Controllers
Keyboard
Play notes yourself — with the computer keyboard, the mouse, or a MIDI controller.
Learn about it in Envelopes & VCAs: how notes start and stop
How it works
The middle row of your keyboard (A S D F G H J K L ; ') plays white notes; the row above (W E T Y U O P) plays sharps. Z and X shift the octave. Any connected MIDI keyboard also works (in Chrome/Edge). Holding several keys plays the most recent one (mono).
Outputs
| V/OCT | Pitch of the held note, 1.0 per octave, 0 = C4. Patch to VCO V/OCT (and Filter V/OCT for key tracking). |
|---|---|
| GATE | High while a key is held. Patch to ADSR GATE. |
| VEL | How hard the key was hit (MIDI), 0–1. QWERTY keys send 0.8. |
Knobs and switches
| Oct | Octave shift. |
|---|---|
| Glide | Portamento — slide between notes when playing legato. |
Lessons that use the Keyboard
Each one opens as a working patch in the synth.
- 01 · Your First Note
- 02 · Envelopes
- 03 · Subtractive Synthesis
- 04 · Movement with LFOs
- 05 · Mixer: Fat Sounds
- 12 · FM: Audio-Rate Modulation
- 13 · Drive & Wavefolding
- 15 · Vowel: Make It Talk
- 16 · Chorus, Phaser, Flanger
- 17 · Wavetable & PWM
- 20 · Sampler: Play a Sound
- 23 · Slew: Glide Anything
- 24 · Scale/Offset: Signal Surgery
- 25 · Chords & Arpeggios
- 34 · Looper
- 36 · Pitch Shifter: Instant Harmony
- 43 · Vocoder
- 47 · Spectrum & Tuner
Words to know
- Gate — An on/off signal: high while a key or step is held, low when it is not.
- V/OCT — The pitch standard: each +1 on the input raises the pitch by one octave.