Midi Keyboard Uses

January 29, 2020 6:50 AM

I just got this little Akai midi keyboard so I can easily write music in MuseScore. What other free software can I get to use this thing to make music? Assume I know nothing about any of this.
posted by something something to Grab Bag (6 answers total)

Here's a great overview of free music production tools -- check out the description box below the video for a full list of tools and links.
posted by ourobouros at 7:05 AM on January 29, 2020

Helm is a nice open source soft synth. So is synth1. Track up on that last link to see a large list of free VST software. If you need a cheap host (with free trial that some people use forever) check out Reaper.

Finally, I have to plug LilyPond/Frescobaldi. It's an open source system for making beautiful sheet music. It is very powerful but uses simple scripting code, not drag-and-drop. But it can also generate MIDI files from scores, and take input from your MIDI keyboard.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:15 AM on January 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Garageband is free with all Macs and works with MIDI keyboards.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:29 PM on January 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

There's a fun open-source synth tool called ZynAddSubFX - I've found it to be incredibly flexible and powerful, despite the dated-looking skin.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:40 PM on January 29, 2020

I have essentially that keyboard, plugged into a Zynthian - which is a DIY synth platform based on Raspberry Pi, and runs the previously-mentioned Helm, ZynAddSubFx and a whole lot of others.
posted by rd45 at 7:50 AM on January 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Something called LMMS and something else called Ardour are both available on Linux.
posted by my-username at 4:18 PM on February 3, 2020