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If you’re using an iPad
If you’re using an Illuminating Piano, you can connect to your iPad via Bluetooth.
For direct connect, you will need an Apple Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter and a standard USB cable.
Using the Apple Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter and a standard USB cable, connect your iPad to your digital piano as shown below:
If you’re using a Mac
If you’re using an Illuminating Piano, you can connect to your Mac via Bluetooth.
If you’re using a Windows PC or Tablet or Mac
All you need to connect your device is a standard USB cable to connect your device with your digital piano.
Software Installation
- The following Windows operating systems are supported: Windows - Vista, 7, 8 and 10
- Download the software by going to our download page and installing from there.
- Note: Windows RT is not supported
- Click on the App Store, represented by the circled "A" inside the blue icon
- In the search bar in the upper right, type in "McCarthy Music." Once the app comes up, select it and install
Our software does work with iPad 2 but it can be a bit finicky to set up.
Since iPad 2 doesn't support Bluetooth (Bluetooth 4.0), a “Camera Adapter Kit” from Apple is required to directly connect your keyboard to the iPad.
Once you get the “Camera Adapter Kit” from Apple, you should be able to follow these steps to get it working on your iPad 2:
- Unplug power from piano, unplug USB from iPad, and close McCarthy Music app fully
- Power on piano. Playing keys on the piano should show lights
- Plug USB into iPad. Playing keys on the piano should NOT show lights
- Launch app. The rainbow swipe should show on the piano and the connection light in the top right hand corner of the app should be blue.
- Make sure your “Ringer” switch is flipped to “On”. You will get no sound otherwise. This is a physical switch on the iPad next to the volume buttons.
- Open Safari or your preferred web browser
- Navigate to http://www.mccarthypiano.com
- Select Download from the top navigation bar
- Click on the “Download for Mac OS X” button
- The file will be downloaded onto your machine and placed in your Downloads folder
- Open your downloads folder and double-click on the mccarthymusic dmg file
- Read the EULA and click "Agree"
- Follow the steps in the installer to install the app
- You are now free to launch the app via your applications
- The McCarthy Music software is capable of being downloaded on multiple devices – all you need to do is login with your personal credentials, and your account will be on two different devices. Be advised that it takes a couple of hours for all credits and previous sheet music purchases to download onto the new device.
- Most first time users will get a message upon launching the program that says their device is not connected to the Illuminating Piano. Dismiss the message, and follow the instructions to connect your device.
- If you’re still running into trouble after following the Bluetooth instructions, we recommend exiting and re-launching the app, and turning on and off the Bluetooth on your Illuminating Piano. The good news is that once you get the connection to stick the first time, it should reconnect seamlessly for future use.
- Key Saver is a feature of the piano that causes the piano to self illuminate cycling through different key saver modes. Key saver is triggered by a period of inactivity that can be set via the "Saver Time" option.
- Please make sure that you have filled in all the fields in the profile settings page. To connect to the cloud and ensure you can download music from the Music Store, make sure you’ve selected “Store Profile in Cloud” and fill out the email and password fields.
- Free Play allows you to play the Illuminating Piano completely free of distraction! Without any guidance, enjoy playing or composing songs on your own.
- Click on “Display” on the upper right side of your device. Here you will find various settings to create your ideal playing environment. To turn off the key lights, slide the bezel of the off position. You can change the key colors for each hand by clicking on Left or Right Color and selecting your preferred color for each hand.
- Hints help you learn a piece by allowing you to search for the correct note yourself first. Set the number of seconds to the length of time you want the Illuminating Piano to wait before showing you the right key.