TIL How to play notes on the computer keyboard

It’s easy:

press [Capslock] on your computer keyboard

This is essential to me. Because if you don’t have a midi keyboard connected you can still play notes to record or test a sound. And I do not have one connected most of the time.

In Ableton Live

In Live the standard configuration is that you can play notes using the keys on the computer keyboard. Starting with A they layout mimics a piano layout. You can change octaves with Z and X.

You can choose to disable that and use the keys for shortcuts. Do this by pressing the keyboard icon in the top bar. Or the shortcut M

I have thought about binding the action in Bitwig to M. Only that is the current shortcut for Mixer view. A very useful one.

So I think I will keep using the Capslock even though I find myself shouting in other applications on occasion.

Does anyone have a good suggestion for an alternative key to bind this to?

  • @SoulMechanic
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    11 year ago

    Most the time you can key bind multiple keys at once for an action. For example shift+M can do something different. Try that by recording the action by pressing both at the same time.

    • @samckahOPM
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      11 year ago

      That is a pretty good option yes. I would have to check if shift+m is not already used by another command, but good tip thanks!