menuband — support

Support

A tiny piano in your menu bar. Here's how to play it, and how to reach a human when something's off.

Getting started

• A small piano strip appears at the right of your menu bar. Click it to open the popover.
• Click keys in the popover to play, or turn on the Notepat or Ableton input mode to play by typing on your keyboard while Menu Band is the active app.
• The full-screen keymap view opens from the scope display in the popover.

Playing through a DAW

Menu Band publishes a virtual MIDI source named Menu Band. Choose it as a MIDI input in your DAW (GarageBand, Logic, Ableton Live, etc.) and the keys you tap or type will play through your DAW's instruments. When no DAW is connected, Menu Band's built-in General MIDI synth sounds instead.

Recording a mic sample

Hold the ` (backtick) key to sample a sound from your microphone. The first time, macOS will ask for microphone permission — grant it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone if you missed the prompt.

Troubleshooting

• Typing doesn't play notes. Menu Band must be the active app: click the menu-bar piano, choose Notepat or Ableton, then type. Double-tap Command to bring Menu Band forward from another app if TrackDrum is installed. Menu Band uses keystrokes only to play notes.
• No sound. Confirm your Mac's output volume, and that a DAW isn't capturing the Menu Band MIDI source silently. With no DAW connected, the built-in synth should sound.
• My DAW doesn't see Menu Band. Rescan MIDI devices in your DAW, or quit and reopen it after launching Menu Band so CoreMIDI re-enumerates the source.
• Trackpad percussion doesn't open. Install and open TrackDrum for Menu Band, then reopen Menu Band and arm its percussion surface. TrackDrum runs without a window; the Tracktramp widget appears in Menu Band.
• Microphone sampling does nothing. Grant microphone permission (see above), then try holding ` again.

Privacy

Menu Band collects nothing about you — no analytics, no account. Full details are on the privacy page.

Open source

Menu Band is open source and part of aesthetic.computer. Feature requests and bug reports are welcome by email.

Contact

Email: [email protected] · Web: aesthetic.computer