A poem/tune: Possible to publically perform?

June 14, 2007 6:22 PM

What is the easiest way to have one program running in Mac OS X while another displays keystrokes in real time? I'll explain the details inside...

I've been playing around with the Native Instruments B4 II Hammond B3 organ simulator on my Powerbook G4. It allows the user to play the computer keyboard as a piano keyboard. Zxcvbnm,./ and qwertyuiop[]\ line up as rows of white piano keys, while sdghjl; and 2356790= serve as the adjacent black keys. Typing into the organ, it turns out that certain words, such as 'something,' can be made into catchy, albeit fairly dissonant, melodies.

So here's my question. If, using this system, a song was written so that typing the 'lyrics' would simultaneously provide the song's melody, what would be the easiest way to display the letters being typed on one monitor/digital projector while the NI B4 was running on another monitor?

posted by umbú to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Turn on the keyboard viewernownow in, System Preferences --> International --> Input Menu. You'll get an additional menu extra which has, amongst other options, a keyboard viewer which highlights keys as 'you' type.
posted by nathan_teske at 7:06 PM on June 14, 2007

wow... something ate my post. "viewernownow "
posted by nathan_teske at 7:08 PM on June 14, 2007

Thanks nathan_teske. That would definitely work for a slow tune, but I think it would be difficult to follow a song in a quicker tempo. Can anyone think of a way to leave a keystroke log so that the words would form and remain on screen?
posted by umbú at 8:47 PM on June 14, 2007