so the soft synth is simply dropping out notes because it doesn't have enough buffers. Raise latency delay/increase the number and size of buffers in the app's config.

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