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The Pilot Zone
The Virtual Keyboard
The Virtual Keyboard allows you to play and record MIDI
notes by using your computer keyboard or mouse. This is
useful if you have no external MIDI instrument at hand and
you do not want to draw in notes with the pencil tool.
1. Create or choose an instrument track and activate the
“Record Ready” button for it.
Which type of sound is played depends on the selected preset.
2. Activate the Virtual Keyboard by clicking on the “Acti-
vate Virtual Keyboard” button or by using the key command
[Ctrl]/[Command] + [K].
3. You can now choose between two different keyboard
display modes: computer keyboard and piano roll. To
switch between these two modes, click the “Change Vir-
tual Keyboard Display Type” button or use the [Tab] key.
The Virtual Keyboard in computer keyboard display mode
The Virtual Keyboard in piano roll display mode
4. Strike one key at a time or several keys simultaneously
if you want to enter polyphonic parts.
Note that the maximum number of notes that can be played at one time var-
ies between the different operating systems and hardware configurations.
• In piano roll display mode you have two full octaves at
your disposal. That way you can enter two voices simulta-
neously: for example bass and lead voice or bass drums
and HiHats.
Hit the second and third row (“z”, “s”, “x”, etc.) for the lower octave and the
forth and fifth row (“q”, “2”, “w” etc.) for the higher octave.
5. Use the fader “Note velocity level” to the right of the
virtual keyboard to adjust the volume.
You can also adjust the volume using the up and down arrow keys.
6. Use the “Octave Offset” icons to the left and the right of
the virtual keyboard to offset the octave range of the key-
board.
You can also use the left and right arrow keys to switch the keyboard range
to a lower or higher octave, respectively.
Ö You can also use the Virtual Keyboard for previewing
instrument presets on the MediaBay Page.
!
When the Virtual Keyboard is active, the usual key
commands are blocked. The only exceptions are: [*]
(“multiply” on the numeric keypad) for recording,
[Space] for start/stop and [Home]/[Command]+
[Home] to jump to the project start.