KEYS & PRO KEYS

WORK IN PROGRESS!

This page details how to author the Keyboard, both the 5-lane simplified version and the full Pro Keys experience played on a MIDI keyboard.

The 5-lane part is authored on the “PART KEYS” track.

Pro Keys is authored across multiple tracks:

• PART REAL_KEYS_X - The Expert Pro Keys chart
• PART REAL_KEYS_H - The Hard Pro Keys chart
• PART REAL_KEYS_M - The Medium Pro Keys chart
• PART REAL_KEYS_E - The Easy Pro Keys chart

It also has two separate animation-specific tracks:

• PART KEYS_ANIM_RH - Right hand animations
• PART KEYS_ANIM_LH - Left hand animations

Keys are super versatile and you can essentially chart anything to it, though we recommend keeping stuff like live Guitar, Bass, Vocals and Drums to their own instruments for obvious reasons.

The most obvious things to chart is of course piano and keyboard, but you can also do strings, brass, vocoder, samples and anything else you could feasibly recreate on a synthesizer.

You'll want to keep the Pro Keys chart playable with one hand, so don't chart left hand piano and the like at the same time as right hand, due to the limitations of the game. In some cases where its more fun, you can chart left hand piano on 5-lane Keys, however.

Pro Keys should be a realistic, if a bit wrapped, representation of the right hand part of the keys in the song. This means you'll want all the pitches and chords to match exactly what the audio does, which can be a bit of a challenge.

Before even starting on Pro Keys, be sure to learn the basics of music theory; how pitches work, how chords work, how scales work and, of course, how to play a keyboard.

We recommend starting with the Pro Keys chart, and then basing the 5-lane chart on it when you're done.

1. Notes - Where you put the playable notes, between MIDI notes C2 and C4. All notes can be used on all difficulties here.
2. Range Shift - Due to game limitations, it can only show part of the range on screen at the time. When one of these notes are placed, it changes the visible range. More info down below.
3. Solo Marker - Marks the duration of the note as a solo, meaning it will count your note-hit progress for the section and give you a bonus in-game.
4. Overdrive - See its own page for detailed explanation. Make sure its identical between Pro and 5-lane!
5. BRE - See its own page for detailed explanation
6. Glissando - Makes notes for the duration of it easier to hit, for use for parts where you slide your finger across the keys quickly.
7. Trill - Creates a “trill lane” for the duration of it, used for parts with quick shifting between two different notes that would be hard to play consistently otherwise. Use sparingly!

Some of these will be explained in greater detail later.

On the bottom of the MIDI editor window there are additional options next to the play button:

• Grid (A) - The note density when placing notes. In most cases its fine at 1/16th, but you might sometimes need to change it to 1/32th for faster songs. You can also type in the grid yourself, allowing you to use custom ones if necessary for extremely complex songs.
• Grid (B) - Changes which rhythm the grid uses. Straight is the default. Triplet is often used in Blues, Swing is often used in Jazz, and Dotted is very rarely used at all.

WORK IN PROGRESS!

WORK IN PROGRESS!

WORK IN PROGRESS!

WORK IN PROGRESS!

While most reduction rules are similar or identical to that of the 5-lane chart, there are some things to keep in mind specifically for Pro Keys.

Overdrive, glissando, trill, solo and BRE markers are only for Expert. Most of them carry over to reductions automatically, though glissando and trill lanes do not work on reductions.

Range shifts work on reductions, but only Hard is allow to change from the initial range set at the start of the song.

• No 4-note chords -
• No octave chords -
• Avoid fast octave jumps -
• Avoid quick patterns into or between chords -

5-Lane is a version of the Keys compressed down to 5-button gameplay, playable on both a plastic guitar and a MIDI keyboard. This aims to be a very similar gameplay experience to that of the 5-lane Guitar and Bass charts, and in general follow most of the same rules. You'll usually want to chart Pro Keys first, then do 5-lane using the Pro chart as a reference.

Here are the biggest differences between 5-Lane Keys and 5-Lane Guitar & Bass rules:

Keys allows for 3-note chord shapes that are not permitted on Guitar or Bass:

• Green / Red / Orange
• Green / Yellow / Orange
• Green / Blue / Orange

This is because playing Keys uses different hand movements than playing Guitar/Bass, for example allowing you to easily use your thumb or a second hand while playing.

On Keys you can have sustains that overlap with other notes, without needing to begin or end at the exact same time as them.

For example, you can have a Green sustain, and while holding it you're playing a Red note during it.

Medium and Easy difficulty on Keys can still use all 5 note colors. This in general makes Keys reductions faster to do, as you don't have to wrap stuff as often.

Hard can use some 3-note chords if they're easy shapes, and Medium can use some Red-Orange and Green-Blue chords for 5-lane Keys. However, use them with caution; avoid quick jumps involving them and the like.