MIDI controllers & keyboard

MIDI carries note, velocity and control information. A MIDI keyboard needs a software instrument or an external sound source to produce audio. Hearing a controller's built-in speakers does not prove Dawnamite is receiving its notes.

1. Connect a USB controller directly or through your interface's MIDI ports. Follow its driver requirements.
2. Add a MIDI track and load an instrument from Library, or use MIDI Keyboard → Add Piano for the bundled piano.
3. Right-click the track header and choose Capture MIDI. Select the device and the channel filter you need.
4. Set monitoring with the I control. Auto follows arm, In monitors without arm, and Off lets an armed track record without monitoring its instrument.
5. Arm the intended track and play a few notes. Check the track's activity and instrument output.
6. Start Record, play a phrase, stop and inspect its MIDI region in Clip.

Open MIDI Keyboard from the header or Command+K. Choose the destination MIDI track, or use Add Piano. The compact Harmony Pads view has 45 playable keys in four rows. Stack, Two hands and Melody give notes and chords different roles across bass and treble registers. The displayed labels are the current pitches, not a fixed A–L piano map. Release each key to stop it. Read MIDI Keyboard for layouts, Option, chords and resizing. Computer-keyboard note entry has its own context, so ordinary arrangement tool numbers do not interrupt it.

Use MIDI Output in the header to choose an external destination and channel. MIDI output sends note/control data; it does not bring an external synthesizer's sound back into the app. Connect that synthesizer's audio outputs to an audio input and use an audio track to monitor or record the sound.

Open Piano from the bottom bar, beside Analysis, to follow MIDI notes against a keyboard during playback. Open its menu for the compact settings overlay. Its keyboard range, time scale, note width, transpose display and note-label controls affect that view. Choose which MIDI tracks are included. Use Clip, rather than Piano, to edit the region's notes.

The circular-arrow Capture MIDI button beside the Arrangement tool selector keeps recently played notes as a MIDI region, even when you did not press Record. Arm a MIDI track, play a phrase using the software MIDI keyboard or a connected controller, then click Capture MIDI. The button lights when notes are available. It returns to Arrangement and selects the Captured region. While stopped, the new region starts at the playhead; a phrase played during playback keeps its performance timing. Command+Z undoes the new region.