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I'm thinking about adding an external keyboard to my system (used to have one but... long story) and before I buy I wanted to ask whether the midi keyboard wizard works with such a thing.

I know it uses the bottom row of keys on your keyboard for chord keys and next row up as passing notes, but does this work on an external keyboard? And, if so, what keys are what?

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That interested me, too. Does anybody have any experience nevertheless enjoy the iPad, which simulates a MIDI keyboard for this purpose?


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From the online help (doh!):

The Wizard also works with MIDI keyboard Thru channel input. To enable this feature, go to Options | [Preferences] and select the [Transpose] button. In the Settings for transposing songs when loaded or "Do it Now" dialog there is a setting to Use Wizard for THRU part.

When this checkbox is selected the MIDI input from your external keyboard will be sent to the Wizard. C/E/G/Bb notes will be mapped to chord tones and D/F/A/B notes will be passing tones.


These are NOT the notes I would have chosen, in that they aren't exactly as easy to find as top row/bottom row on an alphanumeric keyboard would be, but at least it can be done.

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I think there is some confusion by how the question is asked and answered.

I took Mike's question to mean "can I use an external (PS2 or USB connected) alphanumeric pc keyboard in place of a built-in laptop alphanumeric keyboard". I know the answer to this question is yes.

Mike's response to his original question seems to be written as though the question is "can I use an external (midi or USB connected) electronic piano or synth keyboard to play the midi keyboard wizard. That seems to be the question Mike answered with his response.


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Too many guitarists on this forum <grin>. Mike said he's thinking of getting an external keyboard and he used to have one. That's obvious he means a synth keyboard to me. How could he "used to have" a QWERTY keyboard?

On a music forum the common term for a PC keyboard is QWERTY and the term "midi keyboard" means piano keys. Usually. But of course this is an international forum so there can be confusion about that. Not to mention all the guitarists...

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LOL -- sorry, yeah, it's a bit difficult to understand the right nomenclature, but I was indeed referring to having what this old man used to think of as a midi keyboard but nowadays is just a midi controller, external to the program, and invoke the midi keyboard wizard (which itself is a bit of a misleading term, I guess).

The manual cleared that all up, and I could have sworn I looked there originally but couldn't find it. And now that I have one (the external controller) I find it does work as advertised, so that's fine as well.

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