Best Free Online Synthesizer - Play over 128 instruments (Pianos, Drum Pads, Guitars, Organs, & more) and beats with your keyboard or touchscreen. MIDI controllers are some of the most important pieces of equipment in a modern recording studio. In order to allow the most natural-feeling control for any style of play, they come in a number of different types. For DJing or controlling special effects, a pad controller is a great choice. Is the combination of a good midi keyboard with a good piano VST and good speakers a sensible alternative to a digital piano in a comparable price range? My intended use is at home for learning to play the piano, play along/improvise on recorded music (Music Minus One from the days of vinyls comes to my mind but apps probably offer this now as.
It can seem really difficult and tricky at first to make a MIDI keyboard work and sound. There are a lot of components and technologies involved! But it is not that complex.
Basically, to be able to play the MIDI keyboard and make it sound, you need to connect the keyboard to a computer (or a tablet) and install the keyboard drivers in that computer. Then you will have to install and lunch a software that is able to produce sound. Finally you will have to configure that software to detect your midi keyboard and then send audio to the computer speakers or studio monitors if you have some.
Read on to review the details about each of these steps. I will try to explain you as much as possible.
There are a couple of options regarding the connection of the MIDI keyboard to the computer. It all depends on the connection types that you have available in your hardware.
Most modern MIDI keyboards already have a USB connection. This is the most straight forward procedure. These keyboards have a USB type-B jack in the back , which is the bigger box jack where you connect the USB cable, and then you just connect the other side (the USB type-A plug) to any of the USB ports in your computer. This is the easy one. If you have this kind of keyboard, just skip to the next section of this article.
Now, if your keyboard does NOT have the USB connection, things get a little more difficult, but it is still possible to connect it to your computer. Don’t panic.
There are many keyboards, which are not only MIDI keyboards, that can be connected to the computer. For example many of the super popular Yamaha keyboards that most of us have or have had at home. I have 2 of those right know!
These keyboards come with a MIDI IN and a MIDI OUT port. These ports are the funky circles with strange little holes inside. As you know, the computers do not have these kind of ports. So, what do you do?
For this case, you will need the following additional components to be able to make music with your keyboard:
- A midi cable.
- A MIDI interface: a device that transforms the MIDI connection to a USB connection for the computer.
The midi cable is simple. It is just a cable to connect the keyboard to the MIDI interface that will then be connected to the computer. Most keyboards don’t bring this cable. So, this is a very good and affordable MIDI Cable that I really like.
The other component you need is the device or interface that will “translate” the connection. It is a very simple device. You just have to connect the keyboard to this device using the MIDI cable, and then connect the device to the computer using a USB cable. This component is called a MIDI Interface.
There are several options, but the following MIDI Interface is a very good, simple to use option. You do not need to deal with any configuration (other than installing the driver). Just connect the keyboard, then the computer, and you are ready to make music. You can see the current price in this Amazon link.
Now that you have a way to connect the MIDI keyboard to the computer, it is time to try them together. Plug your keyboard to the computer.
As with any USB hardware, the computer needs the keyboard drivers to be able to recognize it and send and receive messages to and from it. The good news are that most USB devices nowadays have their drivers inside them. So, I do not think you will need to insert a CD or download an installation file from the Internet. Hopefully the computer will recognize the keyboard or the MIDI interface and will install the drivers for you. You might still have to follow a setup wizard to complete the installation, but it is mainly a matter of clicking the “Next” button.
If for any reason the computer does not recognize your device, you might have to download the drivers from the hardware provider. Just google the keyboard (or your MIDI interface) brand and model and download the drivers. Make sure you just download drivers from the providers’ official websites. Don’t download random software that may damage your computer. But most of the time you won’t need to do that.
Finally you have all the hardware ready. Now let’s move to the software part.
At this point, it happens the same as when you are looking for a keyboard. You wonder what is the best MIDI software.
The short answer is: it’s the same as selecting an instrument. It is all about your preferences and your budget. Specially your budget.
A software where you can record and produce music is called DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). This software lets you receive and record MIDI information, transform it into audio and produce music (edit, layer sounds, equalize, compress, etc.) I hope we can talk about production in another article.
For now, we want to focus on being able to play the MIDI keyboard and hear the notes through the computer speakers.
If you are starting there is a very good free option. Keycue 8 3 – displays all menu shortcut commands. It is called LMMS and it is very focused on MIDI. This is a good option to start with. Just download the software, install it and play with it. There is no risk. In this article you can read about my list of best options of software to start with.
Then of course, there are several commercial options. They are not cheap, I am gonna say. Most of the time they are even more expensive than the actual MIDI keyboard! Unless you have a super nice keyboard.
Some examples of these programs are Reason, Cubase, FL Studio and Ableton. These applications are really focused on MIDI, too.
Midi Keyboard – Play & Record 1 0 35 Mph
So, install what you have or what you like, and let’s try to finally make some sound!
If you just installed your software, just make sure it can send audio to your speakers. If your DAW is already configured, then skip this section.
This process will be different from one DAW to the other. But usually you have to go to the “General Settings” menu and look for the audio section. In other systems you might need to look for a “Devices” option.
Whatever the name of the option is, the idea is to be able to select your computer sound card for the output, so that any audio information that is produced within the DAW, is routed to your speakers through the computer audio card.
If you have studio monitors plus an audio interface, then you will have to select your audio interface (which of course should already be connected to the computer) instead of the PC audio card.
By the way, just to clarify: audio interface IS NOT the same as MIDI interface.
This is a very quick summary of the steps for different DAWs, to help you with the configuration. Just be aware that the names of the menus or options might be a little bit different. Ptgui linux. But the point is to give you an idea of what you have to do and where you have to go in the software to complete the configuration.
For LMMS
- Go to Settings.
- Click on the speaker icon to display the audio settings.
- In the “Interface Audio” section, select your interface. The usual option that works for most people is “SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer)”.
For Cubase
- Go to the “Devices” menu.
- Select “Device Setup”.
- A dialog will open. Select “VST Audio System”.
- On the right side, select the ASIO driver of your audio card.
- Save and go back to the “Devices” menu.
- Select “VST Connections”.
- Check that the “Output” is pointing to your audio card.
For Reason
- Go to “Edit” and then “Preferences” in the top menu.
- From the top list, select “Audio”.
- In the “Audio Card Driver” select your audio card.
For FL Studio
- From the top menu, select “Options” and then “Audio Settings”.
- Click on the “Audio” tab.
- From the “Device” list, look for your installed hardware.
For Ableton
- Go to the “Preferences” menu.
- Click on “Driver Type” to select CoreAudio for MAC or ASIO for Windows.
- Click on “Output Config” to select your hardware from the list.
As you can see, it is pretty much the same process for every DAW. The menu names change, but the main idea is to select your installed hardware for the audio output. Fortunately, your DAW will display the name of your card for you to select it.
Now you just have to test the speakers. A very simple way to do it is to create an audio channel. Then import any audio file (mp3, wav, etc.) and put that audio file in the audio channel. Then just hit the play button and you should hear some audio.
Ok. You have done a great job so far. It wasn’t that difficult, right? Well, here is where the things start to get a little bit tricky. Keep reading, you will manage to play your keyboard.
With the speakers, you configured the output for the DAW. Now for the MIDI keyboard, you are going to configure the inputs to the DAW. This is a very important concept to understand.
Depending on the software you decided to install, the process will be a little bit different. But these are in general, the main steps that you need to follow to use your keyboard with your DAW:
- Make sure your keyboard is on and connected to the computer.
- In your DAW, look for anything related to “inputs”, “midi inputs”, “midi instruments” or “devices”.
- Look for anything like a list of available midi devices. You might have to enable the midi inputs before you can use your keyboard.
- Look for an option that refers to your keyboard. The brand or model of your keyboard will usually be displayed.
- Make sure the speakers are on and try to play some notes.
This process can sometimes be a bit frustrating. It was for me! But it should work.
Again, this is a very quick summary of the steps for different DAWs, to help you with the configuration. Just remember that the menu names might not be exactly the same.
For LMMS
- Create an instrument track by dragging an instrument to the song editor.
- Click the new track name to open the instrument editor.
- In the instrument editor dialog, select the MIDI tab.
- Click the “ENABLE MIDI INPUT” button.
- Then click the little keyboard icon. Your MIDI keyboard should be there if you installed the drivers correctly.
- Select your MIDI keyboard from the list.
- If your speakers are on and you assigned already an audio output for LMMS, you should hear some sound.
For Cubase
- On the “Devices” menu, select “VST Instruments”.
- On the VST Instruments window, right-click on an empty area.
- Click “Add Track”.
- A dialog with the instrument configuration opens.
- If your speakers are on and you correctly assigned an audio output for Cubase, you should hear some sound.
For Reason
- Go to Preferences”.
- For the page, select “Keyboard and Control Surfaces”.
- Select the manufacturer of your keyboard.
- Select the connection type on the “Midi Input” menu.
- If your speakers are on and you correctly assigned an audio output for Reason, you should hear some sound.
For FL Studio
- Go to the “Options” menu and check the “Enable MIDI remote control” option.
- From the top menu, select “Options” and then “Audio Settings”.
- Click on the “MIDI” tab.
- Select your keyboard from the “Input” list.
- Click “Controller Type” and select your keyboard again.
- With the controller highlighted, select the “Enable” switch below the “Input” list.
- You will probably have to create a MIDI track before being able to hear some sound.
For Ableton
- Go to the “Preferences” menu.
- Select the “MIDI Sync” tab.
- Look for your keyboard in the “Control Surface” section and select it for Input and Output.
- You will probably have to create a MIDI track before being able to hear some sound.
It is not crazy difficult to connect your MIDI keyboard to the computer and make some music. It can be tricky, sometimes frustrating, but it is possible and fun.
There are many variables that make this process different for every case, but this was in general what we did:
- Connect the keyboard to the computer using a USB cable, directly from the keyboard or through a MIDI interface.
- Install the MIDI keyboard or interface drivers in the computer.
- Install a DAW like LMMS or Reason to be able to hear sound and eventually record and produce music.
- Configure the audio outputs in our DAW.
- Configure the MIDI inputs in our DAW.
That was it. After all that, we can now play our keyboard, and we can actually hear what we are playing.
There is much, much, seriously, much more. You can record several instrument, you can layer them, you can generate sounds, you can equalize, you can… Well, the list keeps going and going. But this was the beginning of many hours of fun.
Introduction
Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard is a MIDI events generator and receiver. It doesn't produce any soundby itself, but can be used to drive a MIDI synthesizer (either hardware orsoftware, internal or external). You can use the computer's keyboard to playMIDI notes, and also the mouse. You can use the Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboardto display the played MIDI notes from another instrument or MIDI file player.To do so, connect the other MIDI port to the input port of VMPK.
Gymnopédie No. 1 by E. Satie (1866–1925) played by MuseScore and VMPK in Linux
VMPK has been tested in Linux, Windows and Mac OSX, but maybe you can build it also in other systems. If so, please drop a mail to the author.
The Virtual Keyboard by Takashi Iway (vkeybd) has been the inspiration for this one. It is a wonderful piece of software and has served us well for many years.Thanks!
VMPK uses a modern GUI framework: Qt5, that gives excellent features and performance. Drumstick RT provides MIDI input/output features. Both frameworks arefree and platform independent, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OSX.
The alphanumeric keyboard mapping can be configured from inside the programusing the GUI interface, and the settings are stored in XML files. Some mapsfor Spanish, German and French keyboard layouts are provided, translated fromthe ones provided by VKeybd.
VMPK can send program changes and controllers to a MIDI synth. The definitions for different standards and devices can be provided as .INS files, the same format used by QTractor and TSE3. It was developed by Cakewalk and used also in Sonar.
This software is still in development. See the TODO file for a list of pending features. Please feel free to contact the author to ask questions, report bugs, and propose new features. You can use the tracking system atSourceForgeproject site.
Copyright (C) 2008-2020, Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas <plcl ATusers.sourceforge.net> and others.
Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard is free software licensed under the terms of theGPL v3 license.
Midi Keyboard – Play & Record 1 0 350
Getting started
MIDI concepts
MIDI is an industry standard to connect musical instruments. It is based on transmitting the actions performed by a musician playing some instrument to another different instrument. Musical instruments enabled with MIDI interfaces typically have two DIN sockets labeled MIDI IN and MIDI OUT. Sometimes there is a third socket labeled MIDI THRU. To connect a MIDI instrument to another one, you need a MIDI cable attached to the MIDI OUT socket of the sending instrument, and to the MIDI IN of the receiving one. You can find more information andtutorials like this one allaround the Net.
There are also hardware MIDI interfaces for computers, providing MIDI IN and OUT ports, where you can attach MIDI cables to communicate the computer with external MIDI instruments. Without needing hardware interfaces, the computer can also use MIDI software. An example is VMPK, which provides MIDI IN and OUT ports. You can attach virtual MIDI cables to the VMPK's ports, to connect the program to other programs or to the computer's physical MIDI interface ports. More details about this coming later.You usually want to connect the MIDI output from VMPK to the input of some synthesizer which transforms MIDI into sound. Another common destination for the connection would be a MIDI monitor that translates MIDI events into readable text. This will help you to understand what kind of information is transmitted using the MIDI protocol. In Linux you cantry KMidimon and in Windows MIDIOX.
VMPK doesn't produce any sound. You need a MIDI software synthesizer to hear the played notes.I recommend you to try QSynth,a graphical front-end to Fluidsynth. In Windows you can also use the 'Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth' that comes with all Windows versions, or a better alternative like CoolSoft Virtual MIDI Synth.Of course, an external MIDI hardware synth would be an even better approach.
Keyboard maps and instrument definitions
VMPK can help you to change sounds in your MIDI synthesizer, but only if you provide a definition for the synthesizer sounds first. The definitions are text files with the .INS extension, and the same format used by Qtractor (Linux), and Sonar (Windows).
When you start VMPK the first time, you should open the Preferences dialog and choose a definition file, and then select the instrument name among those provided by the definitions file. There should be one instrument definitions file installed in the VMPK's data directory (typically '/usr/share/vmpk' in Linux, and 'C:Program FilesVMPK' in Windows) named 'gmgsxg.ins', containing definitions for the General MIDI, Roland GS and Yamaha XG standards. It is a very simple format, and you can use any text editor to look, change, and create a new one. You can find a library of instruments definitions at the cakewalk ftp server.
Since the release 0.2.5 you can also import Sound Font files (in .SF2 or DLS formats) asinstruments definitions, using a dialog available at menu File->Import SoundFont.
Another customization that you may want to tweak is the keyboard mapping. The default layout maps about two and half octaves for the QWERTY alphanumeric keyboard, but there are some more definitions in the data directory, adapted for other international layouts. You can even define your own mapping using a dialog box available in the Edit->Keyboard map menu. There are also options to load and save the maps as XML files. The last loaded map will be remembered the next time you start VMPK. In fact, all your preferences, selected MIDI bank and program, and the controller values will be saved on exit, and restored when you restart VMPK the next time.
MIDI connections and virtual MIDI cables
In Windows, VMPK connects automatically to the default MIDI output, which is usually the 'Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth', included in all Windows versions. This MIDI synthesizer produces very poor quality sound, and suffers of high latency. A better (and free) alternative is CoolSoft Virtual MIDI Synth.
To connect hardware MIDI devices you need physical MIDI cables. To connect MIDI software you need virtual cables. In Windows you can use some virtual MIDI cable software, like MIDI Yoke, Maple, LoopBe1, orloopMIDI.
MIDI Yoke setup process will install the driver and a control panel applet to change the number of MIDI ports that will be available (you need to restart the computer after changing this setting). MIDI Yoke works sending every MIDI event written to an OUT port to the corresponding IN port. For instance, VMPK can connect the output to the port 1, and another program like QSynth can read the same events from the port 1.
Using MIDIOX you can add more routes between MIDI Yoke ports and other system MIDI ports. This program also provides other interesting functionalities, like a MIDI file player. You can listen the songs played in a MIDI Synth and at the same time see the played notes (only one channel at a time) in VMPK. To do so, you can use the 'Routes' window in MIDIOX to connect the input port 1 to the Windows Synth port. Also, configure the player's MIDI port to send to MIDI Yoke 1. And configure VMPK Input port to read from MIDI Yoke 1. The player will send the events to the out port 1, which will be routed to both the input port 1 and at the same time to the synth port.
In Linux, you have ALSA sequencer to provide the virtual cables. The ports are dynamically created when you start a program, so there is not a fixed number of them like in MIDI Yoke.The command line utility 'aconnect' allows to connect and disconnect the virtual MIDI cables between any ports, being hardware interfaces or applications. A nice GUI utility for doing the same is QJackCtl. The main purpose of this program is to control the Jack daemon (start, stop and monitor the state). Jack provides virtual audio cables to connect your sound card ports and audio programs, in a similar way to the MIDI virtual cables, but for digital audio data.
QJackCtl connections in Linux
Frequently Asked Questions
How to display 88 keys?
Since VMPK 0.6.0 you can use the settings dialog to choose this exact number of keys.
There is no sound
VMPK doesn't produce any sound by itself. You need a MIDI synthesizer.
Some keys are silent
When you select channel 10 on a standard MIDI synth, it plays percussion sounds assigned to many keys but not to all of them. On melodic channels (not channel 10) you can select patches with a limited range of notes. This is known in music as Tessitura.
Patch names don't match the real sounds
You need to provide an .INS file describing exactly your synthesizer's sound set or soundfont. The included file (gmgsxg.ins) contains definitions for only standard GM, GS and XG instruments. If your MIDI synth doesn't match exactly any of them, you need to get another .INS file, or create it yourself.
Syntax of the Instrument Definition (.INS) files?
One explanation of the INS format is here.
Can I convert my Instrument Definition for vkeybd into an .INS file?
Sure. Use the AWK script 'txt2ins.awk'. You can even use the utility sftovkb from vkeybd to create an .INS file from any SF2 soundfont, but there is also a function to import the instrument names from SF2 and DLS files in VMPK.
You can find the AWK script 'txt2ins.awk' installed in the VMPK's data directory.
Download
You can find the latest sources, Windows, and Mac OSX packages at SourceForge project site.
VMPK for Android (free)Midi Keyboard – Play & Record 1 0 35 Minutes
- Windows 64bit: vmpk-0.7.2-win-x64-setup.exe (29.3 MB)
- Windows 32bit: vmpk-0.7.2-win-x86-setup.exe (25.8 MB)
- macOS X Intel 64bit: vmpk-0.7.2-mac-x64.dmg (11.2 MB)
- Linux (64 bit): vmpk-0.7.2-linux-x86_64.AppImage (25.5 MB)
- C++ Sources: vmpk-0.7.2.tar.bz2 (438 kB)
If you distribute VMPK packages for any distro, please drop me an email and I will add a link to your site here.
Installation from sources
Download the sources from https://sourceforge.net/projects/vmpk/files.Unpack the sources in your home directory, and change to the unpacked dir.
You can choose between CMake and Qmake to prepare the build system, but qmake isintended only for testing and development.
After that, compile the program:
If the program has been compiled sucessfully, you can install it:
Requirements
In order to successfully build and use VMPK, you need Qt 5.1 or newer. (install the -devel package for your system, or download the open source edition from qt.io
Drusmtick RT is required for all platforms. It uses ALSA sequencer in Linux, WinMM in Windows and CoreMIDI in Mac OSX, which are the native MIDI systems in each supported platform.
The build system is based on CMake.
You need also the GCC C++ compiler. MinGW is a Windows port.
Optionally, you can buid a Windows setup program using NSIS.
Midi Keyboard – Play & Record 1 0 35 Seconds
Notes for windows users
To compile the sources in Windows, you need to download either the .bz2 or .gz archive and uncompress it using any utility that supports the format, like 7-Zip.
To configure the sources, you need qmake (from Qt5) or CMake. You need to setthe PATH including the directories for Qt5 binaries, MinGW binaries, and alsoCMake binaries. The program CMakeSetup.exe is the graphic version of CMake forWindows.
For some hints on using the program in Windows, please see MIDI connections.
Notes for Mac OSX users
You can find a precompiled universal app bundle, including Qt5 runtime libraries, at the project download area. If you prefer to install from sources, CMake or Qmakecan be used to build the application bundle linked to the installed system libraries. You can use Qt5 either from qt.io or packages from Homebrew.
The build system is configured to create an universal binary (x86+ppc) into anapp bundle. You need the Apple development tools and frameworks, as wellas Qt5.
To compile VMPK using Makefiles, generated by qmake:
To compile using Makefiles, generated by CMake:
Macbooster 6 0 2. To create Xcode project files:
If you need something to produce noise, maybe you want to take a look to SimpleSynth, FluidSynth. ForMIDI routing, there is also MIDI Patchbay.
Notes for packagers and advanced users
You can ask the compiler for some optimisation when building the program.There are two ways: first, using a predefined build type.
The CMake 'Release' type uses the compiler flags: '-O3 -DNDEBUG'. Otherpredefined build types are 'Debug', 'RelWithDebInfo', and 'MinSizeRel'.The second way is to choose the compiler flags yourself.
You need to find the better CXXFLAGS for your own system.
If you want to install the program at some place other than the default(/usr/local) use the following CMake option:
Acknowledgements
In addition to the aforementioned tools, VMPK uses work from the followingopen source projects.
- from Qtractor, by Rui Nuno Capela
Instrument definition data classes - Icon and logo by Theresa Knott
- This page uses the Wordsworth 3 free template by Lee Baillie
- This page uses Lightbox2 by Lokesh Dhakar
Thank you very much!