Virtual MIDI Keyboard

r4pP157 11:39 am on October 20, 2009 | Answers: 1    
Tags: keyboard (18), midi, virtual (4), virtual midi keyboard

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• r4pp157 11:39 am on October 20, 2009
  

  Thinking about playing a little bit with digital music? If you are, you'll probably need 4 basic things to get started:

  1. A nice up-to-date computer (with huge processor and memory if possible)
  2. A good (kind-of) professional software
  3. A pair of good monitor speakers
  4. A MIDI keyboard

  If you are just like me, then we're probably alike… I mean, then you'll probably be on a short, tight budget, which means spending as little as possible. So here's how to save a few bucks, and still get to do something of beautiful quality:

  1. Can't help on this one, if you don't have a powerful computer, you better save some money first. This is a MUST.
  2. Well, you know, software isn't cheap, but luckily there a lot of organizations which provide professional software for free… (blink, blink, if you know what I mean) so just take a look around or go the better way: free software (Ardour, Rosebud, etc. Tutorial on those coming up soon!)
  3. On this one you can go three ways: Either you use any speaker, and hope to have a great ear; you actually buy a good pair of monitor speakers, or you may make a smallest investment by buying monitor headphones. There are lots of them, of every kind, and those might actually be less than half the price. Of course, it won´t be comfortable for long sessions, but it will work for some time at least.
  4. Here is where you can really save some serious money. Go from hundreds to nothing by just giving up some usability. Let´s see how…

  First thing first, as this is a Virtual MIDI Keyboard it will obviously be software emulated, so we need to download some software to use it. Don't worry, it's free so you don't need to worry about licensing. We will actually be using two pieces of software:

  * The MIDI driver for Windows, (there are plenty, I chose) MIDI Yoke for Windows
  * The MIDI keyboard software itself, (there are also plenty, I chose) Live MIDI Keyboard

  When both programs finish downloading we need to install them and restart the computer so the MIDI driver can get a hold of the required resources. Once done, we need to configure both things to work together.

  Simplily open the Live MIDI Keyboard and in the upper right corner click on the devices button. You can leave the MIDI in option in the default, and for the MIDI out, just choose one of the buses created by the Yoke driver, any you like will do, as long as it's not the same as the MIDI in.

  Done! We are good to go and start making music with this little toy. The only thing you need to do is open your favourite composing software and select the correct MIDI in port, i.e. if you selected bus 2 in the Live MIDI Keyboard MIDI out, then select bus 2 as MIDI in in the software of your selection, and the keyboard will be automagically connected. Just keep in mind that you need to have the keyboard software on top so that it will capture your computer keyboard strokes.

  As an appendix, here we have the instructions to correctly connect the Live MIDI Keyboard with Propellerhead Reason and Steinberg's Nuendo which are top choices among musicians and of course, the two I best know.

  Reason

  * Open Reason and add a mixer and a synth (Thor, Malstrom, SubTractor, etc. Samplers will work as well) and select a nice patch of your choice for it.
  * Go to Edit->Preferences… , select the Page tab and once there, select Control surfaces and keyboards.
  * Click Add and select Other in the Manufacturer box. Below choose <other> MIDI Keyboard Multichannel.
  * Now select the correct bus in MIDI in, corresponding to the Live MIDI Keyboard out. Select the same port in the Advanced MIDI tab.
  * Close the Preferences Box, set Reason to record mode, bring the software keyboard to the top and just get creative!

  Nuendo

  * Open Nuendo and create a new proyect (or open an existing one) adding a MIDI track.
  * Go to Devices->Devices configuration… and search the Default MIDI ports option.
  * In the box that appears, set the MIDI In , just as we did with Reason, to the same MIDI bus we set for the Live MIDI Keyboard MIDI out.
  * Click OK and set Nuendo into record mode on the MIDI track, bring the Live MIDI Keyboard to top and start playing.
  * Voilà!
  * Note: If you want to use the Live Midi Keyboard to control other Nuendo instruments (i.e. VSTi), you need to change the configuration of the desired instrument to get MIDI input from the same Yoke bus.

  I hope you find this useful wether you're on a low budget or you are a laptop user who doesn't want to carry around an extra keyboard everywhere you go.

  As usual, comments, questions and criticism are very much welcome and encouraged.

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