Set up your DAW

MIDIpad appears on your system as two MIDI inputs: MIDIpad Chords and MIDIpad Drums. Enable them in your DAW, point a track at each, and you're playing. Both ports are open whenever the app is running, so your DAW routing stays stable.

First: decide what you want to hear

MIDIpad plays its own sound as well as sending MIDI, so once your DAW is listening you'll hear both at once. Sometimes that's what you want, sometimes not.

To hear only your DAW, set the instrument's picker in the control bar to MIDI Only. The ports are unaffected - the only thing that stops is MIDIpad's own voice. See Sound and MIDI.

One thing to know about the MIDI side: MIDIpad shapes how long each string sounds and how its energy fades; your synth decides the rest. A plucky, velocity-sensitive patch translates the instrument's dynamics most vividly; a slow pad smooths them over. If something feels flat, try the patch before the settings.

Chords: three ways to listen

The simple route. Create a MIDI/instrument track, set its input to MIDIpad Chords, arm it, and play. This is all Demo Mode needs; in demo, Chords sends everything on a single channel.

The expressive route: MPE. With a licence, Chords speaks MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression): each of the six strings lives on its own channel, carrying its own pressure and timbre. Set the track's instrument to an MPE-capable synth and enable MPE for the track - most modern DAWs and synths have a single toggle for it. Each string's fade then reaches the synth independently of the others.

The split route: one synth per string. Because each string has its own channel (channels 2-7, low string to high), you can create six tracks, each filtered to one channel, each with a different instrument. A strum then cascades across six synths. No MPE support needed, just channel filtering, and each string keeps its own expression.

Drums: one track

Create a track with its input set to MIDIpad Drums and point it at any drum instrument. Out of the box, Drums sends standard General MIDI percussion on channel 10 - kick, snare and hats land on the notes every GM-mapped kit already expects, so nothing needs configuring.

With a licence you can move any control to any note and channel you like. See Kits and voice mapping.

Per-DAW guides

Step-by-step guides for Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Bitwig, Cubase, Reaper and FL Studio are being written, and go up here as they're finished. The shape is the same in all of them, though: enable MIDIpad Chords and MIDIpad Drums wherever your DAW lists its MIDI inputs, create a track for each, set its input, and arm it. If your DAW asks which channel to listen on, leave it on all channels - that's what lets the six strings arrive separately.

Full details

Channel-by-channel and message-by-message specifics live in the MIDI reference.