Lemon wiki

MIDI controllers and keyboards

You can play Lemon Studio from a MIDI keyboard, from your computer keyboard or from the on-screen Touch controller. Any of them plays the instrument selected in the instrument rack.

Play with a MIDI keyboard

Plug it in. A device Lemon Studio hasn’t seen before is switched on straight away, so you can just play. It works even when the window isn’t in front.

Press F10 for MIDI settings, where the Input list shows your devices. Click a device to see its options, including Enable. If yours was plugged in just now, it appears within a couple of seconds, and Refresh device list is there if it doesn’t.

Velocity and sustain

On the same page, under Input:

Link note on velocity to decides what your playing strength does: Velocity (the default), Mod A, Mod B or (none) for a fixed velocity. The curve button beside it reshapes the response.
Link release velocity to does the same for how fast you let go.
Sustain pedal releases notes is on by default: Lemon Studio holds the notes itself until the pedal comes up. Untick it to send the pedal to the instrument instead.

Pitch bend bends the selected instrument, using the plugin’s own range for a hosted plugin. Other controllers and aftertouch go to a hosted instrument as they came.

A hosted instrument hears your notes on the MIDI channel they came in on, while MIDI channel through is ticked in its right-click menu. Receive notes from in the same menu locks an instrument to the computer keyboard or the Touch controller, whichever instrument is selected.

Play with your computer keyboard

Press Ctrl+T to switch the Computer MIDI keyboard on or off. It’s also in the OPTIONS menu, and it’s a button on the toolbar.

The bottom row, Z to /, is the white keys from C4, with the row above it as the black keys.
The top row, Q to ], is the white keys from C5, with the number row as the black keys.
Numpad + and - shift both up and down an octave.

Every note plays at the same velocity. While it’s on, plain letters play notes, so they don’t switch tools. Ctrl, Alt and Shift shortcuts keep working.

The Touch controller

Press Alt+F7 for a small window to play with the mouse. Pads gives you 4 by 4 pads and Keys gives you a two-octave keyboard. The arrows move it by an octave. Drag across pads or keys to glide from note to note.

It plays one note at a time at a fixed velocity: no multi-touch or velocity by position yet.

Link a knob to a controller

Right-click a knob or fader and choose MIDI learn….
Move the controller. With Auto accept detected controller on in MIDI settings, that’s all: the box closes and the link is made.

For a plugin’s control, move it first, then use TOOLS ▸ Recent parameters ▸ Most recent ▸ MIDI learn…. Or open Show all parameters in the plugin window’s menu, and right-click a parameter in the browser.

The Remote control settings box also sets the Port, Channel and Ctrl by hand, a Mode for buttons, a Mapping formula and Smoothing. Omni makes the link drive the same knob on whichever instrument is selected.

Multi MIDI learn (Ctrl+J): change the knobs you want to link, then move a controller for each, in the same order.
Link all parameters… in a plugin window’s menu or in Mixer options links everything at once, to consecutive controllers.
Remove link on the knob’s menu breaks a link. VIEW ▸ Remote control lists all of them in the browser.
Soft takeover in MIDI settings: after a knob changes some other way, the controller does nothing until it reaches the knob’s value. This stops sudden jumps.

Links are kept in Lemon Studio’s settings, not in the project, so your controller drives the same places in every project.

Controller type offers a generic controller only, so there’s no ready-made setup for particular devices yet. Override global mapping… is greyed out.

Clock and sync

Send sync to other gear:

In MIDI settings, click the device in the Output list and tick Send master sync.
Choose a Synchronization type: MIDI clock, or one of the MTC rates. Master sync offset nudges it in milliseconds.
Check that OPTIONS ▸ Enable MIDI master sync and Enable MIDI output are ticked.

Follow other gear: under External sync, choose the device in External clock sync. Its Start plays from the beginning, Continue resumes, Stop pauses, and the tempo follows its clock. The status line says what it’s doing.

OPTIONS ▸ Enable MIDI remote control switches off everything coming in from your devices.

Good to know

Boxes in MIDI settings give a MIDI channel a special job: Omni preview MIDI channel plays instruments by white key, Song marker jump MIDI channel jumps to markers, Instrument muting MIDI channel mutes instruments, and Performance mode MIDI channel launches clips in Performance mode.
To send notes out to a synth, use Lemon MIDI Out.