The keyboard and pedals

What they do

The keyboard and pedals provide both a way to audition the piano sound with your mouse, and a way to receive visual feedback when playing your MIDI controller or when playing back your project. To the right of the keyboard are three pedal icons.

Many MIDI controllers have a sustain button, or a sustain pedal input that will send MIDI CC 64. Some keyboard controllers have a complete pedal unit input jack, which would provide all three pedals as arranged on a piano, with each sending the associated MIDI CC message.

When a pedal is depressed, or the associated MIDI CC message is sent, the corresponding pedal icon lights up. The pedals are arranged like a piano, with the soft pedal (MIDI CC 67) on the left, the sostenuto pedal (MIDI CC 66) in the middle, and the sustain pedal (MIDI CC 64) on the right.

Once you've loaded a microphone perspective, use the keyboard to audition the piano sound. Clicking a key towards the bottom plays the note with greater key velocity (like pressing a key harder), and clicking a key towards the top plays the note with less key velocity (like pressing a key more softly).

Each key corresponds to a MIDI note message number, as shown in the diagram below.

See also:

Re-Pedaling and Partial Pedaling