Studio One alternative qwerty keyboard

[ls1xxx]

Is there an alternative virtual keyboard that i can replace the one inside of studio one 4 with? I dont k ow if there is such a thing but i do know that I do not like this qwerty keyboard.

[oneway]

That's the one that's built into Studio One. It's how they designed it.

You can use alternative programs that act as External MIDI Devices from within your computer, like the MidiKeys program on Mac OS X.

Alternatively, you can go through their Answers site and their community forum to ask for improvements to it. As with other DAW makers, this could take anywhere from a month to a decade. Somewhere in between those two usually.

[chk071]

Yeah, it's not very good. Only one octave, and you always have to keep it open to play. Solution for me was to buy a cheap mini keys keyboard: https://www.thomann.de/de/m_audio_keyst ... 32_mk2.htm

Alternatively, you can go through their Answers site and their community forum to ask for improvements to it. As with other DAW makers, this could take anywhere from a month to a decade. Somewhere in between those two usually.

Absolutely right. No point in waiting, i guess.

[THE INTRANCER]

Back in 2015 Editor Keys did have a cheap deal offer before they discontinued this version in the video... so one might be able to find one second hand..pretty useful as a learning aid also. Much better than any virtual keyboard. Should be able to pick one up for £20 or so... it's not backlit but these types are available for a considerably higher price around £100 or so new.

[chk071]

Won't change anything about the built in Studio One qwerty keyboard, though.

[flugel45]

You can buy a small midi keyboard starting around 30 $/Euro.

But if you must have a virtual qwerty keyboard, this one is probably the most customisable (20 Euro):

https://4drx.com/plugins/product.php?p=VirtualKeyboard

[spacepluk]

Hopefully this is not against the forum's rules... But I'm developing a small app that allows to use the whole keyboard (and the touchpad) as a midi controller. Here are some videos of myself testing the thing:




I'll be posting more stuff around here when it's ready =]

[mod.eater]

If you are on Windows, MIDI Ox + MIDI Yoke will do the job. Only problem is that Midi Ox has to stay on top of all windows if you want to play it. This is solved by utilities such as Actual Window Manager which can pin the window and make it always active*. (So you can both click around the screen** and play the qwerty.) Maybe there are some free ones that can do this, I don't know.

* So called "Always on top"

** And Midi Ox can be resized so that it takes just a tiny amount of your screen (only 1/3 of the title bar or so), which makes it usable in this context, because you want to work in Studio One while playing, right?

[spacepluk]

Yeah, the problem with the focus is one of the things that annoyed me in the existing solutions. I don't have a video about it yet but when the controller is engaged it works no matter what window is focused. So you can play some notes while you tweak parameters in a vst, etc.

[mod.eater]

The solution I offer works 100%, I've used it around 2004-2005 to play synths in Energy XT. It's a bit of a hassle to set up, but after you've gone through that, is very convenient.

How to make the MIDI connections between apps is described in the MIDI Ox manual.

[ENV1]

Best i know: Vanilin MIDI Keyboard

With this and something like MIDI Yoke (which is what im using) your computer keyboard can function as a MIDI keyboard.

Needs no window to be in focus so it works at all times.

Can optionally kill keystrokes (F12 toggles) so the keyboard only outputs MIDI notes but not keyboard chars.

(Which is the preferred mode so you cant accidentally trigger any shortcuts in the DAW.)

Supports custom layouts (via textfile) so you can assign keyboard keys to MIDI notes as you see fit.

Has various options and settings like Channel, Base Octave, Transpose, Pedal Emulation, etc.

Ive been using this for many years and never a hitch.

It just works.

Its also completely free, just go to the website and hit the download button.

[ls1xxx]

Im going to try all of these and see which one i like the best. Does anyone know of one thats very similar to the virtual keyboard in Cubase?
I know someone on here is going to say just use Cubase then but i really want to give Studio One a chance since im loving the drag and drop approach in it!

[oneway]

I could be wrong but isn’t cubase’s virtual keyboard one octave as well?

[ENV1]

No idea how the Cubase virtual keyboard works, but unless it does anything 'special' (apart from having MIDI notes mapped to keyboard keys), you can simply recreate the layout in Vanilin and maybe even extend it.

In the long run a real keyboard might be a better idea though because computer keyboards have one big flaw: They cant usually activate all keys at the same time. Certain combinations of chars will therefore not be possible, which means that certain chords wont be possible either because the required keys wont all activate at once. The combinations that dont work are different from keyboard to keyboard, (some are better, some not so good), so if you have one thats really bad for this purpose it wont do you a lot of good anyway unless you only play one or two notes at a time. A gamer keyboard would probably be the best bet because games often use a lot of key combos too, but in the end only a real keyboard is guaranteed to be able to play all notes/combinations at the same time.

[chk071]

Reasons i liked the Cubase virtual MIDI keyboard: Two octaves, so you can almost use all keys of your keyboard; always focused when you activate it, unlike the Studio One one; i think you could also sustain notes by pressing tab.

Anyway, since i got my Keystation Mini 32, i really don't need a virtual MIDI keyboard anymore. Fits everywhere, because it's so small.