FAQ

Short answers, with a pointer to the long version where there is one.

Do I need a DAW?

No. While it's intended as a MIDI instrument first and foremost, MIDIpad ships with some basic built-in sounds so you can start playing it immediately; twelve voices for Chords,a sampled kit for Drums. See Sound and MIDI.

Can I add my own samples to Drums?

Soon! I'm working on that.

Do I need to know any music theory?

No. Declare a key and the wheel only ever offers chords that fit it - the worst you can play is a chord you didn't mean, and it will fit. If you want to know why it fits, the Chords chapter explains as it goes, but you can ignore all of it and just play.

Which controllers work?

It's built for the PlayStation pads - the DualShock 4 and DualSense - and they're the only ones that carry the whole instrument, because the touchpad and motion sensors are core to it, not extras. Xbox and Switch Pro pads play too, with real constraints I've listed honestly in Controllers, and Drums plays whole on anything with two analog sticks. If you're not on a Sony pad, spend ten minutes with the demo before you spend anything else.

Do I need to install a driver?

No. Pair or plug the pad the way you would for gaming, and MIDIpad shows up on your system as two MIDI inputs - MIDIpad Chords and MIDIpad Drums. That's the whole install.

Which DAWs does it work with?

Any that can read a MIDI input, which is all of them: Ableton Live, Logic, Bitwig, FL Studio, Reaper, the rest. Enable the two inputs, arm a track, play. Set up your DAW is the walkthrough.

Does it do MPE?

Natively - it's half the point. With a licence each of the six strings lives on its own channel with its own pressure and timbre, so an MPE synth hears six independent voices. The demo folds that onto one channel at the port. MIDI and MPE has the story, the MIDI reference has the wire.

What's the catch with the demo?

There isn't one hiding. It never expires, never nags, and nothing about the playing is held back - every gesture, both instruments, the full expression through MIDIpad's own sound. The music you make with it is yours, commercial or not. What a licence buys is the output and the shaping: the MPE wire, the settings that change the instrument's character, the rest of the voices, and the overlay. Demo vs licensed draws the exact line, item by item.

What does it run on?

macOS, Apple silicon and Intel. I'm trying to figure out how to get it onto Windows and Linux cleanly and still retain my sanity - watch this space.

How does the licence work?

Pay once, get a key, no subscription. Activating checks the key online one time, then the app works fully offline. A key covers two machines at once, and you can free a slot from inside the app whenever you like.

What does early access mean for me?

That you're buying it while I'm still building it. Your licence covers every release through 1.0 and beyond, the price goes up at 1.0, and the changelog records everything each release changed - removals included.

What's with all these hyphens everywhere?

My MacBook's keyboard is broken in quite specific ways - no left shift key, no left option key - it's very annoying, and I never learned the keyboard shortcut to type em-dashes properly anyway, and am also a terrible writer. I apologise.