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Making your own key maps
To get the most out of MKey, you will probably need to create your own key map. Reasons that you might wish or need to do this include:
- Making MKey compatible with a non US/UK keyboard layout.
- Customizing MKey to support common keyboard shortcuts in your sequencer.
- Creating spilt keyboards with different MIDI channels.
- Setting up a key map for drum machines.
When you first open the KeyMapper, you will be presented with a window that looks like this: (image shrunken slightly for convenience)
There are basically two stages to setting up a key map. First you will need to configure the keyboard such that it represents your own PC or laptop keyboard. When the keyboard has been matched to your own, the next stage is to assign functions to the various keys.
Setting up the layout
Probably a good starting point would be to disable any unneeded keys. Don't worry about missing keys yet, we'll come to that in a moment. When you click on a key in the virtual keyboard, you will be presented with a secondary window (see image below) in which you can configure the key's properties. To disable an unheeded key, simply click the key you wish to disable, and in the window that pops up, untick the check box marked 'Is Key present'. When you click 'OK', you should see that the key should is now blanked.
When you press a key on your keyboard, you should see the virtual key respond. If an incorrect key, or no key responds to you key stroke, then you will need to correct the key association. Click the virtual key that should be responding to your key stroke, and the key editor window should show. If you need to enable this key, then check the 'Is Key Present' checkbox.
In the Key Label box, enter the key name. There is only room for a few characters to show on the virtual keys, so keep it short. Now click 'Capture Key', and press the key on your keyboard that this virtual key should correspond with. The capture key button will stay depressed until you press a key, and should then reset. Now click OK, and test the new key by pressing the corresponding key on your keyboard.
Once you have correctly associated all of your keyboard keys with their counterpart on virtual keyboard, you can begin setting the key functions.
Assigning key functions
To specify how MKey should react to a key, you simply need to choose a function from the drop down box labelled 'Key Action'. Possible functions are:
- Unassigned. When this option is chosen, the key will perform no task, but will be blocked from reaching the host application.
- MIDI Note. When this option is selected, the key can be assigned a MIDI note that will be passed to the host sequencer.
- Transpose. The key will cause MKey to play notes transposed.
- Send Key. This key, or an alternate key stroke, will be passed to the host. This allows you to use common keyboard shortcuts without deactivating MKey.
- All Notes Off. The key can be used as a 'panic' key that transmits an all-notes-off message on every MIDI channel. The 'Escape' key may be a good choice for this task.
MIDI Note options
When a key is selected to be a MIDI note you will need to set the default note, and octave to be played. Note, you can use transpose keys to edit this on the fly, but sensible starting values are advised. In addition to the note and octave, you can also assign the key to a MIDI channel. The default is MIDI channel 1. You can safely ignore this field in most cases.
Tip: Transpose keys can be made to act on specific MIDI channels, so you could use this field to create split keyboards where the upper layer is distinct from the lower layer for example.
Transpose options
To set a key up to act as a transpose key, you need simply to select the amount by which the key will transpose played notes, and whether the transpose will be upwards or downwards. Any time this key is pressed, MKey will then transpose the output notes by this amount. Transpose keys can be used iteratively, so subsequent presses will transpose the output still further.
If you wish the transpose key to only act whilst it is held down, select the 'nudge' option. When nudge is checked, the transpose will reset when the key is released. This may be more convenient for some tasks, but the trade off is that you lose the iterative capability of the standard transpose mode. The two modes are actually complementary though, so it may be useful to create one of each type.
Transpose keys can have an optional target MIDI channel assigned to them. By default they will transpose MKey generated notes on any MIDI channel, but if you choose a specific MIDI channel from the drop down box, then only MIDI Note keys assigned to that channel will be transposed.
Send Keystrokes
It is sometimes useful to be able to use keyboard shortcuts for your sequencer whilst the MKey is in piano mode. For this reason you can opt to have a key not be trapped by MKey, or optionally you can have MKey replace them with an alternative keystroke.
When the 'pass key through to host' option is checked, the host will receive the keystroke just as if MKey was not active. If you uncheck this option however, you can now enter a key combination that will be transmitted to the host in the key strokes' place. For example, you could replace the 'enter' key with 'CTRL+T'. To do this, simply click the button marked 'set send keys', and press the key combination you require. When the keystroke has registered, the button will cease to be indented.
Tip: even if you are not using the MKey piano keyboard, you may find it useful to assign some of your favourite keyboard shortcuts to easy to remember keys such as the function keys.
Known Issues
- The key map highlighting does not update when a new key map is loaded.
- It is a bad idea to load the KeyMapper whilst you have an MKey active in your sequencer.