Keyboard Wizard

Keyboard Wizard is a MIDI-processing Java GUI application that aids keyboardists performing in musical theatre, opera, rock concerts, school and church musical events, or any other live performance.

Keyboard Wizard makes it easier for live keyboardists to perform, by taking care of tasks that otherwise require extensive keyboard/synthesizer programming, or the pressing of a lot of MIDI keyboard buttons while performing. It also enables keyboardists to do things they wouldn't otherwise be able to do by themselves with only ten fingers, including playing multiple instrumental parts. It provides centralized control of multiple MIDI modules and virtual (software) instrument libraries, so that a single keyboardist can play an orchestra's worth of sounds individually, in splits, layers, and maps, in rapid succession, with precise articulation and dynamics, all from a single keyboard.

Keyboard Wizard in the pit.

Keyboard Wizard features:

• Unlimited "steps" that can be invoked sequentially and triggered via computer QWERTY keyboard and mouse, or via specially-assigned MIDI keyboard keys or controllers.
• Auto Change Trigger, or A.C.T., a unique technology that allows Keyboard Wizard to automatically change steps (i.e., sounds) while the keyboardist plays, without their having to hit "patch change" buttons or pedals. This allows keyboardists to do what they do best: perform musically, without having to simultaneously (and unnaturally) operate the program.
• Tabbed and bookmarked steps that make rapid navigation intuitive and easy.
• Pre-programmed MIDI bank/program changes.
• Unlimited layers and splits, via user-defined keyboard zones, each with its own sound or combination of sounds.
• Easy-to-create note mappings (with which you can play entire multi-voiced chords triggered by single MIDI keyboard keys), including separate white-note and black-note harp glissandos automatically generated from harp pedal diagrams.
• Five levels of transposition:
  • By keyboard (to support different MIDI keyboards having different numbers of MIDI keys)
  • By sound (to adjust the virtual instruments that Keyboard Wizard controls)
  • By step (to transpose different sections of music)
  • By zone (to enable complex keyboard splits and layers)
  • By global output (for on-the-spot transpositions of the entire "show")
• Per-step controller filtering and pre-programmed controller values that automatically configure instruments.
• Global controller remapping, to accomodate different MIDI keyboards or control surfaces.
• Intelligently-routed controller updates from the MIDI keyboard that keep all instruments in sync.
• Sixteen (16) MIDI OUT ports, which can be directed to VST instruments and MIDI effects, or to older MIDI sound modules and samplers.
• Optional "punch screen" flash, visible out of the corner of the keyboardist's eye, that gives confirmation of successful step changes, allowing keyboardist to focus on their sheet music and the conductor, rather than looking directly at the computer screen.
• A visual metronome, which can be set individually per step, giving keyboardist a silent, accurate tempo countdown prior to a musical entrance.
• Support for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. (Note: Keyboard Wizard requires Java 6.0 or higher, and thus does not support older non-Intel Macs that have only Java 5.0 installed.)