Keys Held
Bitwig Platform
A numerical count of note keys currently active at the Grid device input.
What it does
Keys Held reports how many incoming keys are presently held or otherwise active. It provides global keyboard-state information that is useful for legato logic, chord detection, and actions that should occur only on the first or last note.
Controls and ports
| Control | Label | Official description |
|---|---|---|
out |
Out | Number of keys currently active at the device's input |
Practical uses
- Compare against zero to detect whether any key is active.
- Detect transitions from one to two or more keys to switch between lead and chord behavior.
Things to know
- This is a count rather than a gate; values can exceed one.
- The distinction among physical keys, sustained notes, duplicate notes, channels, and allocated voices requires measurement.
- Voice stacking should not necessarily imply additional held keys because stacks duplicate a voice after note input.
Technical details
No Nitro implementation has been confirmed for this visible module. The behavior is described conservatively from module metadata and editorial research.
The functional result is an integer-valued host note-state count emitted as a Grid signal. No dedicated Nitro implementation establishes its held-note identity rules, sustain handling, or maximum.
Open questions
- Test duplicate key/channel notes, sustain, note stealing, Note Grid-generated notes, voice stacks, panic/reset, and maximum count.
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
Return to Bitwig Grid Modules or the Grid Modules course lesson.
Also matches: Bitwig Keys Held module, Bitwig Grid Keys Held, Keys Held Grid module