MIDI Keys 1.0
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                                 By: Daniel Lundin <sorrowd@acc.umu.se>


Introduction
MIDI Keys is a minimalistic little nifty tool for MIDI musicians and hobbyists. It displays a visual keyboard on screen and lets the user interact with mouse, keyboard or external MIDI controller. Furthermore it lets you redirect the output to any MIDI port, or if you lack the hardware (or for whatever other reason) - the internal MIDI Synthesizer (also known as BMidiSynth). It has a number of cool features: 

   * Visual display showing in realtime what notes are played 
   * Lets you use your computer's keyboard as MIDI controller, like in the good'ol
      tracker days. 
   * Uses the internal software synth as soundsource 
   * Lets you "pipe" MIDI through the program and out to any MIDI 
      port letting you use MIDI Keys as a simple MIDI patcher 
   * Makes use of prefslib if available for storing user setup 
   * Funky colors (drop onto the keyboard's different parts)

Installation
Installation is very simple (to say the least). Just put the MIDI Keys application file wherever you prefer ( /boot/apps for instance ). If you have libprefs installed, the
program will make use of it automatically for storing MIDI and color preferences.
If you don't have libprefs, settings will not be saved between sessions.

Usage
Using MIDI Keys is about as easy as installing it. To launch the program, simply doubleclick the icon or start it from a Terminal window.
Configure MIDI settings with the menus and play all you want... :-)

Menus
File-About - Displays the Aboutbox
File-Quit - Guess

Midi-Midi In Port - Selects which MIDI port to listen to for incoming events
Midi-Midi In Channel - Sets channel to listen on. If set to Omni it will listen to all channels
Midi-Midi Out Port - Selects Midi output port. When set to Internal Synth it will use the
                                        software synth as output soundsource. If set to None , no output 
                                        data will be produced.
Midi-Midi Out Channel - Sets MIDI channel to send output to.

Computer keyboard input
You can use the computer's keyboard as a MIDI controller, and play it as if it was a synthesizer keyboard. The keyboard has a similar layout to that of the old Soundtracker programs
for Amiga/PC.  The first octave is on the following keys (C,C#,D,D# and so on..): z,s,x,d,c,v,g,b,h,n,j,m    The second octave is on the top row (q,2,w,3,e,r,5,t,6,y,7,u,i),
Any user of tracker programs will recognize this layout immediately, otherwise take a look at your keyboard and you'll realize the logic.

You can transpose the keyboard with F1-F4 like in the Soundtracker.

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Pricing
MIDI Keys is shareware, meaning you may download it and use it for free for personal and non-profit use. However, if you like the program  you're encouraged to send
$5 and/or a postcard to: 

   Daniel Lundin 
   Pedagoggränd 3J 
   908 30 Umeå
   Sweden 
   
   WWW: http://www.cs.umu.se/~dva97dln/
     Email: sorrowd@acc.umu.se

If you would like to use MIDI Keys for commercial purposes, or include it in any kind of distributed package (CDROM, FTP Archive etc etc), please contact me for an agreement. MIDI Keys may not be redistributed or sold without the author's permission. 

Known bugs (do not report)
These bugs will be fixed in a minor update soon.
* Mouseup doesn't happen until mouse is moved
* Doesn't handle more/less than two MIDI Ports
* When resizing window, sometimes notes are played because mouse is over keys

Bug reports and feature requests
If you encounter any bugs or see any lacking features, please send a  reports and suggestions by email to Daniel Lundin <sorrowd@acc.umu.se>. 

Future plans
These are some planned features for next release: 

   * Standard MIDI file playing. It will be able to play any SMF file you drop onto it. 
   * Better MIDI port handling (partially waiting for BeOS R3) 
   * An "LED" display on the keyboard showing channels/ports 
   * Even funkier colors 

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Copyright (c)1998, Daniel Lundin. 
