Getting Started

Welcome! MidiStickers Pro is a music software designed for music students, teachers and independent learners. It provides flexible tools in the form of MIDI visualization widgets and trainer tools that can be combined for unique learning experiences.

This guide introduces the basic operations of the software.

All operations in MidiStickers are accessed through the toolbar, which you can move by by clicking and dragging.

Click on the keyboard icon to collapse or expand toolbar buttons. To add a new widget, click the plus icon . The settings icon opens the Settings Window, from which you adjust settings such as MIDI Input and Language. The remainings buttons are covered in details in the Toolbar reference page.

Configuring MIDI Input/Output

MIDI Devices are configured from the Settings Window ( button on the Toolbar). By default, MidiStickers will detect and enable your first MIDI Input Device.

Enable or disable MIDI controllers in the the Audio/MIDI tab. For your conveniece, there is a built in synthetizer in MidiStickers (Play MIDI Input setting) to generate sounds from your MIDI controller or even your PC keyboard (with the Virtual Piano/Fretboard widgets).

For an in-depth explanation of all configurations, including using external VST instruments to generate your sounds, check out the Settings Window reference page.

Adding New Widgets

Click the toolbar button to create a new widget or use the Add Widget shortcut (Ctrl-Shift in Windows or Cmd-Shift in macOS). Widgets are grouped in these categories:

Instruments: visualize or input MIDI in different instrument representations. The Virtual Piano and Virtual Fretboard allows MIDI input via your computer keyboard.
Staff: notation widgets in various presets.
Chords: widgets that display chord symbols, roman numerals, figured bass, german function symbols and other chord analysis tools.
Teaching: various teaching tools.
Harmony: advanced harmony visualization and training tools.
Theory: music theory-focused widgets or trainers.

Widgets can be moved by clicking and dragging. To resize a widget, hold and drag with the Right mouse button.

Hold Control to display additional widget controls: Help (?), Minimize , Widget Settings and Close .

Holding Control and left-clicking a widget opens a context menu, allowing you to change the back-to-front draw order, set background as transparent/opaque and other widget-specific controls.

To clone a Widget, hover it and press Ctrl+C.

For certain widgets, double-clicking or using the mouse wheel will trigger quick actions. Those actions are always reversible by repeating the same action. Specific shortcuts for all widgets are covered on the widgets reference pages.

Overlay Mode vs Focus Mode

MidiStickers provides two modes that can be switched from the toolbar: Focus Mode and Overlay Mode.

When in Focus Mode, MidiStickers works inside a window that fits the entire screen.

When in Overlay Mode, MidiStickers works as a transparent overlay, running alongside your desktop or any other open software. This mode is intended for video capture, online teaching, presentations and demonstrations.

Layouts

Any collection of widgets can be saved as Layouts. MidiStickers provides numerous Stock Layouts so you can explore many features of the software right away.

Layouts can be locked from the Toolbar. When a layout is locked, MidiStickers prevents any changes in widget placement and settings. You can unlock from the layout menu in the Toolbar.