Hi there!
Let's see if I can explain what I am looking for.
I searched over kvr and I found a MIDI Keyboard VST which I thought could be useful for what I want, but it finally turned out to be just a simple keyboard to be used with the mouse not sending MIDI notes to a pattern, so it sounds on the VST synth which is connected to, but it does not send MIDI notes to the DAW, so it does not record anything.

What I am looking for is a VST MIDI keyboard which could be used with the mouse so that any key you press on it, it's translated into MIDI that a DAW can catch and record to a pattern.

Does it exist anything like I am trying to find?
Thanks in advance!

 

studio one has a qwerty midi keyboard built in to it

 

Cakewalk has one too.

 

Reaper has a great MIDI keyboard. So so far you're in luck if you're using Studio One, Cakewalk Sonar, or Reaper. I can bet there are other DAWs with MIDI keyboards.

 

Reaper 6 with its QWERTY keyboard (you play with your computer keyboard)

 

I use Bome's Mouse Keyboard. It's not a VST, but a virtual keyboard on your desktop, that can be played by the mouse, keys on your pc's keyboard or any plugged in syntkeyboard. I use it together with LoopBe1, a (free) virtual midi device.
So whatever you play on the mousekeyboard, the midi-data will be send thru the virtual midiport into your DAW where you can record the incoming midi and\or control\play any VST instrument.

 

+1 for the kind of solution proposed by @casesmear.
If you're prepared to use a virtual midi cable you open up lots of options.
Any standalone keyboard instrument that can output midi will do.
e.g.,
- free small solutions like www.MidiPiano.net
- Toontrack EZKeys and other similar
- etc

- you could run the very tiny Savihost program and use its keyboard.
It would be hosting any vst instrument that you want and still outputting midi to your DAW

 

fl studio has one to where you can press all the keys on your keyboard

 

http://kx77free.free.fr/English-page-vst.html
Scroll to the middle
Kx-Midi-Filter
http://kx77free.free.fr/data/jpg-full-size/Kx-Midi-Filter.png

 

It's not VST plugins but why not to use a standalone program alongside to your DAW?

Very simple solution:
http://qkmidi.sourceforge.net/

More advanced one:
https://vmpk.sourceforge.io/

Also you will need virtual MIDI cables: MIDI Yoke, LoopBe1, LoopMidi etc.

P.S. The most big drawback of using ANY qwerty keybord as MIDI input is inability to send in DAW different velocities.

EDIT: Oh, you want to use your mouse... Then choose the second option, VMPK.

 

Thanks to all for your answers but I think I did not explain it properly... (or maybe I could not get to work properly your plentyful suggestions).

I am looking for a VST which consists in a MIDI pianoroll (the keys of a piano keyboard ) which can be used with a mouse and whose keystrokes could be detected by a DAW. Just like when you have any synth that shows a piano keyboard and you press the keys with the mouse and they sound, but that could be also recorded by the DAW you're working with. Normally, those piano keyboards inside the synths can't be recorded by the DAW, so I thought there could be any VST plugin that could do this job.

Essentially, you clik on a note and it is recorded by the DAW.

Thanks again for your time!

 

As old as good. Nice little program.

I think I get it but I don't see how this VST could be better than a non-VST external keyboard like the ones suggested.

 

I think what he means is this: as example, I open Logic. I open a Audio Unit instance of Falcon in a new Software Instrument channel. It has keys at the bottom of the plugin, and they can be clicked via mouse. You can see activity at the Midi Instrument channel strip. You could send the audio output of that via buss to an audio channel. But if you click Record in Logic, mouse click keys on the plugin; no click data will be recorded to the Midi track.

I could be wrong, but that should be default behavior? The midi key clicks have been transmitted to the VST/AU plugin, and played; so that data is done being transmitted anywhere. I haven't tried this, but isn't it what the Midi Thru Tool in logic is for? it's in the environment. if I am ever stuck using a keyboard/mouse only, I just draw stuff.

 

Last edited: Jul 6, 2021

The original VST standard was not designed to work with midi output from VST plugins.
Old VST plugins never output midi. VST was designed to convert midi input into audio output.

But now many VST instruments CAN output midi and most DAWs can handle the routing for midi-from-VST
but there are no 'standard' ways of doing it - and so all DAWs do it differently.

So the first question has to be "can YOUR DAW handle the midi routing?"
and if yes then you'll just have to look up how your specific DAW handles that routing.

Second question has to be "Can the VSTi actually output midi?" - many still can not.

There are many solutions available that do solve the above puzzle - but they're all slightly different.

For example, you can run Kontakt in Reaper. Reaper has very flexible routing options (very flexible everything!) and Kontakt can be set to output midi from its built in virtual keyboard. Configure it all correctly and then use Kontakt's keyboard to output midi to a Reaper track.

But none of that is any better than just using Reaper's virtual keyboard!
If your DAW has a virtual keyboard - why not use it? why bother looking for a VST solution that will probably be less effective.

On the other hand if the VST plugin is designed to generate interesting midi rather than just being a keyboard then it's worth solving the midi routing puzzle in your DAW

The general solution that will work more reliably for every DAW is to follow the advice given several times above,
i.e., use External instrument midi output ==> virtual midi cable ==> DAW midi input
That scheme works with hundreds of instruments (and other midi contraptions) and every DAW.

 

Wouldn't the latency be fucking horrendous?

 

Have a look at the MIDI section of Hermann Seib's page - https://www.hermannseib.com/english/default.htm
MIDI
\_ GMkbd
\_ VSTHost
\_ SAVIHost

Or the free / Lite version of Cantabile - https://www.hermannseib.com/english/default.htm

 

Qwerty is in all the major DAW's.
If you are looking for a H/W translatable versions of both that's harder. I would not know where to start.

If you are looking to only translate a Mouse to a MIDI keyboard, BOME makes some H/W Mouse to visual MIDI Keyboard software.


https://www.bome.com/products/mousekeyboard

 

What DAW do you use?
PIZ midi keyboard https://web.archive.org/web/20170606003025/http://thepiz.org/plugins/?p=midiKeyboard

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/midikeyboard-by-insert-piz-here