MIDI editor and sounds

What it is

Hear MIDI the way it will sound, not as a beep. Every place Aden plays MIDI (a MIDI file on a comment, a MIDI idea you draw, the melody of a take, the notes in a DAW project, the Key finder's piano and guitar) has the same sound picker and the same editor.

Sounds

Press the sound name (or the note icon) next to a MIDI player to pick what it plays on. Type to search.

• Built in: Piano, Electric piano, Guitar, Muted guitar, Synth, Pad and Organ. They are made in your browser, so they play at once and offline.
• Your samplers: instruments made from your own samples. They stay in this browser.

The sound you pick sticks: every MIDI player on Aden uses it until you pick another.

Make a sampler from a sample folder

1. Open the sound picker and press Load a sample folder.
2. Pick a folder: a sample library, a Kontakt library's Samples folder, an SFZ instrument, or a pack of one-shots. Aden reads it in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
3. Aden puts the samples on keys for you:
   • An SFZ file in the folder says where each sample goes.
   • Otherwise a note in the file name ("Piano_C3_mf.wav", "C4v8.wav") puts the sample on that key, and the keys between play the nearest sample, pitched. Of several layers of one note, Aden keeps a medium-loud first take.
   • A folder without notes in its names (drum hits, vocal chops) becomes a kit: one sample per key from C2 up.
4. The sampler opens on a keyboard. Press a key to hear it. Drop an audio file on a key to put it there, or pick a key to choose or remove its sample. Pitch between samples turns the in-between keys on or off. Name it and press Save.

Edit a sampler later with the pencil next to it in the picker; Delete in there removes it, with Undo.

Kontakt's own compressed samples (NCW) and locked libraries can't be read by any browser: use a library whose samples are WAV, AIFF, FLAC or MP3, or an SFZ. Samples longer than 8 seconds are cut to 8, which is plenty for a preview.

The MIDI editor

• Play from the playhead with the button or Space. Click the ruler to move it.
• Draw notes in the piano roll, drag them, stretch them, delete them, with the shortcuts of your DAW (pick it next to the sound). Every note plays as you add or press it, and the keys on the left play when you press them.
• Zoom with a pinch or Ctrl/⌘ + scroll, like Project files. Scroll sideways to move along, or use the zoom controls at the bottom.
• Clear every note with the eraser. Undo in the toast brings them back.
• Drop a .mid on the editor to open it.

The MIDI editor page

aden.space/midi (also in ⌘K as "MIDI editor") is the editor on its own, free and without an account. It opens on a chord progression to press play on.

• Chords: type a progression ("Am7 Fmaj7 C/E G") and press Write.
• BPM: change the tempo and the notes move with it.
• Open, Download and Copy link: the notes live in the link, so the address bar always holds your sketch. Links hold up to 400 notes; download the file for more.
• Full screen: the editor fills the screen. Escape leaves it.
• Recent: the sketches you left (another file opened, chords written, the notes cleared, the tab closed) sit under the editor, or at the left edge of a wide screen, dimmed until you point at them. Press one to open it again. They stay in your browser and never reach Aden; Clear empties them.

In ChatGPT, Claude and other AI apps, add MIDI editor by Aden (mcp.aden.space/midi-editor) and ask for chords or a melody as MIDI. You get the .mid and a link, and it can open the editor in the chat, already playing.