Content

• Installation
• Configuration
• Control Keys
• Piano Keys
• Controller
• Chords
• Key Commands
• Skins

Installation

Installation of TracktionKeys is pretty simple. Just extract the rar archive somewhere on your hard drive.

A virtual midi cable is needed to send midi messages from one application to another eg from TracktionKeys to your sequencer. You can use the included MidiYoke MIDI Patch Cable driver which works on Windows NT, 2000 and XP. For a version working on other windows operating systems please visit the MidiYoke website.

LoopBE1 is another virtual MIDI driver for this purpose.

Install MidiYoke or LoopBE1 and reboot your machine if needed.

To start TracktionKeys double click on the file TracktionKeys.exe. TracktionKeys will create a dll used for the hook and a skin folder with the default skin files in the application folder.

Configuration

Before you can use TracktionKeys to send midi notes you have to define some keys to get it working. Right click on the TracktionKeys window to open a popup menu:


From the menu select Settings ...

Control Keys

Here you can enter the key to toggle the active state and the keys for switching the octave, velocity, midi channel and chord. Just click with the mouse in the edit field and press a key. To delete a key click with your right mouse button into the edit field.

Piano Keys

Define your piano keys or import the included german keyboard layout file as starting point.

Controller

Here you can select the controllers sent by mouse movements. Save your settings to get easy access from the popup menu. The screen range reduces the used screen portion, this can be handy on dual screen setups.

Chords

TracktionKeys can send up to 4 additional midi notes with a single key press. Press New to create a new chord and enter a chord name. Activate additional notes and select a transpose value.

Key Commands

Depends on your selected keys for active und control up and down from the Control Keys tab sheet.
The default keys are '#' and the 'cursor up' and 'cursor down' keys.

• Active: Toggles midi activity and keyboard blocking.

Skins

You can change the look of TracktionKeys with skins. A skin contains a tks file (plain text) and some image files.

Example tks file (Default.tks):
[Skin]
textcolor=B3B99C : Text color of text displays (octave, velocity, midi channel, chord)
bg_on=bg_on.bmp : Bitmap TracktionKey on
bg_off=bg_off.bmp : Bitmap TracktionKey off
a0=a0.bmp : Activity 'peak' meter: no activity
a1=a1.bmp : Activity 'peak' meter: 1 key pressed
a2=a2.bmp : Activity 'peak' meter: 2 keys pressed
a3=a3.bmp : Activity 'peak' meter: 3 keys pressed
a4=a4.bmp : Activity 'peak' meter: 4 or more keys pressed
chord=chord.bmp : Chord name display background
st_on=st_on.ico : Systray icon MIDI mode
st_off=st_off.ico : Systray icon regular keyboard mode
st_a1=st_a1.ico : Systray icon activity 'peak' meter: 1 key pressed
st_a2=st_a2.ico : Systray icon activity 'peak' meter: 2 keys pressed
st_a3=st_a3.ico : Systray icon activity 'peak' meter: 3 keys pressed
st_a4=st_a4.ico : Systray icon activity 'peak' meter: 4 keys pressed

Image sizes:
Bitmaps on/off: 129 x 44 pixel
Chord display background: 57 x 17 pixel
Activity 'meter': 11 x 17 pixel
Systray icon: 16 x 16 pixel

Just put the tks file into the skins folder of the TracktionKeys folder. Create a directory with the same name like the tks file without the extension and place all images in this folder. Restart TracktionKeys and you should see your skin in the skin menu.