MidiKeys 1.

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Copyright © 2002-2010 Immo Software. All rights reserved.

Introduction
MidiKeys is an application that presents a small graphic representation of a MIDI
keyboard on screen. Clicking the keys or typing on the computer keyboard will
send notes to the selected destination. You can use it to compose music with
your favourite sequencer while on the road, or simply to try out a new softsynth.
It's generally just a handy tool to have around.

Keep in mind that MidiKeys does not itself produce any sound, it just sends note
events. You have to connect it to a MIDI sound source to hear something. This
can be anything from a software synthesizer to an external hardware synth
connected through a USB MIDI interface.

Requirements
• Mac OS X 10.5 or greater
• PowerPC or Intel
• Software synthesizer, MIDI sequencer application, or external MIDI device with
MIDI interface. Apple’s AU Lab is excellent.

Installation
Just copy the MidiKeys program to the Applications folder of your choice.

Using MidiKeys
There are two ways use MidiKeys. First, you can set the Destination menu to
"Virtual source". This is the default destination. With "Virtual source" selected,
you must select "MidiKeys" as the input port in whatever other software you're
using. (For example, in Ableton Live, open the preferences, select the Midi/Sync
tab, and select MidiKeys in the "input source" popup menu.)

The second method is to select a different destination in the "Destination" menu.

Real hardware MIDI devices will be listed here, as well as virtual destinations
created by other running applications. The application you are interested in using
must create a virtual destination for it to be listed here.

If you are using the virtual source method, some programs will require that you
launch MidiKeys first in order to it to show up in their list of sources. This is likely
the most common way you'll use MidiKeys. And of course, if the application does
not use Apple's CoreMIDI (for example, if it uses QuickTime) then there's nothing
to be done about it…it just won't work.
MidiKeys can show the notes being played on another keyboard, or the output of
a sequencer, on its keyboard. Select the desired MIDI source using the "Listen to
port" popup menu in the main window. Once a source is selected, any incoming
note events will highlight the keys. Notes from all channels are displayed. When
the "Thru" checkbox next to the Listen to port popup is checked, any notes that
are displayed on the keyboard are also output to the destination.

To access lower or higher notes, use the Octave Up and Octave Down
commands in the Keys menu. Up to four octaves up or down are allowed, and
the current octave displacement is shown in the keyboard window by arrow
symbols placed on the keyboard. There is also a "Send All Notes Off" command
in the Keys menu that will send a note off command for every key. This is useful
if a note gets stuck.

If you want to adjust the octave from the keyboard, use the left and right arrows.
The velocity is also adjustable from the keyboard, using the up and down arrows.
When hot keys are enabled, the arrow keys, in combination with any modifier
keys you have set in the preferences (see below), also work from other
applications.

Preferences
Open the preferences panel by selecting Preferences from the application menu.
Changes are not applied until you click OK, and of course no changes are made
if you click Cancel.

The colour used to highlight keys when played is selected using the colour well
titled "Active key highlighting". In addition to the colour, you can adjust the
transparency.

Several key maps comes with MidiKeys. Turn on the “Show Key Caps”
preference to have the corresponding character for each note drawn on the on-
screen MIDI keyboard keys.

Turning on the hot keys option will make it the MidiKeys keyboard accessible
even when other applications are in front. The key map setting comes into play
here. You may find that not all keys are able to be used as hot keys—it varies
with the OS version and other software you have installed, or you may simply
want to reduce the number of hot keys.

The checkboxes below the hot keys checkbox allow you to select which modifier
keys must be held down to access the keyboard. You may choose to use no
modifiers, if you like. In this case, you will not be able to type normal text while
the hot keys are enabled, though it makes playing keys much easier.
Unfortunately, the alpha lock (caps lock) is not supported by the OS, sorry.

In the Keys menu there is a “Global Hot Keys” menu item that lets you easily
control the state of the hot keys without having to open the preferences panel.
When hot keys are enabled, this menu item will have a check mark next to it.
Selecting the item will toggle the hot key state.

In addition, you can set a hot key shortcut that will allow you to toggle the state of
the global hot keys from any application. This toggle hot key is configured in the
preferences panel, under the Keys tab. Click the area next to “Toggle hot keys:”,
where it says “Click to record shortcut”. Then press the a key combination you
would like to use to toggle hot keys from any application.

Because programs like sequencers often take up most of the screen real estate,
MidiKeys has an option to float the keyboard window above all other applications.
Turn floating on by checking the "Keyboard window is always on top" checkbox.
You can set the transparency of the keyboard window with the slider below so
you can see what you're working on while playing. The "Opaque when MidiKeys
is in front" option will bring the window back to solid when you make MidiKeys the
active application. Bringing another application to the front with this option set will
restore the window's transparency.

Another related option is “Click through when not in front”. This option will make
the keyboard window transparent to mouse clicks when MidiKeys is not the
foreground application, so you can click on items and windows beneath the on-
screen keyboard. This works best when the keyboard is made transparent and
floating.

Known Issues
• On some laptops prior to the multi-touch trackpad, you may want to disable the
“ignore accidental input” option in the trackpad preference panel so you can use
the trackpad while holding keys down. Otherwise, you won’t be able to twiddle
knobs while playing notes.
• There seems to be a limit of 6 concurrent key presses on some desktop
systems and/or keyboards. But my laptop can handle at least 8 key presses
simultaneously.
• Even ignoring the hardware limit on concurrent key presses, it takes
approximately 25-30 ms to process each key down event. So if you press 6 keys
at once, there will be a difference of at least 25*6 = 150 ms between the first and
last key processed. I will be attempting to improve this in future versions.
Processing of external MIDI sources does not suffer from this problem.
• Some key combinations cannot be used as hot keys. I doubt there's anything I
can do about this.
• Some sequencer applications apparently do not process MIDI while in the
background. For example, Intuem apparently does not. You must use the window
floating and hot keys options to work around this.

Miscellaneous Notes
I can be reached via email at flit@ftml.net. MidiKeys is freeware, but it is not in
the public domain. At this time, I am not considering releasing the source code.

You use MidiKeys at your own risk. I am not responsible for anything that does or
does not happen to you or your computer system as a result of using MidiKeys. If
you get carpal tunnel syndrome while trying to play Bach on your laptop, that's
your problem.