The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #137930   Message #3156703
Posted By: IvanB
18-May-11 - 07:56 PM
Thread Name: Tech: Software for USB keyboard?
Subject: RE: Tech: Software for USB keyboard?
In NoteWorthy click on Tools/Options. At the far right of the dialogue box that comes up are two tabs named Midi and Record. In the Record tab, there's a box near the top labeled "Input Device." You should see your keyboard listed there. Check the box labeled "Echo MIDI input." This should at least allow you to hear the KB's sounds on your computer's speakers.

To actually record into NWC, create a new staff of the sort desired (File/New), Click Tools/MIDI Input Active, then Tools/Record (or just press F4). Now keys played on your keyboard should appear on the staff.

Just one heads up: you can't play a tune with different note values and expect it to appear on the staff as played. NWC enters the note you played as soon as you lift your finger to quit the note, but at whatever input value is currently set, i.e., quarter note, eighth note, dotted half, etc. What IS handy is that you can play chords and all the notes will show, without having to go through the Ctrl/Enter machinations required by NWC for entering chords via the alpha-numeric KB.

One handy trick is to pick up an inexpensive USB number pad and connect it to your computer along with your music KB. That way, you can press a number for note value on the number pad (1 for whole note, 2 for half, 3 for quarter, etc.) then play whatever number of notes in your tune are of that value. When the note value changes in the tune, just press the proper number on the number pad to change the note value accordingly and play on. This method can really speed up the input into NWC.

My number pad cost about ten bucks on eBay and it has much bigger keys than the pad on my regular KB, a boon for clumsy old fingers. Also, the number pad also contains most of the "extra" keys necessary to affect note play, such as slash for ties and the period to produce a dotted note. It's missing the semicolon for producing a slur, however.