Instant Instruments

Instant Instruments allows you to interface with your PC's built-in software synthesizer using something you already have connected to your PC, your keyboard. You can use either a guitar-, piano-, or drum-style interface.

System Requirements

Windows

Windows XP or newer
Sound device

MacOS

MacOS 10.6 or newer

Linux

Sound device
FluidSynth (fluidsynth)
Fluid General MIDI SoundFont (fluid-soundfont-gm)

Getting Started

After opening Instant Instruments, you can immediately start playing sounds and music using any of the three available input methods.

Instant Piano

The piano layout is as follows:

 2 3   5 6 7   9 0
Q W E R T Y U I O P

 S D   G H J   L ;
Z X C V B N M , . /

The keys are mapped to mimic the layout of a piano. Press and hold any of the keys listed above to play notes. Holding Ctrl while pressing a key will play a chord with that key's note as its base note.

Each row of piano keys has its own function key which can be used in combination with other keys to change the settings for that particular piano. The top row function key is '1' and the bottom row function key is 'A'.

Holding the function key while pressing the Up or Down key will change the program (instrument sound) used by that row. Holding the function key while pressing the Left or Right key will change the base note by one octave. You can also select a MIDI program directly by typing a program number on the number pad while holding the function key.

Instant Guitar

Hold your keyboard in your hands with the top edge resting in your left palm. Now you can play your instant guitar. Here is the default note layout:

F1  F2  F3  F4  F5  F6  F7  F8  F9  F10 F11 F12
C   C#  D   D#  E   F   F#  G   G#   A  A#   B

                                        Right Shift (Strum)

Holding an individual key while pressing the Strum key will trigger an individual note. Hold two adjacent keys while pressing the Strum key will trigger a chord. Holding two non-adjacent keys while pressing the Strum key will trigger a power chord.

You can switch to this alternate layout with the Tab key:

F1  F2  F3  F4  F5  F6  F7  F8  F9  F10 F11 F12
C   D   E   F   G   A   B   C   D    E   F   G

The function key for the guitar is Escape. Holding Escape while pressing the Up or Down key will change the program used by the guitar. Holding Escape while pressing the Left or Right key will change the base note by one octave.

Instant Drums

The drums are mapped as follows:

Insert    - Closed Hi-Hat
Home      - Open Hi-Hat
Page Up   - Crash
Delete    - Bass Drum
End       - Snare Drum
Page Down - Tom

NewCreature/Instant-Instruments