With Keyboard Keyboard, you can play keyboard with your keyboard! Map almost any key on your keyboard to a musical command: play a note, play multiple notes, play a chord, transpose the keyboard, activate the sustain pedal, and more.
Use your Mac's built-in IAC Driver to record MIDI into a DAW (such as Logic or Garage Band) or play a softsynth with your computer's keyboard. You can also connect an external MIDI device and manipulate it with Keyboard Keyboard.
You can play and record up to four channels of MIDI simultaneously. Set a different General MIDI sound for each voice in the app, or use the instruments built into a DAW or softsynth. Each voice has its own velocity, transposition, and pan control.
The user interface includes ten MIDI continuous controller sliders, a pitch bend slider, and a pressure (aftertouch) slider.
MIDI data that can be sent to other software or devices includes:
- Note On / Note Off
- Continuous Controller
- Pitch Bend
- Aftertouch
Program change information is not recorded.
To map a key on the computer keyboard to a note on the piano, click the key on the interface, then click the note on the piano or play a note with an external controller. To map a key to multiple notes, click the notes on the piano with the Command key pressed. To map a key to a chord, continuous controller, transposition value, or velocity modifier, right-click the key and select the desired assignment.
Built-in presets include: Piano and Guitar, Piano and Bass, Guitar and Bass, Piano, Guitar, Drums, and Random.
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Getting MIDI out was a struggle
JohnnyHands
You need to figure out that the text "MIDI Destination: none" is actually a pop-up menu that will reveal 'IAC Driver: Bus 1' which you can choose. If you don't see 'IAC Driver: Bus 1", then you have to go into the Audio MIDI Setup app (found in the /Applications/Utiliities folder - and perhaps the least intuitive application ever produced by Apple.), In that app, in the MIDI Studio window double-click on the IAC Driver, and in the IAC Driver Properties window, check 'device is online', then add a port with the button at the bottom in the Ports section and Apply. Then back in Keyboard Keyboard, you need to set MIDI Destination from 'None' to 'IAC Driver: Bus 1' (to do this, click on 'MIDI Destination: None' - it's actually a pop-up menu, though it looks nothing like one.) I finally got Logic Pro to see Keyboard Keyboard slider activity. That's all I need it for. I am mystified as to why the developers didn't have more information on this on their support page. All it says is 'Set Keyboard Keyboard’s MIDI destination to your Mac’s IAC Driver.' No other clues.
Can’t Send MIDI When App is Out of Focus
Pugiliszt
This was a feature that I had taken for granted in purchasing this app, that turned out to not be possible - assuming its a difficult technical challenge, but if you’re looking to tweak knobs of a synth or something in another app, you’ll have to toggle focus back and forth to use the keyboard app
Developer Response
Thanks for the review! Great idea to include a feature to globally receive key presses, I'll put that on the list for a future release. For now, the easiest thing to do might be to toggle "Show MIDI View" (CMD+0) and "Always On Top" (CMD+UpArrow)... Keyboard Keyboard still needs focus to receive key presses/send MIDI note messages, but this may help speed up your process a bit if you weren't already using this.
Global Key no longer works
[ APPLAUSE ]
Can no longer play notes when app is out-of-focus (app too out-of-date?) -- fun little keyboard otherwise.
GarageBand Pacifier
Qrisp
I love this! When I just have something quick I want to tighten up on the keys I don’t have to wait for an elaborate program like Garageband to open! Now Garageband is for creation only and this app is perfect for practicing chops! -Car Buyer Kik-StArT maker-
- Includes a new option to receive key press events even when Keyboard Keyboard doesn't have focus, making it easier to send MIDI to a softsynth or another application
- Keys are now assignable to MIDI Pitch Bend
- Fixes a crash which may occur when opening a preset
- Fixes an issue where some keys didn't display correctly when toggling between the Apple Keyboard and Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
- Fixes an issue where numbers might be displayed as 01 instead of 1, etc.
Version 1.3.1
The developer, Ryan Laney, has not provided details about its privacy practices and handling of data to Apple. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
No Details Provided
The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
