How to set up a MIDI keyboard

The whole setup takes about five minutes. Do it in this order, because the order matters for the pedal.

1. Plug the sustain pedal into the keyboard, if you have one. Keep your foot off it.
2. Connect the keyboard to the computer with its USB cable. Plug straight into the computer rather than a hub.
3. Switch the keyboard on. Most need no driver on a Mac or Windows computer.
4. Open something that makes the sound: music software, or an online instrument like HitJam in Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
5. Press Enable MIDI, and choose Allow when the browser asks. It asks once per site.
6. Play a key. You should hear it, and the MIDI keyboard test page should show the note and how hard you hit it.

For the cable itself, the sockets and Bluetooth, the connection guide goes into more detail.

Many keyboards check the pedal once, at the moment they switch on. Whatever position it is in then becomes “off”.

Plug it in afterwards, or switch on with your foot down, and the pedal works backwards. Notes ring when you lift your foot and stop when you press.

The fix takes ten seconds. Switch the keyboard off, check the pedal is plugged in, keep your foot off it, and switch on again.

A MIDI keyboard makes no sound of its own. It sends which key you pressed and how hard, and something else turns that into sound.

You have three choices, and you can switch between them any time:

• A website. Nothing to install: HitJam plays a recorded grand piano, synths and drum kits straight from your keyboard.
• Music software, called a DAW. GarageBand is free on a Mac; Ableton, Logic and FL Studio are the paid ones most people meet.
• The keyboard’s own speakers, if it is a digital piano. It then sends MIDI and plays its own sound at the same time.

Most controllers share the same handful of parts. Here is what each one sends, in the order the picture numbers them.

1. The keys. Each sends a note and how hard you hit it, called velocity. Soft playing sounds softer, and on HitJam’s piano, darker too.
2. The octave buttons. They move the whole keyboard up or down by twelve notes, so a short keyboard can reach a long piano.
3. The pitch wheel. It bends the note up or down and springs back to the middle when you let go. On HitJam it bends by two semitones.
4. The mod wheel. It stays where you leave it. On HitJam’s synths it opens the filter, so the sound gets brighter as you push it up.
5. Knobs and faders. They send control messages that music software can map to almost anything, such as volume, filter or effects.
6. Pads. They send notes like keys do, and are made for drums. On HitJam’s Drum Machine and drum kits, each pad hits a drum.

A few settings live on the keyboard itself, usually behind a Shift or Settings button. The manual lists the exact buttons for your model.

• Velocity curve. If you have to hit hard to get any volume, choose a lighter curve. If everything comes out loud, choose a heavier one.
• Fixed velocity. Make sure it is off, or every note arrives at full strength however gently you play.
• Octave. Press both octave buttons together, or use the reset, so middle C is back in the middle.
• Channel. Leave it on 1. HitJam listens on all sixteen, but most software starts on channel 1.
• Local control, on digital pianos only. Turn it off, or turn the piano’s own volume down, when you play a computer sound. Otherwise you hear two pianos.

A 25- or 49-key keyboard covers two to four octaves at a time. The octave buttons move that window up and down.

HitJam has its own octave and semitone shift as well, on the left and right arrow keys. It applies to MIDI notes too, so you can reach all 88 keys from a 25-key controller.

Open the MIDI keyboard test page and press Enable MIDI. Your keyboard should appear by name within a second.

Then press a key softly and one hard: the velocity bar should move. Press the pedal and turn each wheel, and each one shows up as you move it. If anything stays blank, the not-working guide covers the eight usual causes.