#29 Mouse control of velocity (fullscreen)

[pktr]

The greatest limitation of playing on the computer keyboard is its lack of velocity sensitivity. VMPK would be truly unique if it would allow to use the mouse position on the screen to control the velocity (or volume, expression...), so that one hand would be playing on the keyboard and the other hand (or foot...) would control the velocity.

This may sound cumbersome to piano players, but it is very natural to accordion players -- accordion keys are not velocity sensitive and nearly all the expression is created by modulating the pressure on the bellows by the left hand.

It is important that the whole screen be used as the active area for position monitoring, because otherwise one would have to be careful not to leave the active area and could not concentrate on playing. A hotkey would be used to turn on or off the mouse tracking. Some other virtual keyboard programs have mouse control of volume/expression, but limited to on-screen knobs, to mouse button being constantly pressed or to work only when a virtual key has been pressed by a mouse click. None of them are really useful for playing on the computer keyboard with expression.

Using a joystick instead of mouse could be even better (the return spring provides tactile feedback), but mouse is always available and thus suits better the idea of a virtual MIDI keyboard.

Thank you!