Demo vs licensed

MIDIpad is a free download. Demo Mode has every gesture and both instruments, and plays at MIDIpad's default settings.

Each day, MIDIpad plays as the full version for 20 minutes from the first note, so you can try everything below. When the 20 minutes are up, it goes back to the demo the next time nothing is sounding.

What's always free

• Playing from the touchpad, the right stick and the buttons, softening and muting on the left trigger, and Stretch, and everything Drums does with the sticks and thumbs.
• The key's root.
• The tempo.
• Single-channel Chords output: plain notes and velocity.
• Drums on its own port, at the General MIDI notes on one channel.
• The Controller Overlay.
• Brightness and contrast, switching the visuals off, and auto-hiding the instrument controls.

What a licence unlocks

• The full Chords output: the four output configs - MPE, Multi-channel, Poly aftertouch, Single channel - and the expression in every one of them. The demo sends notes and velocity on one channel and no pressure or timbre, so the touchpad's timbre and hold and shaking only have an effect in the full version. See MIDI and MPE.
• Minor keys. The demo can use any root, but only in Major.
• More time signatures: the demo plays in 4/4, the full version has 2-12 for numerator and 4/8/16 for denominator.
• Each instrument's character: Chords' String sustain, Energy bias, Dynamics and Shake response, along with its voicing, stretch and tilt settings, and Drums' Energy, Dynamics, Swing, Snare offset and Half-time. In the demo these all stay on their defaults.
• Presets for Chords and Drums. See Changing the character.
• The chord wheel and the buttons: picking which chords L1 and R1 bring up, what L3 adds, and which strings each face button plays. See Finding more chords.
• Keyswitches for sampled instruments. See Keyswitches.
• Multiplayer: two controllers at once. See Multiplayer.
• The Automation lanes: the fixed CCs that drive the instrument controls from your DAW - see App settings. The demo ignores them.
• The Drums settings: what notes get sent per-drum; MPE or Multi-channel, with each drum on its own channel and how far you push its control sent alongside; the crossfader's CC and the signals; and Backbeat can be switched from Automatic to Manual, giving you a bit more control over backbeat placement.
• All themes: the demo gets the default one.
• The Instrument Overlay, a floating always-on-top HUD you can position over your DAW for visual feedback without the full window open. See The overlays.

Activating

1. Buy MIDIpad from the purchase page. Your licence key arrives by email.
2. Click Activate on the purchase page, which opens the app with the key filled in, or open Settings → License and paste the key in. Press Activate. The key is checked online once, and then everything is unlocked.
3. After that MIDIpad works fully offline. The licence is verified locally, and checked again in the background when you're online. If the licence is no longer valid, MIDIpad goes back to Demo Mode and shows a message.

Once you're activated the pane shows Activated as and a name for this machine - its model and a short code, something like MacBook Pro · 4f9c.

One key covers two machines at once. Remove Key in the same pane deactivates this machine so you can use the key on another one.