Computer Keyboard --> MIDI Controller?

October 24, 2006 2:12 PM

Computer keyboard (ps2) as simple midi controller?

One day I'll be a rock and roll superstar, but for now I'm just getting started with digital effects. I'm playing around with Audio Mulch on my pc, and I've realized that I need a foot-controlled midi trigger of some sort.

My first thought was that I could just use an old PS2 computer keyboard, run some special ps2->midi software, and rip off all of the keys I don't need. Unfortunately, I'm not having any luck with the ps2->midi software, largely bacause googling for "PS2" gets me playstation info, and googling for "midi keyboard" gets me info about piano type things, not the common devices with space bars and enter keys. Any thoughts?

Alternatively, if y'all know of any foot controllers that are dirt cheap, that could work, too.

Finally, I've come across a lot of schematics for DIY midi controllers. That could be a lot of fun, and very useful, but I have Zero knowledge of electronics.

posted by Squid Voltaire to technology (5 comments total)

I get the impression that many people use MIDI-OX for this -- it says "You can generate MIDI data using the computer keyboard". I don't know how easy it is to have it use ONLY your extra keyboard for this and not your main keyboard, though.

(Are you really going to use your foot to press keys on the keyboard? I don't imagine it will survive very long...)
posted by xil at 2:18 PM on October 24, 2006

Perhaps search for virtual midi devices? Midikeys allows you to use your keyboard on a Mac as a MIDI device with programs that listen to MIDI interfaces. Midikeys by itself doesn't do much - you have to run a program that listens to it and reacts to the events with, say, sound or some other action.
posted by odinsdream at 2:18 PM on October 24, 2006

Midi-Ox looks perfect for me, for now. I mostly want to record and then loop myself (hooray Andrew Bird!) so little things like velocity don't matter to me, and I don't plan to step down too hard. Eventually I'll get myself something more hard-core than a spare computer keyboard, but this will do for now.

Thanks,
posted by Squid Voltaire at 3:00 PM on October 24, 2006

For the benefit of the Future, I should add that I think I'm ultimately going a different route. Assuming I can get it to work, SuperEel claims that it will convert audio to midi. So, in theory, I'll use SuperEel and MIDI-OX to control my effects via voice.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 8:21 AM on October 25, 2006

You'll no doubt want the MIDI-Yoke on that website as well. I've had pretty good results with MIDI-OX when I have a MIDI device that has some knobs on it that I want to use to send MIDI messages to Ableton Live.

But the thing is is that my MIDI instrument sends out a MIDI control message that has a different result in Ableton live. So I used MIDI-OX to 'sniff' the MIDI signals and convert the message of type 1 to the message of type 2 and route it via MIDI-Yoke in to Live et viola.

Powerful stuff.
posted by mnology at 1:14 PM on October 25, 2006