MIDI keyboard

With a MIDI keyboard you enter pitches by playing them instead of finding them with the mouse or typing letters. Maestro uses it in two ways: to enter note by note in Speedy Entry and Simple Entry, and to record in real time while you play, like Finale’s HyperScribe.

Connecting the keyboard

There is nothing to set up: Maestro recognizes every connected MIDI keyboard, including ones you plug in or unplug while the app is open.

• On the Mac, the MIDI menu lists the connected devices and leads to MIDI and Recording Settings….
• On Windows, connected devices are listed in Edit → Settings… → MIDI.

By default you hear the notes you play with the sound of the instrument on the staff you are writing on; if your keyboard already makes its own sound, turn off Play incoming notes (MIDI thru) in the MIDI settings.

In Speedy Entry

As in Finale, the MIDI keyboard gives the pitches and the computer keyboard gives the durations:

1. Place the Speedy Entry cursor where you want to write.
2. Hold down one or more keys on the MIDI keyboard.
3. While holding them, press the duration number (1–8, for example 5 for a quarter note).

One key enters a note, several keys a chord. If the cursor is on an existing note, you replace it with what you are playing (and with the new duration), and the cursor moves to the next note.

With MIDI keys held down, ⏎ enters the note or chord with the current duration; if the cursor is on an existing note, it adds the keys you are holding to that chord.

Enter on key press

If you prefer to choose the duration first and then play, turn on Speedy Entry: enter on key press in the MIDI settings. Each key is entered as soon as you press it, with the current duration; keys pressed almost together become a chord. You change duration with the number keys as usual.

In Simple Entry

In Simple Entry every key (or chord) you play is entered at once with the duration chosen in the palette, after the last note of the measure you clicked. When the measure is full, entry moves on to the next one. The new note stays selected, so you can adjust it with +, - or the arrow keys.

Pitch spelling and percussion

The notes you play are spelled according to the key signature: in D major the black key between F and G becomes F♯, in E♭ major the key between G and A becomes A♭. If you don’t like a spelling, change it with + and - or by transposing.

On a percussion staff each key is a General MIDI drum sound, written at the position and with the notehead defined by the staff’s percussion map (see Instruments and staves).

Real-time recording

To play a passage in time and let Maestro transcribe it:

1. Choose where to start: select a measure or a note, or put the Speedy Entry cursor there. Recording goes onto that staff, in the active layer, starting from that measure.
2. Start recording with Playback → Record from MIDI Keyboard (⌃⌥R; Ctrl+R on Windows) or the record button in the playback bar or the toolbar.
3. The metronome counts one measure in; then play.
4. To stop, press Space, Esc or the record shortcut again.

The recorded notes are:

• quantized to the grid chosen in the settings (eighths, 16ths or 32nds);
• grouped into chords when they start together;
• filled out with rests where you don’t play, while short gaps are filled in;
• split and tied at barlines and on beats, with pitches spelled according to the key signature.

Recording replaces whatever was in that layer of the recorded measures, unless you turn on multi-pass recording (see below). It undoes in one step with ⌘Z.

Recording options

You find them in the MIDI settings:

• Record while hearing the other parts (on by default): after the count-in the other staves play from the recorded measure, while the one you are recording stays silent.
• Recognize triplets (on by default): in simple meters, a beat clearly played as a triplet is written as a triplet, even with mixed values (the quarter-eighth of swing). With a 16th grid or finer, 16th-note triplets are recognized too and written as a sextuplet.
• Multi-pass recording (merge with written notes): recorded notes are merged with those already in the layer instead of replacing them. You can record the melody first and then the notes above it. The layer stays a single voice: for independent rhythms, record into another layer.
• Piano: record both hands on the two staves (on by default): on piano, harp and organ the right hand goes to the upper staff and the left hand to the lower one. By default the split moves with your hands (a melody dipping below middle C stays in the right hand); alternatively choose a fixed point: middle C (C4), G3 or F4.
• Record two voices on the same staff (layers 1 and 2): on a single staff, notes are divided by pitch between the upper voice, in the active layer with stems up, and the lower voice, in the next layer with stems down.

The count-in before recording (0 to 2 measures, one by default) is set on the Mac in Settings → Playback → Count-in → Before recording, and on Windows in Settings → MIDI → Count-in.

MIDI settings

A summary of the MIDI section of the settings (on the Mac Maestro → Settings… → MIDI, on Windows Edit → Settings… → MIDI):

Setting	What it does
Devices	The connected keyboards
Speedy Entry: enter on key press	Enters each key as soon as you press it, with the current duration (off by default, as in Finale)
Play incoming notes (MIDI thru)	Lets you hear the notes you play (on by default)
Quantization	The recording grid: eighths, 16ths (default) or 32nds
Recognize triplets	Writes beats played as triplets as triplets
Record while hearing the other parts	The other staves play during recording
Multi-pass recording	Merges recorded notes with the ones already written
Piano: record both hands on the two staves	Splits the hands between the two staves, with the split point
Record two voices on the same staff	Divides the notes between two layers

MIDI files you open are also transcribed with the grid and triplet recognition from these settings: see Files.