Recording from a Music Keyboard

With Composer, you can record music live from your music keyboard. By "music keyboard", we mean a MIDI keyboard, or any MIDI input device such as a MIDI guitar.

If you have good keyboard skills, you can record directly from your keyboard with one or two hands at a comfortable tempo.

You can alternatively use your music keyboard to enter notes via the Step-Time Recording Method. With the Step-Time Recording Method, you can enter notes at your own pace without regard to rhythms or tempo. The rhythms of the notes that you enter in step-time will be determined by where you point the mouse before you play the notes on the keyboard.

The topics that follow describe various procedures for recording in step-time or real-time from your music keyboard:

Setting Up Your Music Keyboard

Recording in Step-Time

Setting the Tempo for Real-Time Recording with a Metronome

Setting Up Pickup Beats

Setting the Instrument Sound for Recording

Setting Up Transcription Options for Recording

Recording Without Using the Metronome

Starting and Ending the First Recording

Recording Into a Selected Region (Punch-In)

Recording from a Keyboard with One or Two Hands

Recording Multiple Alternative "Takes"

Recovering an Interrupted Recording

Cleaning up the Performance or Notation after a Recording