Qmk 1.1 is available! A quick run-down of the most important improvements (read more in the included docs):
"QWERTY midi keyboard" (Qmk) lets you assign multiple MIDI notes to keys on the Macintosh keyboard. Using OMS these notes can then be sent to any of the OMS instruments defined in your OMS Studio Setup (including the QuickTime Music Synthesizer that comes with your Mac). Furthermore you can send MIDI controllers, pitchbend, program changes and custom defined MIDI messages. A popup menu is able to store up to 250 different "Macintosh keys to MIDI notes" mappings, allowing you to easily switch between e.g. a standard, single note, piano keyboard and a set that assigns complex jazz chords to single Macintosh keys. You can thus use your Macintosh keyboard as a (crude) MIDI controller keyboard.
Qmk is obviously not meant to be a serious replacement for a true MIDI controller or keyboard, but can be useful when e.g. your keyboards are at the other side of your studio and you want to quickly flip through some patches and try them out. Another use would be for people using laptops "on the road" who don't want to bother with large and clumsy keyboards, but still want to get some work done. Using OMS's IAC busses, it is possible to send the MIDI data to a sequencer like Logic or Cubase. You could then use Qmk to play and record complex chord progressions with a series of single keypresses. It's up to you to find other uses for this program...
The program was developed and tested on a Mac G4 with Mac OS 9.0.4 and OS 9.2.2. I expect it to run without problems on other machines though, as long as they're "sort of not outdated". If the program doesn't run on your machine, please let me know, so I can include that information here.
You'll definitely need Opcode's OMS, which (if you don't have it already) can be downloaded here.
There is no OS X version of Qmk. Maybe one day, but that's something for the (probably distant) future.
The main window is where you'll spend 99% of your time. Just study the picture: this looks rather like a MIDI controller, right? Correct: it is.
In the Keyboard Sets Manager you can, uhm..., manage Keyboard Sets. A Keyboard Set is a mapping from the entire Macintosh keyboard to MIDI notes. Any key can be assigned to up to 8 MIDI notes. Up to 250 Keyboard Sets can be saved in a single file which is loaded at startup. In the main window you can easily pick from any of the 250 Keyboard Sets through a popup menu.
In the Custom Messages editor, you can define any kind of MIDI message, which is then associated with the 2 "Custom" faders in the main window. Special codes for "current MIDI channel", "fader value" and "delay" make this an extremely flexible tool. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to create your own Custom Messages (although some base knowledge regarding MIDI doesn't hurt).
Convinced? Then download Qmk 1.1 now. Extensive pdf-documentation included.
(c) H.J. Veenstra 2001-2002.