Re: [MMM] Digest Number 543

Hi Jim,

Whether it responds to pitch bends is a matter of how your
synth, soft synth, sampler or sound card works.

Nearly all programs that play microtonal notes
in midi do them the same way as standard Midi pitch bend messages.
So they will all fail the pitch bend test.

So you will need to fix that whatever program you use.

FTS nowadays has an option to test any of the devices individually,
by selecting it in the Out menu and using Bs | Test Pitch Bend Range.

Indeed, I also did a little program you can download and use
just in order to do the pitch bend test on its own,

The solution if you can't play pitch bends is to get new hardware
or software that can.

As far as software is concerned,
I've used the FM7 for fm type sounds and Giga for realistic sounding
instrument sounds and both work fine and pass the test.
With Giga you have to make sure you set the
pitch bend range to 2 semitones for the instrument you are using
as often you find it has been preset to 0 semitones.

The Roland or Yamha soft synths are other options - if you want
a GM sound set that responds to the pitch bends.
(the FM7 and Giga won't give you the GM standard set of melodic
insturments and non melodic percussion, so if you select
e.g.Violin in your notation program, it could play as anything
- needs to be a GM sound set for it to play as a violin unless
you purposely load a violin sound in e.g. giga whenever you
play that particular piece)

There are many other soft synths - the one Manuel recommended the
other day does pitch bends fine, though I can't seem to
get to relay to it from another program yet here.

But, maybe your soundcard has several devices on it -
Or, can you chagne the pitch bend range at your synth?
That's the sort of thing to try. This is not to disuade you
from trying suggestions for notation programs, but
just to say you will still have this pitch bend problem
to deal with after that at the end of the day.

Here is the little stand alone program to test your
pitch bend range in Windows:

http://tunesmithy.co.uk/testpitchbendrange.exe

Right click and choose to save it anywhere
- on your desktop is fine as it is a stand
alone program with no other files neede. Then run it as
usual. Select a device, click the button to test
it and if you hear two identically pitched notes
then it is fine. Otherwise, it is ignoring pitch
bends or won't let itself get set to the
standard Midi pitch bend range of +- 2 semitones.

Thans.

Robert