Playing Loop by Zaweba from your computer keyboard
No MIDI keyboard? Play any track in Loop by Zaweba from the on-screen keyboard or the A to K row of your computer keys, with Z and X for octaves.
A MIDI keyboard is lovely to have, but you don't need one to play notes into a song. Loop by Zaweba lets you play the selected track from an on-screen keyboard, or straight from the letters on your computer keyboard laid out like a piano.
Select a track, and whatever instrument it uses, synth, sampler, General MIDI or drum machine, plays from the keys.
The key layout
The middle row of letters plays the white notes and the row above plays the black ones, the same pattern a piano has. The keys are A W S E D F T G Y H U J K. A, S, D, F, G, H, J and K are white notes; W, E, T, Y and U, sitting between them on the row above, are the sharps and flats. That gives you just over an octave under your fingers.
Z moves down an octave and X moves up one. Bass parts want a press or two of Z; a high lead might want X.
The on-screen keyboard
The on-screen keyboard does the same with the mouse. Click a key to hear it. It's handy for finding a note, checking what a chord sounds like, or playing on a laptop touchpad when you're away from your desk.
Recording what you play
Notes from the on-screen keyboard and the computer keys can be recorded onto instrument tracks in the same way as a MIDI keyboard. Arm with R, use the count-in and the metronome to come in on time, and play. Each pass over the same place is kept as a take, so you can try several times and choose the best from the clip's right-click menu.
Afterwards, open the clip in the piano roll in Studio mode to tidy the timing with quantise, fix a wrong note or adjust velocities.
Getting better results
Computer keys are on or off, without the touch sensitivity of a real keyboard, so recorded notes come in at an even velocity. Shape them in the piano roll's velocity lane afterwards if the part needs dynamics.
Keep parts simple at first. A bassline of one note per bar, played in time, is far more useful than a fast run full of slips. Turn on the loop region with L so the section repeats while you practise, and record only when it feels comfortable.
If the notes feel slightly late, look at Tools > Preferences. A shorter audio buffer makes playing feel more immediate; Loop uses shared-mode Windows audio, so some delay is normal, and the right setting is the shortest one that plays without dropouts.
Finding notes that fit
Playing by ear is easier when you know which notes belong in the song. The piano roll highlights the song's scale, with the root strongest, so a quick look there tells you which keys to favour. The chord helper can suggest a progression and write it in for you, and then you can play a melody over it from the keys.
Other keys worth knowing
While you play, a few transport keys are handy. Space plays and pauses, Home goes back to the start, Esc stops all sound, and F1 lists every shortcut in Loop by Zaweba.
