Fortepiano

Common Questions

• Which keys play which notes? The home row is the white keys (A S D F G H J K L ; ') and the row above is the black keys (W E T Y U O P) — the same Musical Typing layout GarageBand uses. Z and X shift octaves, C and V adjust touch, and Space is the sustain pedal. Toggle the letter labels from the bottom-right of the window if you want a clean keyboard.
• Some 4-note chords drop a note: that's your physical keyboard, not the app. Most keyboards are wired as a matrix and certain dense key combinations can't all be detected at once (the same limit applies in GarageBand). Workarounds: hold Space (sustain) and roll the chord, re-voice the chord, or use a keyboard with n-key rollover.
• How do I get my recording into GarageBand / Logic / Ableton? Record a take, then Export → MIDI. The .mid file opens in any DAW with every note editable, and you can reassign the instrument there. MIDI export is part of Fortepiano Pro.
• What's the difference between the play and piano buttons on a take? Play (▶) plays the audio exactly as recorded. The piano button replays the take's notes through whichever instrument is currently selected — record on grand piano, hear it as harpsichord (Pro).
• What does the export tempo setting do? It doesn't change how your take sounds — it sets the tempo grid written into the MIDI file so your notes line up in a DAW. Match it to the tempo you played at (Settings → MIDI export tempo).
• What's free and what's Pro? Free: all eight pianos, recording, WAV and M4A export. Pro (one-time purchase, not a subscription): all 50 instruments, MIDI export, and replay-through-any-instrument. Restore a previous purchase from the unlock screen.
• Takes disappear when I quit: takes live for the current session — export anything you want to keep as MIDI, WAV, or M4A first.