Note holding options on MIDI controllers?

andowrites

I've been looking for some ways to manage prolonged/held notes in drone on my MIDI keyboards.

I came across Key Dogs on Reddit.

https://sme-music.co.uk/products/keydog

Has anyone used them, or know of something cheaper? Please, no timewasting on brick jokes etc.

I gather some keyboards have a latch/hold function. But manual would help me to see which notes are being held.

I had been looking at using a sustain pedal, but that doesn't resolve the issue in the way I thought it would. I appreciate there are other options, but I have more than one MIDI controller keyboard, so am looking for options.

Alternatively, if I had a Launchpad X or Pro, would that have the option to hold notes? That might be a great solution, if the option is there.

uncledave

What functionality are you looking for?

• A piano sustain (loud) pedal lifts the dampers, so all notes played are sustained. This is the sustain function normally implemented by synths.
• Alternatively, the piano sostenuto (middle) pedal only holds the dampers of the notes being held when it is pressed. Notes played later are not sustained. This can be implemented by a script.
• Or, you may want a sort of toggle feature, where a note is held when struck, until it is struck again. This would also require a script.

andowrites

I want to be able to hold multiple notes, at different times, for example, to play drone/ambient with drone live. I understand I can do it via midi for recordings, but not for live.

I had been thinking a sustain pedal would help, not realising at first that it would not. Because it would only work for a single note, or multiple notes, but I also want to be able to play other notes here and there in the meantime.

Alfred

It sounds like you might need my sostenuto mozaic script.

espiegel123

@andowrites said:
I've been looking for some ways to manage prolonged/held notes in drone on my MIDI keyboards.

I came across Key Dogs on Reddit.

https://sme-music.co.uk/products/keydog

Has anyone used them, or know of something cheaper? Please, no timewasting on brick jokes etc.

I gather some keyboards have a latch/hold function. But manual would help me to see which notes are being held.

I had been looking at using a sustain pedal, but that doesn't resolve the issue in the way I thought it would. I appreciate there are other options, but I have more than one MIDI controller keyboard, so am looking for options.

Alternatively, if I had a Launchpad X or Pro, would that have the option to hold notes? That might be a great solution, if the option is there.

Launchpads don’t have a built-in latch mode as far as I know. You could create a Mozaic or streambyter script to implement a latch mode.

id_23

Thanks @Alfred !
This is useful!

rs2000

You could also use a Launchpad with Drambo and have a button matrix in that you can toggle each button separately to choose which pads to hold and which to play normally.

andowrites

Great, many useful tips here. It seems a shame there's no native option on a Launchpad to do this. But Drambo or Mosaic sound like good options.

Thanks @Alfred, @espiegel123, and @rs2000

Alfred

Remember an interview with some gospel B3 player, where he told that they used matches stuck between the keys to do some droning. Cheaper then those dogs mentioned :-)

andowrites

@Alfred said:
Remember an interview with some gospel B3 player, where he told that they used matches stuck between the keys to do some droning. Cheaper then those dogs mentioned :-)

Yes, I know about that option, but one of my keyboards, that won't work. Hence I'm looking for a nice, clean option, that allows me simple flexibility.

MonkeyDrummer

Midi latch in this package
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midi-tools/id1446209019

andowrites

@MonkeyDrummer said:
Midi latch in this package
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midi-tools/id1446209019

That's a nice option for iOS, for sure. I'm also looking for an option for MacOS. I'll take a look.

It looks a really handy tool!

jjpl2001

@MonkeyDrummer said:
Midi latch in this package
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midi-tools/id1446209019

Thanks, I will also check it

HotStrange

@espiegel123 said:

@andowrites said:
I've been looking for some ways to manage prolonged/held notes in drone on my MIDI keyboards.

I came across Key Dogs on Reddit.

https://sme-music.co.uk/products/keydog

Has anyone used them, or know of something cheaper? Please, no timewasting on brick jokes etc.

I gather some keyboards have a latch/hold function. But manual would help me to see which notes are being held.

I had been looking at using a sustain pedal, but that doesn't resolve the issue in the way I thought it would. I appreciate there are other options, but I have more than one MIDI controller keyboard, so am looking for options.

Alternatively, if I had a Launchpad X or Pro, would that have the option to hold notes? That might be a great solution, if the option is there.

Launchpads don’t have a built-in latch mode as far as I know. You could create a Mozaic or streambyter script to implement a latch mode.

Is there a thread on here or anywhere with a list of all the steambyter scripts? I know Moziac has one but I’m interested in more Streambyter scripts too as I suck at writing them 😂

espiegel123

@HotStrange said:

@espiegel123 said:

@andowrites said:
I've been looking for some ways to manage prolonged/held notes in drone on my MIDI keyboards.

I came across Key Dogs on Reddit.

https://sme-music.co.uk/products/keydog

Has anyone used them, or know of something cheaper? Please, no timewasting on brick jokes etc.

I gather some keyboards have a latch/hold function. But manual would help me to see which notes are being held.

I had been looking at using a sustain pedal, but that doesn't resolve the issue in the way I thought it would. I appreciate there are other options, but I have more than one MIDI controller keyboard, so am looking for options.

Alternatively, if I had a Launchpad X or Pro, would that have the option to hold notes? That might be a great solution, if the option is there.

Launchpads don’t have a built-in latch mode as far as I know. You could create a Mozaic or streambyter script to implement a latch mode.

Is there a thread on here or anywhere with a list of all the steambyter scripts? I know Moziac has one but I’m interested in more Streambyter scripts too as I suck at writing them 😂

I don’t think there is — as I don’t think there is any central repository like yet patchstorage Mozaic archive. I’ve learned a lot from code fragments on the Streambyter forum and the included sample scripts.

cramdog

@HotStrange

https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=streambyter

Sorry if I misunderstood the context.

HotStrange

@cramdog said:
@HotStrange

https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=streambyter

Sorry if I misunderstood the context.

Nope that’s exactly what I’m looking for. Thank you 🙏

HotStrange

@espiegel123 said:

@HotStrange said:

@espiegel123 said:

@andowrites said:
I've been looking for some ways to manage prolonged/held notes in drone on my MIDI keyboards.

I came across Key Dogs on Reddit.

https://sme-music.co.uk/products/keydog

Has anyone used them, or know of something cheaper? Please, no timewasting on brick jokes etc.

I gather some keyboards have a latch/hold function. But manual would help me to see which notes are being held.

I had been looking at using a sustain pedal, but that doesn't resolve the issue in the way I thought it would. I appreciate there are other options, but I have more than one MIDI controller keyboard, so am looking for options.

Alternatively, if I had a Launchpad X or Pro, would that have the option to hold notes? That might be a great solution, if the option is there.

Launchpads don’t have a built-in latch mode as far as I know. You could create a Mozaic or streambyter script to implement a latch mode.

Is there a thread on here or anywhere with a list of all the steambyter scripts? I know Moziac has one but I’m interested in more Streambyter scripts too as I suck at writing them 😂

I don’t think there is — as I don’t think there is any central repository like yet patchstorage Mozaic archive. I’ve learned a lot from code fragments on the Streambyter forum and the included sample scripts.

I really want to get better at scripting things like that. I’ll peruse the forums and start studying 📚

espiegel123

@HotStrange said:

@espiegel123 said:

@HotStrange said:

@espiegel123 said:

@andowrites said:
I've been looking for some ways to manage prolonged/held notes in drone on my MIDI keyboards.

I came across Key Dogs on Reddit.

https://sme-music.co.uk/products/keydog

Has anyone used them, or know of something cheaper? Please, no timewasting on brick jokes etc.

I gather some keyboards have a latch/hold function. But manual would help me to see which notes are being held.

I had been looking at using a sustain pedal, but that doesn't resolve the issue in the way I thought it would. I appreciate there are other options, but I have more than one MIDI controller keyboard, so am looking for options.

Alternatively, if I had a Launchpad X or Pro, would that have the option to hold notes? That might be a great solution, if the option is there.

Launchpads don’t have a built-in latch mode as far as I know. You could create a Mozaic or streambyter script to implement a latch mode.

Is there a thread on here or anywhere with a list of all the steambyter scripts? I know Moziac has one but I’m interested in more Streambyter scripts too as I suck at writing them 😂

I don’t think there is — as I don’t think there is any central repository like yet patchstorage Mozaic archive. I’ve learned a lot from code fragments on the Streambyter forum and the included sample scripts.

I really want to get better at scripting things like that. I’ll peruse the forums and start studying 📚

My advice is to start with super simple tasks until the streambyter way of thinking is comfortable. My first scripts were things like note or cc translations and a next/previous program change thing. Then I wrote a thing to reduce the density of cc messages. And finally , it all clicked.

Poppadocrock

Yea there’s a thread from a little while back where @_ki i think it is designed and shared like 8 basic lessons for beginners that are really great. Let me see if I can dig it up. Try searching something like mosaic lessons.

Poppadocrock

Actually it was @McD and here’s the thread.

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/36604/learn-to-program-the-mozaic-workshop-to-create-midi-fx-and-controllers-you-could-learn-something/p1

espiegel123

@Poppadocrock said:
Yea there’s a thread from a little while back where @_ki i think it is designed and shared like 8 basic lessons for beginners that are really great. Let me see if I can dig it up. Try searching something like mosaic lessons.

I think he is asking about streambyter guidance.

HotStrange

Thanks @espiegel123 and @Poppadocrock i think learning both will be useful. I like the idea of having something I want and being able to execute it with an app I already have by writing the code.