Speed Of Inputting Music, If you can't play a real-time keyboard, how's the fastest way Options

[Ricky Buchanan]

I am experienced with both computers and music, but not so much with the mix of both. Because of my disability I can't use a regular music keyboard to compose, and putting the notes in one-by-one with the mouse is a bit like pulling teeth! I do have a small keyboard - eKeys 37 - which I use to do note pitches and then use a programmed XKeys Desktop device to specifiy the note length, but it's awkward and slow.

I think what frustrates me most is that music entered like this with a mouse or the XKeys/eKeys combination has no extra "live" midi stuff like note velocity/etc. (I'm not sure of the terminology - sorry). So playing it back is a bit like listening to a robot, and very frustrating.

Is there any decent way of getting this information in so the computer can play it back and have it closer to the way it sounds in my head???

At the moment I'm using Sibelius mostly and Garage Band a bit (haven't really mastered that). I started off clasically trained so I'm used to notes and staves and such, not the MIDI type stuff, but I am willing to learn!

Best Regards,
Ricky
ATMac - http://atmac.org/ - Assistive Technology for Mac OS X Users

[Thea Hardy]

Midiwife, the Korg MicroKontrol looks like a cool little keyboard, but I note it has been discontinued - a google search pulled up several for $299 but some were already unavailable because of being discontinued - so if anyone is getting one, they better buy it fast, or try eBay or something. A bit spendy, but looks pretty good for what it is. Nice bells and whistles, yes.

And Jimdubpram, thanks for the loop tip - one of those things that's so simple and obvious you don't notice it is possible. Dragging is easier than copy/paste.

Thea