How do I connect a MIDI keyboard?

How do I connect a MIDI keyboard? Plug it in by USB, open Veena in Chrome or another Chromium browser, allow MIDI access when the browser asks, and choose the keyboard in the MIDI Device menu. That is the whole setup: no driver for most keyboards, no install, and it works the same on Mac, Windows, Linux and Chromebook. Veena is an AI DAW with a personal music producer, CoProducer, built in, so what you play becomes editable notes that CoProducer builds a song around. It is free.

Veena is an AI DAW with a personal music producer built in. Describe the song you want and CoProducer builds it with you — beats, chords, melody, arrangement and mix — as real tracks you can edit, mix and export. Free, in your browser.

Connect a MIDI keyboard to Veena, step by step

1. Plug the keyboard in. Connect it to your computer with its USB cable, or through your audio interface's MIDI input.
2. Open Veena in a Chromium browser. Go to daw.veena.studio in Chrome, Edge, Brave or Arc and sign in with Google. These browsers support Web MIDI, which is how Veena hears your keyboard.
3. Allow MIDI access. The browser asks the first time; choose Allow.
4. Start a MIDI recording. Press Record in the transport bar, choose MIDI on the left of the Record panel and press Choose a sound.
5. Pick the instrument and sound. The guided set-up walks you through Instrument, then Sound, then Record. Choose Melody, Drum Maker or MPC Sampler and a preset.
6. Choose your keyboard. On the Instrument tab, pick your keyboard in the MIDI Device menu. Play a few keys: you hear the sound you chose.
7. Record. Set a count-in of 1 or 2 bars if you like, switch the metronome on and play. Every note lands in an editable MIDI clip.
8. Edit and build. Open the piano roll to fix notes and velocities, then drag the clip into the CoProducer panel and ask for the rest of the song.

If the keyboard does not show up

• Use a Chromium browser. Chrome, Edge, Brave and Arc get every feature, MIDI keyboards included.
• Reload after plugging in. Connect the keyboard, then reload the Veena tab so the browser lists it.
• Check the permission. In the browser's site settings for daw.veena.studio, set MIDI devices to Allow.
• On a managed Chromebook, your administrator can allow MIDI access.
• Still missing? Your computer's own sound or MIDI settings should list the keyboard; if they don't, install the maker's driver.

What you can do with a MIDI keyboard in Veena

No keyboard to hand? Your computer keyboard plays notes too: A to ' for the white keys, W to ] for the black keys, Z and X to change octave.

What's free

• MIDI recording: the guided set-up, Web MIDI keyboards and computer-keyboard playing, on every plan.
• The studio: piano roll, Beat Maker, 61 instrument presets, 8 drum kits, the 16-pad sampler and your own plug-ins, with up to 5 projects at a time.
• CoProducer: a daily allowance of requests.
• Export: MIDI, WAV, MP3 and stems, with no cap and no watermark.

Veena Pro, $20 a month, removes the daily request cap and unlocks the premium models.

GarageBand and Logic Pro run only on Apple devices, and FL Studio and Ableton Live need a desktop install from $99 first (as of October 2026). In Veena the keyboard, the studio and the producer meet in a browser tab, on any computer.

The full studio for playing and recording is the online recording studio. Audio and MIDI recording are both covered in recording in Veena, supported browsers are in browser and computer requirements, and Chromebook set-up is in Veena on Chromebook and Linux. Every other answer is in the Veena help centre.

Related reading: Online recording studio · Recording in Veena · Browser and computer requirements