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Play from the computer keyboard

Select an instrument track that has an instrument loaded, by clicking its row or one of its clips. Press letter keys with no modifier: In the Scale layout A to L is the base octave, the row above one octave up, the row below one octave down; the map above shows every layout.

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Change the octave

Press Page Up (fn↑) or Page Down (fn↓) to move every row up or down an octave. The next note you play is an octave higher or lower. On a sample track the same keys switch to the next or previous 26 slices.

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Choose a keys layout

Pick Scale, Piano, Drums or Follow in the Keys Layout picker in the Inspector’s Instrument section, under the instrument card. The next key you press plays in the new layout.

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Play dynamics with the number row

With no clip selected, play a note with a letter key, then press 3, 6 and 0. 1 to 0 replay the last note at 10 % to 100 %, and holding a number key sustains it.

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Good to know

  • The keys play the selected track, or the track of a MIDI or audio clip open in Focus Mode. Selecting a track that cannot play, such as a Return, leaves them on the last one that could; a keyboard icon in the track list marks it.
  • Letter keys play at a fixed velocity of 100. The number row plays softer or harder.
  • Letter keys stay silent while a modifier is held, while the Command Palette is open and while you type in a text field. That is why shortcuts like ⇧C keep working.
  • Scale and Follow play in the project’s key. Set it first: Tempo, Key and Time Signature. Piano and Drums ignore key and scale.
  • What you play is kept even when you are not recording. ⇧C drops it as a clip (MIDI Capture); to record on purpose, see Record MIDI.
  • An arpeggiator or chord generator on the track works on what you play: MIDI Effects.
  • Open a MIDI clip with ⌥↓ and the piano roll lights up each key’s row as you play it.
  • On a sample track the letter keys trigger the sample’s slices instead: Slices.
  • Loading a drum plugin switches a track that is still on Scale to Drums. A layout you picked by hand stays.
  • Follow needs a chord track with chords in it; until then the picker does not offer it. Take the chord track away and a track set to Follow keeps the setting but plays the Scale layout.
  • The octave runs from 1 to 7 and starts at 3. It is not shown on screen.
  • Keyboard Octave Up and Keyboard Octave Down are palette commands, so you can give them other keys (Custom Shortcuts). With notes or a range marked in the piano roll, the same keys transpose those notes by an octave instead.
  • The layouts follow physical key positions, so they work the same on QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY keyboards. Y below means the key left of X on the bottom row (US Z).
  • A hardware MIDI controller has its own Controller Layout, separate from Keys Layout: Play a Controller.
In Follow, the root lands in the octave nearest the project key, so your hand stays put across chord changes. A key you are holding keeps its pitch until you release it.
  • On a sample track the level scales the slice’s gain (0.1 to 1.0) instead of the velocity.
  • The replayed note is the last one you played with a letter key on that track. With none yet this session, it is the scale root (or slice 1).
  • Auto-repeat sustains the note rather than firing it again.
  • The mute key left of 1 (` / ^) never replays a note, because a velocity-0 note would be a Note Off.
  • While recording, the number row writes notes at that level, even with a clip selected (Record MIDI). With clips selected and not recording, it sets their gain (Clip Gain); in the piano roll it sets note velocity (Piano Roll).
Last modified on October 22, 2026