Multiple QWERTY MIDI keyboards on one machine

Programming applications for making music on Linux.

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Transit_of_Io
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Multiple QWERTY MIDI keyboards on one machine

Post by Transit_of_Io »

I made a thing that's geared towards playing live music without a screen, and am trying to find out if there's enough interest to clean it up and share it.

It's a Pure Data patch that can use multiple qwerty keyboards at the same time as separate MIDI keyboards, with three octaves each. It lets me control velocity, MIDI volume, MIDI channel (to select instruments), modulation, and pitchbend for each keyboard from an Android device. It has octave shifting, sustain, latching sustain, latching sostenuto, and octaves and various intervals that can be turned on and off with hotkeys. It can assign samples and/or commands to the grey keys (where a piano has spaces between black keys). There's a key that adds +30 to velocity for other keys when held, and another for -30. It can do most of this with input from normal MIDI keyboards too (including touch screen apps).

The musical note keys are laid out similar to Jack Keyboard but with no repeat notes. The numpad keys are for drums, with three keys for each drum so you can play fast and/or assign them different velocities.

There's a shortcut key to toggle between MIDI and typing modes, and they can be played in MIDI mode with any window focused. For MIDI mode, all of the hardware keys but one are available just for MIDI stuff. (The exception is the toggle key.)

It has several dozen "song"* slots to save settings for each keyboard, and each "song" has four scenes. Scenes include channel, starting velocity, MIDI volume, sustain lock status, and octaves/intervals. Using these "song"/scene patches, any of the qwerty boards can control all of them. "Song" and scene are selected with hotkeys. This allows to move between songs in a set without looking at a screen, even if the songs use different instruments. The variables are set using hotkeys to set the channel (instrument) and oct/int, and MIDI faders to set the others. Scenes are saved using hotkeys.

This all started as a way of trying to super-customize Jack Keyboard without having to learn a real language. Now it's a centralized MIDI thing, and starting to include control of the microphone (including converting sung notes into MIDI). Eventually all the mic effects chains will live in pd.

These boards aren't velocity sensitive, of course, and there are a few chords that can't be played because of how the hardware button matrices are wired. The second thing can be gotten around with an NKRO keyboard. I can't find any of those with chicklet keys though, and chicklet keys are easier for sliding a finger across like an organist does. Velocities get controlled with faders in the MIDI app, over wifi. (Someday I'll mount pressure sensors under the boards, I think. For now I blow into a mic and use the amplitude of that to adjust velocity while playing with both hands.)

It pairs nicely with RaySession/ray_control for loading more instruments, sequencers, loopers, etc., as each song warrants.

If anyone has read this far, I thank you. I'd love to know if anybody wants this besides me. I was a transcriptionist for 25 years and have always wanted to make music with qwerty boards. It would neither surprise nor offend me to learn that nobody else wants that. But it wouldn't feel fair not to at least offer. I owe a lot to this community.

*so named before I learned that "song" means a piece has singing in it
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andropogon
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Re: Multiple QWERTY MIDI keyboards on one machine

Post by andropogon »

Sounds very interesting. I've made several songs with my Dell G5's qwerty-keyboard only (here for example) using JACK Keyboard. Got some troubles with delays and inflexibility.
But as I understand your method means to use usual non-notebook keyboards and even several. So you can for example assign a different soft-synth plugin to each keyboard. If I'm right, it might make sense сonsidering that usual keyboard can be cheaper than midi-keyboard and сertainly cheaper than a synthesizer. So you can equip something like a keyboard synth rack in your home studio.
Unfortunately now I don't have any keyboard and PC to use it with. But your idea makes sense and it's a little bit strange that no one paid attention to it.
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Transit_of_Io
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Re: Multiple QWERTY MIDI keyboards on one machine

Post by Transit_of_Io »

andropogon wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:30 pm But as I understand your method means to use usual non-notebook keyboards and even several. So you can for example assign a different soft-synth plugin to each keyboard.
That is definitely the idea. It works also with my laptop's keyboard, and can also use the touchpad as an xy controller for adjusting velocity with a thumb while playing music. I stopped using that because it caused wrist pain.
But your idea makes sense and it's a little bit strange that no one paid attention to it.
Thank you for the interest and encouragement. I'll get the pd patch cleaned up and ready to share, gather documentation, and post it in one of the boards here that has more traffic (also in this thread).
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Re: Multiple QWERTY MIDI keyboards on one machine

Post by andropogon »

Hope you'll let me know when it released.
Good luck!
Sorry if I distracted you with such a nonsense.
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