Whether you are looking to have more control over the note repeater function, or want a way to play it like its own instrument that you can perform with, these tips and tricks will take things to the next level. This isn’t limited to having a physical MIDI Keyboard either, as the Virtual Typing Keyboard also emulates a pitch and Mod wheel itself. This tutorial covers how to label the unlabelled buttons in the note repeat dialog as well.
If you are brand new to all this, check this note repeat tutorial first.
If you got any questions, leave them in the comments.
To bring up the Note Repeat dialog, the key command is Control Option Return. If VoiceOver still uses Control and Option, then you will need to first press Control Option TAB, which tells VoiceOver to ignore the next Key command, and then press Control Option Return. If Control Tab doesn’t work for you, then you can turn off VoiceOver, press Command Option Return, and then turn VoiceOver back on. Alternatively, I recommend setting your VoiceOver Key to use CapsLock only.
Also the key command to add a label to an unlabelled button is VO Slash. This is the slash key immediately to the left of the right shift key on US English Keyboards.
The First unlabelled button that is encountered as you VO right from the top of the window is the one that is labelled Control. You will Also have to VO space on this button to show the other controls that are labelled.
The Next unlabeled button you would encounter after pressing the controls button is the note repeat button. This is just before the pop up button with modulation selected by default. This means that when you enable the note repeat button, the modulation wheel on the MIDI keyboard will control the speed of the note repetition. If using the Virtual Typing Keyboard, then it will be keys 3 through 8.
Once you VO Space on the note repeat button to enable it, you can change what controls the speed of the note repetition whether that’s the mod wheel, pitch wheel, or after touch by selecting that option from the pop up button. As stated earlier by default, it’s set to the mod wheel.
As you VO Right, the next unlabelled button you will encounter should be labelled Velocity. This one is set to after touch by default, so when the velocity button is enabled by pressing VO Space on it, pressing harder on a key will change the velocity. The harder you press on a key the louder/harder the sound will be. Like the note repeater option, the velocity can be changed from after touch to the mod wheel or pitch wheel by selecting one of those from the pop up button next to the velocity button.
After touch is the one thing that the Virtual Typing Keyboard doesn’t do as far as I know, so you will either need to use a MIDI keyboard that supports after touch, or change the velocity to be controlled by the mod or pitch wheel instead.
The Next unlabelled button you will encounter is the one that should be labelled gate. This by default will be controlled by the pitch wheel, and like the previous two, you can change it to be the mod wheel or after touch by selecting the appropriate option from the pop up button next to it.
As you navigate with VO Right passed where you can set your minimum and maximum value, you will get to some more unlabelled buttons. Those, in the order you will encounter them, should be labelled straight, triplet and dotted..
After demonstrating what each of these buttons do along with a discussion about key switches, Izzie will then cover a few ways to use the note repeater and a few of these features. Check this out to see how using a MIDI Keyboard with Virtual Typing Keyboard can be useful. At the end he also demonstrates why despite having a nice MIDI Keyboard, he’ll at times use Virtual Typing Keyboard when using the note repeater feature.
When you are done with the note repeater, you can press Control Option return again or VO Space on the close button to close it and go back to normal playing behavior.
