Split keyboard

The split keyboard plays a whole organ from one keyboard. It divides the keyboard into up to four zones, sends each zone to a manual or the pedal, transposes each zone, can take a pedal bass from the lowest key the left hand holds, and can move the dividing point to follow the hands. This page covers the window, every field in it, the presets, the MIDI controls that switch the split and its presets, and the files that hold the settings.

Open the window with View > Split keyboard. The window can stay open or be closed; closing it hides it and the split carries on.

How it works

The split sits between the MIDI inputs and the organ. It reads the notes of one keyboard (the Keyboard box) and sends them on as notes of its own MIDI input, Split keyboard, with one channel per role:

The MIDI map sends each of those channels to a manual, as it does for any console. The Manuals on this organ rows of the window set the manual of each role. The split knows nothing about the organ beyond that; a role can be sent to any manual, including the pedal.

The split takes the notes of the chosen keyboard only. These pass through unsplit:

• Controllers, program changes and other messages from the keyboard (a sustain pedal, an expression pedal mapped to a shoe).
• Notes and messages from any other input.
• Messages from a plug-in host, from a MIDI file played back and from the on-screen keyboard.
• Notes on the Split keyboard input itself.

All Notes Off and All Sound Off (controllers 123 and 120) from the keyboard release everything the split sounds and then pass on. The Panic button of the main window releases it too.

Switching it on and off

The setting is the same for every organ and is saved at once in split-keyboard.txt (on 1), so the split comes back as it was left. Default: off. With the split off, the keyboard plays as the MIDI map says. A key pressed before the split came on is released the way it was pressed. Switching the split off releases every note it sounds.

The first time the split is on for an organ, each role that has no mapping receives one:

Manuals are taken in the organ’s own order and only those a player can reach from a MIDI keyboard. The proposal is saved with the organ and can be changed in the Manuals on this organ rows.

Window fields

Every change takes effect at once and is saved. The window’s rows follow the panel from top to bottom.

Keyboard and on/off

Choose a named input when more than one keyboard is connected and only one should be split.

Presets

Nine slots shared by every organ. Slots 1 to 3 are factory layouts and cannot be changed. Slots 4 to 9 are the player’s own and start empty.

An organ with no saved layout starts from preset 2.

A preset holds the layout: split points, zones, Transpose all, the follow option and the bass settings. It leaves out the on/off state, the keyboard, the manual assignments and the MIDI controls. Recalling a preset copies it, so a later edit of the organ’s layout leaves the preset as saved, and the preset highlight goes out. The presets are saved in split-keyboard.txt.

The keyboard picture

The picture shows 88 keys, A0 to C8, whatever the real keyboard has. Each zone has a colour: blue, green, amber and purple for zones 1 to 4, grey for a zone that plays nothing. The role of each zone is written above it. A white handle with a round head marks each split point.

• Drag a handle to move a split point. A handle stops before the neighbouring split point.
• While the split is on, the keys that are held light in the colour of the zone they went to.
• With bass from the hands on, an amber line under the keys marks the bass range, and a black dot on a key marks the note the pedal is sounding.
• While the split is on, the first handle shows where the split point is at the moment, which differs from the set point when the first split follows the hands.

Zones

Each zone has a row, headed Zone N: <lowest note> to <highest note>, with these fields:

The note sent is the key pressed plus Semitones, plus 12 times Octaves, plus Transpose all. A note outside 0 to 127 is dropped. A key keeps the zone it was pressed in until it is released, so the release goes where the press went. When two keys send the same note to one role (zones moved onto each other by octaves), one note-on goes out and the note ends with the last key.

A zone whose role is Nothing and whose second role is Nothing plays nothing: the keys are silent.

Following the hands

With The first split follows the hands on, the split point between zone 1 and zone 2 moves to the gap between the hands. Masterpiece looks for the widest gap of more than an octave between two keys held next to each other; the split point moves to the middle of that gap, and never above the second split point minus 1. With keys in one hand only, the split point stays where it is. The moved point stays for 3 seconds after the last key is released and then returns to the set point. A key already down keeps its zone when the point moves; a key pressed in the gap goes to the zone the moved point gives it. Changing the layout puts the point back. Only the first split point follows.

Bass from the hands

The lowest key held in the bass range plays the pedal as well, one pedal note at a time. The pedal note is the key plus Transpose all; the octave and semitone fields of zones do not apply to it. The note goes to the Pedal role (channel 14).

When the lowest key changes, the previous pedal note ends and the new one starts. When the lowest key is released while another key in the range is held, the pedal passes to the lowest key still held and is struck again. A bass held after the hand lifts ends with the next bass note.

The four bass fields are dimmed while the bass is off.

Manuals on this organ

The choice is a mapping of the Split keyboard input and channel to the manual. It is saved in the organ’s MIDI map (see The MIDI map files) and also appears in the Keys tab of the manual’s dialog, with Console set to Split keyboard. A role set to Nothing plays nothing.

MIDI controls

Twelve controls can be operated from any key, button or pedal on any MIDI input:

Each control has a learn button and an x button:

• Click the learn button, then press the key or button (the button reads Press it now…). A note, a controller with a value above 0 or a program change is learned, from any input. The learned press plays nothing, and neither does its release.
• The button then shows the message: Note C4, channel 1, Controller 64, channel 1 or Program 3, channel 1. Before a message is learned it reads Learn.
• x forgets the control.
• One message operates one control; learning it for a second control clears the first. The message is stored with the name of its input, so a control can be tied to one console.

A controller acts on a value above 0, a note on a note-on, and a program change on every arrival. The controls are saved in split-keyboard.txt.

Exclusive input

The Split keyboard input is exclusive. Only mappings that name it take its notes. A manual mapped from Any device on any channel receives no notes from the split, and a control mapped from any input ignores the split’s messages. A role that is mapped nowhere plays nothing. The rule keeps a manual that is mapped from every input from sounding the notes of all four roles.

A recording of the split made with the MIDI recorder holds the notes as the split sent them, on channels 11 to 14. On playback they are treated as the split’s input again and reach the same manuals.

Where the settings are saved

Two files in the data folder (see The MIDI map files for its location):

<organ> is the organ’s name followed by its unique organ id, as for the MIDI map. The manual assignments of the roles are in the organ’s midi/<organ>.mpmidi.

Both split files are plain text with one record per line. An organ’s file looks like this:

splits 2 53 72 84
zone 0 pedal none 0 0
zone 1 lower none 0 0
zone 2 upper none -1 0
zone 3 none none 0 0
transpose 0
follow 0
bass 0 59 1 off 1500
preset 1

A line the program does not know is skipped, and a value out of range is brought into range when the file is read: split points sorted and kept between notes 1 and 127, octaves between -3 and 3, semitones between -12 and 12, the hold time between 50 and 10000 ms.