I have purchased Hookpad and the books. However, to say that the interface is clunky, is being kind. I have my Yamaha DGX670 keyboard attached via midi. This is next to useless. Hookpad says it is easy to input via a midi keyboard - it is not, it is, seemingly impossible.
For instance; try inputting a chord (triad) - say for the first beat of a 4/4 bar - playing CEG should input the full chord - it does not, it only inputs a broken chord - C, E then G. I have the following settings, as advised by Hookpad support.
This should be simple to achieve via midi or laptop key input. No, it is impossible. Hookpad is not new - this should be basic functionality. All the rest of it is useless for it’s, supposed, purpose, without such basic function.
Let me explain a few of our concepts. In Hookpad we have a strict division between melody and chord area. The first is for writing melodies, the other for writing chords. So the melody area is strictly monophonic as it is not intended for chords. When the melody area is selected you can see the option to write up to four individual melody tracks. This can be used for second lead melodies or custom bass lines, guitar riffs etc. and in theory also to write chords. This is how the examples in the Hookpad book were made.
Now to write chords, the best practice is to write them in the chord section. This should also be possible with your midi controller. I believe you can write a standard C-Major chord by just pressing any C you like, if your project has a key that has a C-Major chord in it. If you want those chords to have special rhythms, press B to open the band browser and select some of our rhythmic patches.
So basically the workflow in Hookpad is a bit different than what you are used to in your DAW. You write a monophonic melody, add some chords and some band instrument to create a full song. This has many limitations but might boost your creativity as it’s really quick and easy . If your happy with your basic arrangement, you can export stems or midis and continue to produce your song in your DAW. So in other words you’ll use Hookpad for songwriting and your DAW for song production.
Hi Dennis, I have a similar issue when I’m writing melodies, I understand the HT sections’ structure, Bass for chords and Treble for melody, but when I’m using my MIDI keyboard controller for melodies, the length of the beat received in HT doesn’t match with my keyed length. HT capture a fixed length based on the configuration, resulting a mismatch melody. Is there any way to record melodies based on my input keyed from my midi controller? I find annoying using the computer keyboard for entering melodies.
so basically there are two ways to input a melody with a MIDI keyboard:
Real-time: If you press the record button in the top left corner you will hear a click and you can start recording your melody in real-time. Then the length of the recorded notes should also match with what you played. As your browser creates a big latency you might look for the setting to adjust your input latency and move that slider until it feels usable. Of course you have to play before the click you hear so I always go for a setting which makes sure that if I hear the played note on the beat then it should also be notated on the beat.
If you don’t want to record in realtime you can use the shortcuts (“H”, “J”, “K” …) on your computer keyboard to adjust the note length and use your MIDI controller to input the notes step by step.
If you just want to play on your MIDI controller without entering any notes you can activate the “Lock” button.
