Bome Software Mouse Keyboard User Manual

Bome's Mouse Keyboard

USER MANUAL

Bome's Mouse Keyboard: Manual 1 Overview

1 Overview

This program simulates a music keyboard which you can play with the mouse or the computer keyboard. You can control your MIDI devices without having a real keyboard - for example you can play the internal synth of your sound card. With a virtual MIDI cable (for example Hubis Loopback Device or MIDI Yoke) you can play any sequences into your sequencer or route your external synthesizer through the chord-maker of Bome's Mouse Keyboard. Additionally, you can define knobs and control with them any MIDI controller. Furthermore, you can use your mouse wheel and the joystick to send controller messages.

2 System Requirements

Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP (Vista should work, too)

Some kind of MIDI connection/synthesizer/soundcard

Optionally supported:

Mouse with wheel Joystick

3 Register/Purchase

This program is not Freeware. It's PostcardWare. If you find that Bome's Mouse Keyboard is useful for you and you want to continue using it, you have 2 options:

1. Pay the registration fee (more details). Or you can use the secure server to directly purchase the program.

2. Send me a real postcard (for private use only): Find out more at the postcardware site.

In both cases, you'll receive an email with a personalized password to remove the reminder screen at startup. Allow 4-12 weeks for postcard shipment and processing. With an online order, you'll get the license key immediately.

Bome's Mouse Keyboard: Manual 4 Quick Start

4 Quick Start

This is a quick guide to get started with Mouse Keyboard:

1. Select a MIDI out device in the menu. Everything that you play will be sent to that MIDI device.

2. Now you can already play: Use the left mouse button or the keyboard keys. A right click will play in Pitching Mode: While the right mouse button is pressed, you can alter the pitch/modulation by moving the mouse horizontally/vertically.

3. Adjust the size of the keyboard by

• resizing the window

• changing the base note (Alt+Mouse drag)

• adjust the key width (in the Settings Dialog)

4. Change the chord and play: Ahhh !

5. To find a good patch/program, enter the Hold Mode by playing a note with CTRL+right mouse button. The note will keep on being played when you release the mouse button. Now, change the program number or patch - it will replay your note for each new program so it's made easy browsing through the programs. The same applies to the bank numbers or chords. Which bank numbers to use is detailed in the documentation of your MIDI device.

6. Change the master volume with the volume knob. You can add more knobs in the menu Knobs|Set Up...

5 Keyboard Shortcuts

There are a number of key shortcuts that you can use:

Function Shortcut

chord +/- Pos1/End patch +/- PageUp/PageDown program +/- Shift+PageUp/Shift+PageDown Panic Ctrl+Space Transpose Ctrl+T Settings Ctrl+S Knob Editor Ctrl+K Chord Editor Ctrl+E Choose Patch set Ctrl+P Octave +/- F3/F4 Apply Snapshot F5...F12

Store Snapshot Ctrl+F5....Ctrl+F12

Bome's Mouse Keyboard: Manual 6 Function Reference

6 Function Reference

When you have a real keyboard connected to your computers MIDI port, select this as MIDI in and check the menu Options|Midi thru. Like this, the keys you play on the real keyboard are visualized on the mouse keyboard and the note and any chords you selected are routed to the MIDI out device.

To use several mouse keyboards at once (with their own settings and knobs) create a copy of MouseKeyboard.exe under a new name, e.g. SynthKeyb.exe. SynthKeyb will then use its own set of settings.

6.1 Mouse Operations

There are several modes to play with the mouse:

• Left mouse button: Normal Mode: the note/chord that you press down will be played. Moving the mouse while having the mouse button pressed will always play the new note/chord and release the old one.

• Right mouse button: Pitching mode: only the initially pressed note/chord will be played. With moving the mouse while the right mouse button is still pressed you can alter 2 controllers - one is changed by moving up/down, the other one by moving left/right. When you release the right mouse button, the note/chord will stop playing. You can set these controllers in the Settings dialog. By default, you change pitch and modulation wheel.

• CTRL+mouse button: Hold Mode: When you release the mouse button while holding down CTRL, the note/chord will keep on playing. The note will not be released before you play another note with the mouse. While a note is on hold, you can change patch/program, chords, etc. to browse through them: each time you change something, the note will be replayed with the new patch/program/chord.

• SHIFT: Pressing SHIFT while playing will lower the velocity of the played notes/chords. The velocity is the dynamic volume of the key. It differs from the general volume in that it does not change the volume of anything else played on that synthesizer - just the notes played with the mouse are affected. You can set the amount of lowering in the Settings dialog.

6.2 Other mouse operations

• ALT+left mouse button on the keyboard: Drag the mouse keyboard left/right to change the view of keys.

• Wheels (at left of keyboard): You change the value by dragging the

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