ButtonBeats Virtual Piano Black logo

ButtonBeats Virtual Piano Black

By ButtonBeats Free Editors' Rating

Key Details of ButtonBeats Virtual Piano Black

  • Play virtual piano with your computer keyboard
  • Last updated on 20/12/11
  • There have been 0 updates within the past 6 months
  • The current version has 1 flag on VirusTotal badge_icon

Editors' Review

Download.com Staff Apr 4, 2012

ButtonBeats Virtual Piano Black is a cool Flash app that simulates a piano keyboard on your desktop. You can play it with your mouse or with optional keyboard controls. By tapping out notes in a numbered sequence, even total beginners can play simple tunes like "Happy Birthday" and "Jingle Bells" to more complex melodies such as those by Mozart, Bach, and the Beatles.

Virtual Piano's interface does indeed look like a real piano keyboard, albeit a reduced one, with attractive highlights on the black keys, which are functional. That was a good sign since we've seen many similar programs in which the black keys were strictly for show. The controls are minimal: Fullscreen, Activate Keyboard Control, four Sounds options, and a Songs button that opens a drop-down list containing many tunes you can tap out on the keys when the keyboard controls are activated. Virtual Piano can also record your performances, and a red Recording message appears when it's doing so. You can play back your recordings via the Control menu, which includes a Loop feature. Clicking a question mark icon toggles the key symbols on and off. When it's activated, Virtual Piano displays the corresponding PC key symbol on the piano keyboard, with letters for white keys and numbers and symbols for black keys. The sound quality is very good indeed; in fact, too good for our test system's built-in audio chip. The realistic dynamic range and sustained tones frequently exceeded the tiny op-amp's capabilities, resulting in audible distortion, especially when using high-quality headphones. Most musically inclined users will have a better sound card or external speaker system, which will do a better job of reproducing challenging piano tones as well as yield an even more realistic piano tone.

Best of all, Virtual Piano Black is totally fun. Clicking Songs pins open the songs menu just above the keys. We merely had to select a tune, activate the computer keyboard symbols on the piano keys, and start tapping away. As the ButtonBeats documentation states, you can be playing Beethoven in minutes, even with no musical experience at all. This is the baby grand of piano sims.

Full Specifications

What's new in version 5.9

General

Date Added December 20, 2011
Version 5.9

Operating Systems

Additional Requirements None

Popularity

Total Downloads 262,558
Downloads Last Week 180
Report Software

Related Software

SequetronLE logo

SequetronLE

Free
SequetronLE
PC 73 Virtual Piano Keyboard logo

PC 73 Virtual Piano Keyboard

Free
PC 73 Virtual Piano Keyboard
VidMate HD for Windows 10 logo

VidMate HD for Windows 10

Free
VidMate HD for Windows 10
Power Tab Editor logo

Power Tab Editor

Free
Power Tab Editor

User Reviews

4.4/5
5 User Votes
5 Star
4 Star
3 Star
2 Star
1 Star

Developer's Description

Play the piano with either your mouse or your computers keyboard. To play with your computer keyboard click the 'activate keyboard control button' on the right side of the piano (the button looks like a computer keyboard). The notes are all accurate. The sheet music is converted to a sequence of letters you type on the computer keyboard and it will play the actual song. So if you wanted to play jingle bells on the piano you would click the 'activate keyboard control' button then type the letters for jingle bells--jjj jjj jl ghj.

There are hundreds of songs available for you to choose from. Click the songs button on the piano. Select a song, click the 'activate keyboard control' button on the piano then type the sequence of letters (song) you selected. You should be able to play bits of Beethoven in minutes.

Promo image for CNET Shopping

Get the best price on everything

Shop your favorite products and we’ll find the best deal with a single click. Designed to make shopping easier.