MIDI hardware: Note entry with digital piano plus MIDI Controller?

• May 14, 2025 - 22:27

I have set up my digital piano via Bluetooth so that I can use it to enter notes (the standard, non-realtime way) into MuseScore via Bluetooth MIDI. It does the job fine and I'm really happy about the setup.

However, my piano doesn't come with additional knobs or pads that I could use for transport control and, most importantly, selecting note durations. I was thinking of getting another small hardware MIDI Controller to do exactly that. Now I've come to realize that while there is plenty of DJ and music production hardware for controlling DAWs, there doesn't seem to be a good match for my use case.

Anybody who has experience with DAW controllers and the like? Is there any specific product that is known to work well with MuseScore?


Comments

In reply to by Jm6stringer

What unused keys? I need them all! ;-)

Okay, serious now. :) I just thought I might treat myself with some fancy new hardware to solve the issue. Specifically, looking through a music store web site I find:

  • Mixer-like controllers with faders, mute buttons and transport controls
  • Drum pad grids, which are probably geared towards Ableton
  • Pedals (mostly for page flipping, but also generic MIDI)
  • Configurable pads (such as the Elgato Stream Deck)

In addition, there are iPad apps that do the same job (although I'd prefer a dedicated piece of hardware). All of those could probably integrate with MuseScore via the mapping you mentioned.

I think I might try one and post here about my experiences, but I was wondering whether any of you have tried something alike.

I think I might actually get a bluetooth numeric pad first and see if that does the job for me. This would cover duration for note entry, but probably not playback/transport control.

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