The Musical Keyboard

Choose Window › Musical Keyboard (⇧⌘K) to play the V-Synth from the Mac, so you can hear an edit without reaching for the instrument.

Which Part it plays

When a Temporary Area Part is selected in the sidebar, the keyboard plays that Part, on the MIDI channel the Part receives on. Otherwise choose a Part from the Part pop-up. The V-Synth plays only Temporary Area Parts. A Work Area patch has to be copied into a Part to be heard.

Playing

• Mouse: click or drag across the keys. The Velocity slider sets how hard each note is struck.
• Computer keyboard: the home row A to ' plays the white keys, and the row above (W to [) plays the black keys between them. The bar under the keys shows which keys you can reach; drag it to start on any white key. Z and X move down and up an octave.
• Trackpad pressure: on a Force Touch trackpad, press harder on a held note to send aftertouch. A normal click sends none.
• Scrolling: scroll with two fingers, or a mouse wheel, over the keyboard to move the modulation wheel. Like the wheel on an instrument, it stays where you leave it.

The keyboard window floats above the app's other windows, and typing plays it from any of them, except while you are typing text, such as a patch name or a search.

Stopping

All Notes Off silences everything and returns aftertouch and the modulation wheel to zero. Closing the window or switching to another app does the same.

Notes played here appear in the MIDI Monitor beside the patch data, so you can see exactly what went to the instrument.