Play a piano in VR using your Midi Equipped Keyboard. Features a learning mode and some venues to play in.
Midi Keyboarder VR,
Michael Hester
Play a virtual piano in two different settings using your midi equipped digital piano or keyboard.
System requirements:
HTC Vive,
Midi equipped keyboard with computer interface.
Beyond the necessary VR equipment you'll also need a digital music keyboard with MIDI output capability. This usually comes in the form of a USB connection. If it has a 5 pin midi port on it you can use a MIDI to USB adapter.
Install
Extract the zip file and run the Midi Keyboarder VR executable.
Play footage
Initial setup:
Place your MIDI keyboard within your VR play area. Launch the app. You will need to "calibrate" the keyboard in the vr space. To do this, take one of your Vive controllers and lay it on top of your keyboard's keys with the hole facing forward such that the controller rests perfectly between B2 and C3 keys. These are one octave down from Middle C. Most keyboards will label the keys. The controller should have the pad facing up and the bottom of the controller perfectly in line with the edge of the keys. Place the other controller on the upper most edge of your keyboard, also on top of the keys with the bottom lined up perfectly with the edge of the keyboard facing you. Once the controllers are in place, play the C4 key twice.
The VR game will remember where your keyboard is now between sessions. You can start playing.
Options:
Navigate the menus by clicking on the vive controller's pad. This is setup to work like arrow keys. Click the top of the pad to move the cursor up, the bottom to move the cursor down. Click right on the pad to select an option, left to cancel. The arrow keys on your PC's keyboard also do the menu navigation.
- Select Venue: Pick between an open garden and a theater setting. The theater setting has rehearsal and opening night, one has audience members (they don't do anything yet)
- Select song: Select a midi song to play. This engages learning mode, where the song waits for you to play the notes in order.
- Select song parts: select which parts of the song you will play and which parts the system will fill in the background.
- Play song: with a song selected, starts playing the song
- Restart song: reset the loaded song to the beginning
- Select monitor: system played notes will go out on this MIDI output. Can select to be your keyboard or another output device.
- Calibrate Instrument: If your keyboard feels off placement you can re calibrate it.
Learning mode and loading a song
While you can load a standard midi file to learn how to play a song. I tested this feature with files exported from Musescore 2. I expect it to work with other midi files but it's untested. The worst that happens is an app crash.
Place the midi files in a new folder you'll find in My Documents called MidiKeyboarderVRSongs. Then use the select song option to pick the song.
When you load a song you will see a staff with cubes on it. These are the notes from the song. Note durations are not currently shown, only when they start is shown.
After loading a song go to the select song parts option to choose which parts to learn. If just starting out, reduce it to one of the parts. Parts that are active are marked with "X>". Parts tend to show up with no title, though this is intended to show the name of each part.
The song will keep up with you as you learn.
Notes
Yes, you won't be able to see your fingers while you play. I consider this to be a feature. It's like blindfold playing but with some idea of where the keyboard is.
There are some obvious bugs but I'm leaving those for now as they do not prevent gameplay. I'm looking to get some general feedback on the experience.
You'll see a full 88 key piano. Your digital keyboard likely doesn't have 88 keys. You can still play with the keys you have.
While Midi controllers will work I do not have any sound synthesis engine in the app. It uses your keyboard's sound output. You'll want an external midi system to supply sound for your Midi controller.
I don't have the money to license songs to bundle with this software, as such I won't provide any songs. You can find songs on the internet and use Musescore 2 or another score editing software to convert them.
Third party license stuff:
Made with Unity and MidiDotNet. Audience done with Adobe Fuse and Mixamo. See the embedded third party license info.
If you like this experience consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks and Enjoy the Music!
Patreon.com
