Key On

A note-and-channel-specific gate that stays high while the selected key is held.

What it does #

Key On watches incoming notes for one MIDI key and optionally one channel. Learn captures the next note/channel, while Channel 0 matches the selected key on any channel.

Controls and ports #

Control	Label	Official description
out	Out	Note gate signals received by the device for one specified note and channel
note	Note	Note whose gate signal is provided
channel	Channel	Channel whose notes are tested ('0' for all channels)
learn	Learn	On click, sets the Note and Channel parameters based on the next incoming note

Practical uses #

• Trigger a drum or patch action from one keyboard note without processing every note voice.
• Create key switches or channel-specific performance controls inside the Grid.

Things to know #

• The output stays high until all matching held instances are released.
• Channel 0 means any channel; specific channels are numbered 1 through 16 in the UI.
• The recovered state stores a 16-bit channel mask for every one of 128 MIDI keys.

Technical details #

A high-confidence Nitro implementation candidate supports the technical summary, but the visible-module mapping remains inferred.

The exact grid/midi/grid_key_on body keeps u16 mask[128]. For Channel 0 it tests mask[key & 127] != 0; otherwise it tests the bit 1<<(channel-1). The resulting state becomes a 0/1 audio signal. Event-handler annotations are not decompiled, so repeated-note counting and the exact transition frame still need measurement.

Open questions #

• Test repeated same notes, overlapping channels, sustain, Learn, out-of-range keys, retrigger, transition latency, and reset.

Version and sources #

Checked against Bitwig Studio 6.0.6. This page combines Bitwig's module metadata, the existing Grid course and guides, and Nitro analysis where the mapping is strong enough to support a technical statement.

Related material #

• Grid Modules course reference

Return to Bitwig Grid Modules or the Grid Modules course lesson.