With ComposerFlex

ComposerFlex is our program that composes piano music, in the style you choose: ballads, gospel, ragtime, jazz and many more. It can play its songs on PianoFlex. ComposerFlex writes the music and PianoFlex is the piano, so you don't need a keyboard at all. Both run on the same PC, and there's nothing to connect.

ComposerFlex comes with PianoFlex Player, a single piano for playing its songs. With PianoFlex instead, you can hear the songs on any of PianoFlex's presets, and change the sound while they play.

Playing a song

1. Start PianoFlex (the program, not the plugin) and choose a piano.
2. Start ComposerFlex. Check that its Output reads PianoFlex (OSC), which is the usual setting, or PianoFlex Player (OSC) once the Player has answered.
3. Click Start in ComposerFlex.

ComposerFlex looks for a piano that's already running and plays to PianoFlex first. That's why you start PianoFlex before you click Start. If no piano is running, ComposerFlex starts PianoFlex Player instead.

While a song plays

• Change the piano: choose another preset, or click another slot from A to D. The notes that follow play on the new piano.
• Change the sound: move any slider, or choose from the Piano, Style or Space lists. The notes that follow play with your change. Notes already sounding ring on for a moment as they were, then fade out.
• Layer pianos: turn on two or more slots to hear the song on several pianos together. See Layers.
• Watch the pedaling: the pedal bars beside the keyboard show how ComposerFlex uses the pedals. With a preset that uses the pedal, if you set the Sustain pedal yourself with the mouse during a song, ComposerFlex lets it up again the next time it re-pedals.

Keeping what you hear

• Record a song: click Record in PianoFlex before the song starts. ComposerFlex's notes are recorded just like notes from a keyboard. See Playing, rendering and recording.
• Save the song as a MIDI file: tick MIDI archive in ComposerFlex, and every song is also saved as a MIDI file, in the ComposerFlex folder in your Documents. Open one later in PianoFlex with Open MIDI…, and click Render to audio to make an audio file of it on any piano.
• Hear the same song again: keep its seed in ComposerFlex. The same seed, with the same settings, makes the same song. See ComposerFlex's own guide.

If ComposerFlex can't find PianoFlex

• Look at OSC at the top of PianoFlex's window. It should show a number. If it reads Off (in yellow), another program is using PianoFlex's connection, usually another copy of PianoFlex. Close that program. PianoFlex keeps trying, and connects within a second of the connection coming free. You can also click OSC to try again at once.
• If ComposerFlex can't find a piano, its yellow line says why. While a song plays, its Output shows which piano is playing it.