## Features

Chordzy's synthesizer plays two things from your MIDI keyboard: which notes you play and how hard you press them. Everything else a keyboard can send is ignored for now. Chordzy supports synthesizers in the web app and in the desktop app; phone and tablet versions are still in testing. All MIDI keyboards should be supported, though more advanced features are not yet.

| What the keyboard sends | Web app | Desktop app |
|---|---|---|
| Notes, key down and key up | Yes | Yes |
| Velocity, how hard you press | Yes | Yes |
| Sustain pedal | No | No |
| Pitch bend and mod wheel | No | No |
| Aftertouch | No | No |
| Program change | No | No |
| MIDI 2.0 | No | No |

The sustain pedal row is the one people notice. Press the pedal and hold a chord, and the sound stops when your fingers leave the keys.

A program change is the message some keyboards send when you press their sound buttons. In Chordzy it does nothing. You choose the sound in the app instead, from the built-in [instruments](/help/synthesizers/instruments.md).


## Splitting a keyboard between instruments

A keyboard plays one instrument at a time in Chordzy. Every note goes to the same synth, whichever end of the keyboard it comes from.

In the future, you'll be able to assign multiple synths to the same keyboard by splitting it into sections: a bass sound under your left hand and a piano under your right, for example. You'll also be able to adjust the octave and otherwise configure how each key range works.

There is no octave or transpose setting for a MIDI keyboard today. The only octave buttons on the site are the arrows on the [virtual piano](/tools/virtual-piano.md), which you play with a mouse or your computer keyboard.


## Aftertouch

Chordzy ignores aftertouch. Aftertouch is the extra pressure you put on a key that is already down, and keyboards that have it send a steady stream of messages while you lean on a note.

The browser version drops those messages before they reach the game, because there are so many of them that they slow everything else down. The desktop app receives them and does not map them onto synthesizers. Either way, pressing harder on a held note changes nothing you hear.


## MIDI 2.0

Chordzy does not support MIDI 2.0, and no part of the app reads it today. Support is still a ways off, but there's nothing preventing Chordzy from implementing it as soon as the team has time. If your setup needs it, [contact us](/contact).

A keyboard sold as MIDI 2.0 still works. MIDI 2.0 devices fall back to MIDI 1.0 with software that does not ask for more, so Chordzy sees one like any other keyboard: notes and velocity.