So you will also need a piano audio unit. Audio Units are the standard for instrument and effect plugins in the OSX world. Among other places you can get it at: ĪU Lab allows you to connect MIDI channels to sound modules called 'Audio Units'. I'm going to assume that you don't want to buy sound-generating hardware to replace your Mac.Īpple provides a free lightweight application called 'AU Lab'. There are modules of all the price range. You'll find them as sound modules, sampler modules, or synth modules. You'll need to connect your MIDI keyboard to a a device that can interpret the MIDI data that is always on, or that can be turned on fast and easily.

There are many lightweight AU hosts that you can use to run your samplers, synths, and other instruments. If you still want to use your Mac, I recommend you to don't leave the sampler software running all time. Samplers need a lot of resources, and having one on your system 100% of the time might be impractical. If you want your Mac to be part of the system, you'll need to leave your Mac on running the software that is producing the sounds at all times, but that doesn't seem to match a 'simple always-on piano'.

Music keyboard for mac