Using computer keyboard as MIDI controller - UPDATE

Peter-Elfman wrote on 2/14/2021, 1:46 PM

As I don't have a built-for-purpose MIDI controller right now, I was looking to see if I could use my desktop keyboard. I learned that a lot of DAW's (Ableton, ProTools, and a few others) let you configure them to accept MIDI control/keystrokes from ye olde QWERTY. Acid... doesn't, pure and simple. Thanks and shout-out to Aman Singh for helping me when I mentioned this in a previous post. I couldn't leave well enough alone, though, so I went hunting for some solutions... and found one. Please note, I am working on Windows 10, if you're on a Apple computer you might need to tweak the below instructions (or just use Garage Band).

Acid Pro 10 does not natively provide this feature, as I said above. You'll need to download and install two separate programs. One is a MIDI input software that converts your keystrokes into MIDI tones. Another is a MIDI pass-through software that will channel the signal from the first device into ACID.

This is a virtual musical keyboard. It seems to have a decent number of functions, and also claims to be highly configurable. It's a straight .exe file without any entries made into your Registry. There might be other virtual keyboard/instruments out there, but I haven't looked yet. Drop a note below if you have any other suggestions, please.

This is a virtual loopback MIDI cable. It essentially connects your MIDI output device (be it an external one, or virtual one like FreePiano) to your MIDI input receiver, like your DAW of choice (i.e. Acid Pro).

You will need to have LoopMIDI, FreePiano, AND Acid running simultaneously in order to make this work. Grab and install LoopMIDI and FreePiano. Once they're both installed, you'll want to do the following:

  1. Open LoopMIDI
  2. Open FreePiano (Or equivalent)
    1. Configure FreePiano to interact with LoopMIDI (see instructions on their website for details). If audio from FreePiano seems to drop when that's done, don't panic; key presses are no longer being sent to your audio channels, but are instead routed through MIDI.
  3. Open Acid (or you DAW of Choice)
  4. In Acid, go to Options > Preferences and choose the MIDI tab.
  5. Under the Hardware Port lists, you should see LoopMIDI. Check both boxes, under MIDI track playback and MIDI input.
    1. Hit Apply and then OK.
  6. Go to a MIDI track (add a new one if you don't already already have one in your project). You should be able to hear your key presses now.

Edited to add: Shutting down either LoopMIDI or FreePiano will disconnect the connect to Acid, so you'll need all three running at once all the time while you're generating MIDI tunes. End edit.

Writing to a MIDI track falls under the RECORD function: prime your track to record, turn on your metronome, hit record, then flip back to FreePiano and make some beautiful music!

 

A quick note regarding MIDI loopback; before I found LoopMIDI, I saw a ton of references to MIDI-OX and MIDI-YOKE (particularly on the FreePiano Site); in particular, MIDI Yoke is a MIDI loopback/pass-through program, like LoopMIDI. It was last Updated during the WIndows 2000 era, and has absolutely no instructions for installing it onto Windows 10. If you're computer savvy, you might be able to decipher the instructions and translate them to make it work on Windows 10; I got as far as "installing" from the .msi file, and became completely stumped when it came to configuring Windows to see MIDI Yoke. If you can make this work, please let the rest of the world know how you did it! In the meantime, I'm going with LoopMIDI as it has native 64bit support.

Good luck, and let please let us know if you have any other tips or a different experience!

Comments

Former user wrote on 2/14/2021, 6:14 PM

Man, you really went the extra mile for this. I am glad it worked out for you. I hope Magix read this and realize that they still have loyality out there and need help.

Peter-Elfman wrote on 2/14/2021, 7:31 PM

I'll be honest, my music creation process has always revolved around 'jamming', horsing around with an instrument to work out the music I'm creating. Trying to write tracks in MIDI with a mouse is like trying to paint behind my back while wearing gloves. Once I got too frustrated to work, I put that energy to looking for a solution.

There was remarkably little out info out there, so I decided to share my knowledge so that someone behind me has a much easier time.

Former user wrote on 2/14/2021, 7:47 PM

Man thats how I feel working in any other DAW other than Acid. But the damn thing just doesn't work right. I have loads of old recorded vocals, samples (from my DJing days) which are all in MP3 format and Acid won't open them and crashes. I paid for Wavelab 10 to convert them but sick of doing that. I mean I have 1000s of sounds collected since I started doing this back in 1997. Part me is angry at my friend who introduced me to AcidPro back in 98 when him and I went to SamAsh (San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles) and I paid $25 for Acid Pro version 1. I wish he had suggested Cubase or something else so I could have gotten used to that.

I made 100s of songs in Acid Pro all the way until 2007 when version 7 really started giving me problems and I had to switch. Went from Cubase to Sonar, then to Pro Tools, then finally on to Ableton but that workflow, that ease, that creativity was gone! One thing my music had was that it sounded different in a way that I didn't make "commercial" type of sound, just a lot of experimental. My workflow slowed down and so did my creativity as I would spend more time trying to learn the new software and issues.

When it was announced that Magix is bringing it back, the minute it was released in ver. 8, I instantly bought it without trying the trial first. I didn't make a single tune all the way up until ver 10 due to the GUI "Light" option.

Anyway, we can talk about this all day. But I am glad you are figuring stuff out and able to use this once known as the greatest DAW. For now, most of my work is being done on ableton. My limited time doesn't allow me to fight with Acid's crashes at the moment. But I still come here in Forums to see if maybe someone from Magix might come here and give us good news.

There are genuine people like yourself but unfortunately, there are others who come here to aggrevate other frustrated users. I do my best not to engage as they don't provide any solutions but try to argue with an already angry paying customer.

Peter-Elfman wrote on 2/14/2021, 9:40 PM

Do you mind if I drop you a message so we can continue this conversation offline?

In the meantime, I hear you, man. There's nothing as stifling to creativity as a major hitch in the process. Whatever version of Acid I had back in the day was way more stable than what I got now, and using it taught me a lot. I'll always be grateful to Acid for that first step, no matter what tools I eventually land on.

Former user wrote on 2/14/2021, 10:27 PM

Of course man, message anytime.

L-Liesner wrote on 8/12/2022, 12:55 AM

I just have to say thanks. I was about to pull my hair out but this worked.