| Author | Message | ||
     Mike Mandaville Unregistered Guest |
I like to use a music keyboard to play back MIDI files from my computer, since the keyboard has its own peripheral amplifier, which puts out a much better sound than my typically small computer speakers, and, also, since this type of hookup does protect my computer from the possibility of being damaged by an amplifier ground loop, which could at least potentially happen in the case of a direct amplifier hookup to the computer. My keyboard does not have a built in pitch bend wheel, although it does have the ability to receive, and to act on, pitch bend information. Also, other than this, there is no other information in my keyboard's manual regarding its pitch bending capability. I have learned that the default pitch bend sensitivity for MIDI music keyboards in general is evidently plus or minus two semitones, with some keyboards having a programmable pitch bend sensitivity which will take the bend beyond this range, and with some keyboards not having the pitch bend range which is programmable. Yesterday I downloaded Composer Pro, and was very happy to see that it offers an optimized degree of control over pitch bending, as well as other features which I have not yet had time to explore. Then, something funny happened. I played a MIDI file, after which I discovered that the pitch bend sensitivity of my keyboard had been set to one full octave. I noticed this after I went back to a pitch bend curve which I had been working on, and played it. I was very happy about this, because the one function which I wanted to have, but which I did not yet have, was the ability to do a long, slow slide. Well, of course, I could just go back and play that file again, every time I wanted to increase the slide range of my music keyboard, though, with Composer Pro, I will be able to study the file and retrieve the information which I will need to program that function on my keyboard. In fact, I think that I already have it figured out. Duane Allman never had it so good! I probably should make it clear that it is very important to me to be able to have the optimun degree of control over my pitch bends, which is why I am very happy to see this feature included in Composer Pro. | ||
| Mark Walsen (markwa) MidiNotate Developer Username: markwa Post Number: 1443 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hello Mike, I'm pleased that you learned about the pitch bend sensitivity RPN (registered parameter number) control made available in Composer. A little treat I added in this area is that the event list view is smart about report pitch bend. Event lists in other programs I've seen present just raw pitch bend values -8192 to 8192. What do those numbers mean???? As you discovered, by default, +/- 8192 is scaled to +/- 2 semitones. The event list reports and lets you edit these numbers in semitones and cents (1/100th semitone) instead of the nasty -8192 to 8192 numbers. Further, if there is a preceding pitch bend sensitivity RPN event that changes the default +/- 2 semitones range to something else, such as an octave, then the event list report for subsequent pitch bend events does the correct scaling of +/- 8192 to +/- 1 octave. As you play around with pitch bends, be sure to check out the features that lets you shift pitch bend shapes to the right or left, up or down, and also stretch horizontally or vertically. These features are not intended for graphical entertainment (although it is sort of fun to do, visually). They have real musical value. For example, you make the pitch bend go further out by stretching it vertically. These features were available in Composer, and are also available in Composer Pro. I haven't heard of anyone playing around with the features yet, even though Composer has been out for several months. Perhaps you can lead the way on exploring these feature, Mike. Oh, you can also copy a pitch bend shape to the clipboard and then paste it somewhere else. Look up "pitch bend" int he Users Guide. Cheers -- Mark | ||
| Mike Mandaville Unregistered Guest |
Hello again, Mark. I might should mention that I myself have spent more than a decade developing my own hardware music sequencer, so I therefore am in a position to understand your own situation in regards to your MidiNotate series of products, specifically, in regards to the amount of time which you have invested in them, and, also, in regards to the toll which this investment has taken. I have never used any other music software before now trying out the MidiNotate series of products, but, then again, I know of no other developer who is offerong me a free thirty-day trial, either. There might very well be other such offers, though, if so, I am unaware of them. Finally, the opportunity on my side of the equation to correspond directly with the developer, namely, yourself, Mark, is of such considerable benefit, and one which I doubt I would find elsewhere, that I therefore would have little motivation to want to try out any other similar product. Getting back to the subject at hand, I have noticed, in studying the pitch bend curves of MIDI files which I have found on the web, that these curves do vary considerably in their quality, and also that the quality of these bends is something which is very noticeable to my own ears. In regards to the quality of bends which I am able to achieve with Composer, as compared to Composer Pro, I do find that I am able to achieve good quality bends, especially because of my use of MouseKeys. Evidently, MouseKeys dates back to Windows 95, so this means that anyone with Composer should be able to move from the mouse to MouseKeys, if a higher degree of precision is wanted, though Composer Pro is certainly the program to go with for the highest precision possible here. In conclusion, I might as well mention that I am a "true believer" in regards to the MidiNotate series of products, and have already begun to evangelize about them to anyone who will listen, both on the internet, and also in my day-to-day life. I have only just begun to explore the many features of these products, though I already find myself wanting to become a "power user". Keep up the good work, Mark! Mike Mandaville | ||
| Sherry Crann (sherry) Senior Forum User Username: sherry Post Number: 646 Registered: 1-2004 |
Howdy Mike, It's nice to have you aboard  As a fellow user, I couldn't agree more with your assessment of MidiNotate products. Mark has done (and continues to do) a wonderful job of thinking through implementation issues and coming up with excellent solutions. Part of that comes from the fact that he really listens carefully to user feedback to help him understand the issues, needs and desires of users. As for your own music, might you have any recordings or .not files of work you've done? I don't know if you've checked it out, but Mark has just recently put up a section called "Share your music" which a few of us have made use of. I'd love to hear (and see) some examples of good pitch bends (and any other music that you'd like to share ). It sounds like you've done some extra study on pitch bends, so maybe you could give the rest of us some pointers. I can do bends on my acoustic guitar and my bass (and my whistle even), but my attempts at one using Composer to recreate them haven't been too hot, and I know that's User error on my part. ttfn, Sherry | ||
| Mark Walsen (markwa) MidiNotate Developer Username: markwa Post Number: 1446 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hi Mike, You've built your own hardware MIDI sequencer? Wow, that makes you a rare breed of do-it-yourselfers! Thanks for the encouraging words about MidiNotate. To give credit to other developers, it is pretty much standard these days to offer a free 30-day trial period. It's a great way to try out software of all sorts. We software developers, as well as our customers, are so lucky to be able to do this. I don't think the same 30-day trial period practice would work well for other products such as, say, automobiles. Cheers -- Mark | ||
| David Jacklin (dj) Senior Forum User Username: dj Post Number: 187 Registered: 4-2003 |
Actually, we have a "lemon law" in Ontario that says that if a new automobile has X amount of mechanical trouble in the first 30 days (I think it's 30), the owner can demand an exchange. My dad once took delivery of a new automobile and found that all of the front sheet metal was loose: none of the bolts were tightened! It was a "Friday" car. At speed, we thought the whole front end was going to fall off. So far, nothing has fallen off of any Midinotate product I've used! | ||
| Mike Mandaville Unregistered Guest |
Hello again, folks. Sherry, thank you for welcoming me aboard. I see that Mark has made about half of the posts to this forum, which is probably the best demonstration of his responsiveness, and that you yourself have made about half of the remainder, which certainly demonstrates a very active participation on your part. I have decided to read all of the posts which have been made to this forum, by the way, in order to make myself better informed, so that I then will then be able to make better informed posts. I haven't yet prepared any music to post, though I do plan on doing so in the future. And, by the way, Sherry, I did download and listen to your Celtic folk tune, and I want you to know that I enjoyed it very much! This might sound funny, but it actually took me a long time to figure out how to do pitch bends in Composer. In retrospect, I should have asked Mark for help. Once I finally figured it out, though, I discovered that it was actually easy, and I began to wonder why I ever had trouble with it in the first place. I will explain more about this in a future post. Mark, although it is true that I have built a hardware music sequencer, what I have so far does not actually qualify for the term "MIDI", since what I did was to hook up three non-MIDI keyboards to the same control electronics. I did this by tapping into the keyswitches. So, I can control the tempo, turn notes on and off, and that's about it. The advantage of my continuing to upgrade my hardware sequencer, by the way, will be simply one of portability. Hardware sequencers are useful on the live stage, of course. | ||
| Mark Walsen (markwa) MidiNotate Developer Username: markwa Post Number: 1453 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hi Mike, I'm very interested in understanding how it is that the pitch bend features in Composer were rather difficult to discover. Perhaps the memory will still be fresh in your mind. Do you remember thinking, "hmmm, I wonder what kind of support Composer has for pitch bend"? Do you remember where you looked for this support in the user interface? (Of, course you didn't look up "pitch bend" in the Users Guide. Hardly anyone ever reads the documentation, sigh :-) Did you poke into the graphical tools? There is a button in the main toolbar for graphs. Did you try it to see what might be there, or did the button make it look like you were going to get a stock market report? I'm fishing here with you to find how the tools for pitch bend editing might be more obvious to find. Cheers -- Mark | ||
| Mike Mandaville Unregistered Guest |
Hello again, Mark. Actually, the problem which I ran into relates to the fact that in Composer, a pitch bend curve needs to start at the center-line of the musical staff, and then to finish there too. I was starting each curve at the beginning of the note, and then finishing the curve at the ending of the note, and then, when I played the note back, I kept hearing the jumps from where the red line moved from the staff center-line to the beginning or ending of the curved part of the line. This was compounded by the fact that I am a hardware "hacker" who was already in limbo, just waiting for my next lawn mowing season to begin. In other words, after I ran into this problem, I realized that I could resolve it with a hardware solution, namely, to build a peripheral pitch-bend wheel for my music keyboard, and so, therefore, rather than to pursue the matter any further at that time, I just decided to wait until I had the cash flow to apply the hardware solution. In the meantime, I went back to using the Midi Musician features of Composer, since the ability to extract charts from MIDI files is one which I value highly. Then, just before Midi Pro came out, I somehow discovered the note-attack and note-release offset features. Realizing at that time that I could adjust the offsets to eliminate the attack and release jumps, I therefore did so, and was able to then achieve some nice-sounding curves. Of course, now, with Pro, I am able to do perfect curves, with no offsets at all, so building a peripheral pitch bend wheel is therefore less of a priority, though I still plan to build one. | ||
| Mark Walsen (markwa) MidiNotate Developer Username: markwa Post Number: 1455 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hi Mike, Ah! That was the clue I was looking for. This makes sense to me that you would assume that the pitch bend starts at the notehead. Hmmm, I'll have to think about whether I should chance the 0-origin of the pitch graph from the middle staff line to the center of the note head. Perhaps it should be an option at least. Cheers -- Mark | ||
| Sherry Crann (sherry) Senior Forum User Username: sherry Post Number: 652 Registered: 1-2004 |
Howdy guys, First, thanks Mike, for your kind words about my song. I'm glad you enjoy it And thanks, too, for sharing your experience with the pitch bend - that has been my problem, too, but I wasn't persistent enough (I didn't really need it) to follow through and figure it out as well as you have. Even though I'd seen how it was done in the docs, I didn't look at it closely enough to do it properly. I'll have to give that a whirl again sometime soon ttfn, Sherry |
