QWERTY as MIDI input w/ Kontakt Player with T4?

[aTallGuyNH]

I don't have a MIDI controller, so I'm stuck with using GUI keyboards, either in Kontakt Player or the T4 Sampler. I've enabled the Kontakt Player "Use computer keyboard for MIDI" setting, but it only works when launching Kontakt as an app, not within Tracktion as a plugin.

Is there any adjustment that can be made within Tracktion to allow Kontakt to recognize the computer keyboard as MIDI entry?

I've had TracktionKeys recommended to me on another thread (http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... &p=5874557), so I'll give that a fiddle as well. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!

[toothnclaw]

MIDI OX + MIDI Yoke.

[aTallGuyNH]

Thanks for the reply tooth... Further reading on MIDI Yoke though, looks like it will only work with 32-bit applications, so I don't think it would work for me -- after weighing pros & cons, I'm pretty well committed to 64-bit for Tracktion.

I tried LoopBe1 (http://nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html) as well, which is a similar "virtual MIDI cable". This installed nicely, is recognized by both Kontakt & T4, but the connection doesn't appear to be there.

• I set Kontakt (in standalone mode) MIDI channel to be "1" under "Port A"
• In T4 it actually recognized LoopBe1 automatically as a MIDI device.
• Enabled LoopBe1 for Input only (to avoid feedback) on the MIDI I/O section on the Settings tab.
• Armed the track
• Set Channel to "1" on the track properties tab
• Clicked on the camo green Post-It tab of the track (that's what it looks like to me -- one of those little "sign here" Post-Its shaped like an arrow) so it would have the focus in T4.
• Hit record
• Flipped back to Kontakt and played on the computer keyboard.

No dice though, nothing from Kontakt seems to get to T4 -- i.e. I would expect it to have recorded the MIDI notes that I entered.

I also had TracktionKeys (http://web.archive.org/web/201001151655 ... /index.htm) recommended to me in the other thread, with the suggestion to check on this forum re: particulars of how it works with Tracktion. Does anyone have any experience with this tool? I gave it a try, but the MidiYokeSetup.msi gave an odd "install was interrupted" error. When I launch TracktionKeys.exe I just get a rather cryptic looking tiny box. I suspect this latter part is normal, but without instructions of some sort I'm mystified as to what to do with it. Might be the old 32-bit issue again?

[toothnclaw]

I've never used LoopBe1 but it should work, that's what it's for. Read the manual, maybe it's not configured to take input from the qwerty by default*. MIDI connections are a headache, but you'll just have to go through this. Good luck!

*Oh by the way, is it just a MIDI cable? In this case you'll definitely need MIDI OX**, set it up to send MIDI to LoopBe1 on a specific channel, then there's a tiny keyboard icon you should press in MIDI OX, and it will only work with the QWERTY when its window is active (on top), so... it's a PITA.

** Don't know if it works on 64, I'm on 32 bit.

[chico.co.uk]

Try this. Go to settings, Midi Devices. Create a New Virtual Midi input, called "Keyboard".

Go to an edit. Assign that midi input to a track. A little graphical keyboard appears in the properties panel, in the middle at the bottom.
Assign Kontakt to the track, make sure if you click on keys on the little graphical keyboard, it makes sounds.

Then click the lock icon in the top left of the properties panel, so that if you click off the virtual midi input, so it loses focus, the keyboard stays on screen.

Try pressing some keys on your QWERTY keyboard. It'll trigger the midi keyboard to play certain notes.

The caveat / problem with this, is that various keys also map to tracktion shortcuts, as well as midi input keys. Otherwise you could use this. If you can be bothered remapping those shortcut keys, to use those functions using different key combinations, this might work for you.

[aTallGuyNH]

I've never used LoopBe1 but it should work, that's what it's for. Read the manual,

Unfortunately, this is the extent of it!: http://nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html

maybe it's not configured to take input from the qwerty by default*. MIDI connections are a headache, but you'll just have to go through this.

Well, I'm not going through it alone, for which I'm grateful!

*Oh by the way, is it just a MIDI cable? In this case you'll definitely need MIDI OX**,

I'm not following... yes, it's just a MIDI cable, but I think I have the input end covered by Kontakt since it is recognizing QWERTY input as expected. So I think I just need the cable to connect from Kontakt to T4... at least in theory.

set it up to send MIDI to LoopBe1 on a specific channel, then there's a tiny keyboard icon you should press in MIDI OX, and it will only work with the QWERTY when its window is active (on top), so... it's a PITA.

** Don't know if it works on 64, I'm on 32 bit.

Everything I've seen indicates that MIDI OX is 32-bit only and won't work on 64-bit.

[aTallGuyNH]

Try this. Go to settings, Midi Devices. Create a New Virtual Midi input, called "Keyboard".

Go to an edit. Assign that midi input to a track. A little graphical keyboard appears in the properties panel, in the middle at the bottom.
Assign Kontakt to the track, make sure if you click on keys on the little graphical keyboard, it makes sounds.

Then click the lock icon in the top left of the properties panel, so that if you click off the virtual midi input, so it loses focus, the keyboard stays on screen.

Try pressing some keys on your QWERTY keyboard. It'll trigger the midi keyboard to play certain notes.

This doesn't work, at least not for me... Tracktion does not allow the QWERTY keys to pass through to Kontakt, even those that are not mapped to a T4 shortcut. They all work nicely when running Kontakt as a standalone, but none when running as a plugin. (And yes, the little graphical keyboard in Tracktion works fine -- that's what I've been using so far to record.)

[chico.co.uk]

Try this. Go to settings, Midi Devices. Create a New Virtual Midi input, called "Keyboard".

Go to an edit. Assign that midi input to a track. A little graphical keyboard appears in the properties panel, in the middle at the bottom.
Assign Kontakt to the track, make sure if you click on keys on the little graphical keyboard, it makes sounds.

Then click the lock icon in the top left of the properties panel, so that if you click off the virtual midi input, so it loses focus, the keyboard stays on screen.

Try pressing some keys on your QWERTY keyboard. It'll trigger the midi keyboard to play certain notes.

This doesn't work, at least not for me... Tracktion does not allow the QWERTY keys to pass through to Kontakt, even those that are not mapped to a T4 shortcut. They all work nicely when running Kontakt as a standalone, but none when running as a plugin. (And yes, the little graphical keyboard in Tracktion works fine -- that's what I've been using so far to record.)

Interesting, this definitely DOES work for me, with other VSTs...

I'll get a copy of the Kontakt player, and see if there's some other step I've missed. I don't own Kontakt, the "proper" version

Just to clarify, when you press QWERTY keys, when the little graphical keyboard has focus, do some of the keys on the graphical keyboard in tracktion change colour? Like they do when you click on them with a mouse? They do, for me.

[toothnclaw]

*Oh by the way, is it just a MIDI cable? In this case you'll definitely need MIDI OX**,

I'm not following... yes, it's just a MIDI cable, but I think I have the input end covered by Kontakt since it is recognizing QWERTY input as expected. So I think I just need the cable to connect from Kontakt to T4... at least in theory.

set it up to send MIDI to LoopBe1 on a specific channel, then there's a tiny keyboard icon you should press in MIDI OX, and it will only work with the QWERTY when its window is active (on top), so... it's a PITA.

** Don't know if it works on 64, I'm on 32 bit.

Everything I've seen indicates that MIDI OX is 32-bit only and won't work on 64-bit.

If it's a MIDI cable, it needs a 'device' to send the MIDI notes to it. Kontakt plugin* doesn't count, it's on the receiving end of things. Hence you need MIDI Ox or a similar app** to send the notes to LoopBe1, which then sends them to Tracktion. Are you sure the Ox won't run on 64 bit? Have you tried to install it? Please do, LoopBe1+MIDI Ox is a neat solution, only problem is if it works on 64 bit.

Another option is to send the notes via ReWire, from a host that supports qwerty input. The only free one I know of is Jeskola Buzz. It has a 64 bit version. You could try that as well.

* Edit: OK, so you could try Kontakt standalone for this, to send the notes to LoopBe1, then to Tracktion. Kontakt plugin won't do it obviously.

** E.g., Cantabile, but it's payware.

[chico.co.uk]

Try this. Go to settings, Midi Devices. Create a New Virtual Midi input, called "Keyboard".

Go to an edit. Assign that midi input to a track. A little graphical keyboard appears in the properties panel, in the middle at the bottom.
Assign Kontakt to the track, make sure if you click on keys on the little graphical keyboard, it makes sounds.

Then click the lock icon in the top left of the properties panel, so that if you click off the virtual midi input, so it loses focus, the keyboard stays on screen.

Try pressing some keys on your QWERTY keyboard. It'll trigger the midi keyboard to play certain notes.

This doesn't work, at least not for me... Tracktion does not allow the QWERTY keys to pass through to Kontakt, even those that are not mapped to a T4 shortcut. They all work nicely when running Kontakt as a standalone, but none when running as a plugin. (And yes, the little graphical keyboard in Tracktion works fine -- that's what I've been using so far to record.)

Interesting, this definitely DOES work for me, with other VSTs...

I'll get a copy of the Kontakt player, and see if there's some other step I've missed. I don't own Kontakt, the "proper" version

Just to clarify, when you press QWERTY keys, when the little graphical keyboard has focus, do some of the keys on the graphical keyboard in tracktion change colour? Like they do when you click on them with a mouse? They do, for me.

Okay, tried this with Kontakt Player now, in T5, it definitely works, when I try it straight after clicking keys on the graphical keyboard to play sounds. If i then hit the s d f keys on my keyboard, that also triggers keys to play on the graphical keyboard, and sounds to come out of Kontakt Player 5.

Not sure what to suggest that you might be missing, or have different from me ....

[chico.co.uk]

Try this. Go to settings, Midi Devices. Create a New Virtual Midi input, called "Keyboard".

Go to an edit. Assign that midi input to a track. A little graphical keyboard appears in the properties panel, in the middle at the bottom.
Assign Kontakt to the track, make sure if you click on keys on the little graphical keyboard, it makes sounds.

Then click the lock icon in the top left of the properties panel, so that if you click off the virtual midi input, so it loses focus, the keyboard stays on screen.

Try pressing some keys on your QWERTY keyboard. It'll trigger the midi keyboard to play certain notes.

This doesn't work, at least not for me... Tracktion does not allow the QWERTY keys to pass through to Kontakt, even those that are not mapped to a T4 shortcut. They all work nicely when running Kontakt as a standalone, but none when running as a plugin. (And yes, the little graphical keyboard in Tracktion works fine -- that's what I've been using so far to record.)

Interesting, this definitely DOES work for me, with other VSTs...

I'll get a copy of the Kontakt player, and see if there's some other step I've missed. I don't own Kontakt, the "proper" version

Just to clarify, when you press QWERTY keys, when the little graphical keyboard has focus, do some of the keys on the graphical keyboard in tracktion change colour? Like they do when you click on them with a mouse? They do, for me.

Okay, tried this with Kontakt Player now, in T5, it definitely works, when I try it straight after clicking keys on the graphical keyboard to play sounds. If i then hit the s d f keys on my keyboard, that also triggers keys to play on the graphical keyboard, and sounds to come out of Kontakt Player 5.

Not sure what to suggest that you might be missing, or have different from me ....

Okay, the thought plickens ...

I reinstalled Tractkion 4.5.6, to check it works in T4 as well as T5, and err, it doesn't ...

Weird. I don't remember this being announced as a T5 feature. Wonder if it's "accidentally" working in T5, and not T4?

Is T5 not an option at the minute?

[aTallGuyNH]

If it's a MIDI cable, it needs a 'device' to send the MIDI notes to it. Kontakt plugin* doesn't count, it's on the receiving end of things.

I got it working!

I took another look at the standalone version of Kontakt Player and realized that there are menu options there which don't appear when it is loaded as a plugin. Within "Options", the last tab is "MIDI". Clicking on "Outputs", I had to set status of LoopBe to "On".

From there it's quite simple: set LoopBe as the input for the track, arm the track, hit record, alt+tab back to Kontakt Player standalone, and start playing/typing... Voila, it works!

Thanks so much to all for the help... My next task will be to figure out how to get Alchemy to work like this as well. Hopefully the learning curve on this will make that easier to figure out.

[aTallGuyNH]

Is T5 not an option at the minute?

It's a small expense, but every dollar I don't spend on something I don't absolutely need makes it easier to pay for other things (like food)

[chico.co.uk]

Is T5 not an option at the minute?

It's a small expense, but every dollar I don't spend on something I don't absolutely need makes it easier to pay for other things (like food)

Yup, fair play. Only asking because I don't know, not implying you should ... glad you got it going though