PB range default is 2 semitones ?

Hey All You Alt-Tuning Buddies (that's gender neutral, right...?),
A Happy New Year To You All !

________________________________________________________________________
Just wondering if it's safe to assume that most MIDI devices
default to a 2-semitone pitch-bend range ?

I'm asking with regard to putting MIDI files on the net,
which will probably end up being heard through a SoundBlaster
card, or QuickTime. All those other plug-ins are great and all,
especially the Yamaha XG (tuning tables !),
but until they become more ubiquitous, I think it's safe to
sequence for a generic MIDI device.

-Drew

Hi Drew and other tuners/tunettes,

At 12:59 AM 1/2/99 +0530, Drew Skyfyre <skyfyre@usa.net> wrote:
>Hey All You Alt-Tuning Buddies (that's gender neutral, right...?),
>A Happy New Year To You All !

(FYI, the female version for "administrator" is "administratrix". I'm not
kidding; I saw it in the dictionary. You can use it in Scrabble...)

>Just wondering if it's safe to assume that most MIDI devices
>default to a 2-semitone pitch-bend range ?

The range is actually 4 semitones (2 semitones up and 2 semitones down). To
go up a semitone, you add 4096 pitch bend units.

Supposedly this range is modifiable by the user on some sound cards, but the
default range is 4 semitones.

I chose to use MIDI files with pitch bends for my web examples. I, too, was
looking for something as universal as possible, so I stayed away from things
like "System Exclusive" messages.

To assure that the client's MIDI device could handle my files, I also
recently launched an "equipment check" web page (feel free to link to it
from your web pages if you'd like):

http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky/justint/wheelchk.htm

Here's some more relavent info (excerpted from
http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky/justint/madonna.htm):

* ... the tuning was accomplished by using MIDI "pitch bends" on the
* notes, to adjust them from equal temperament to just intonation ...
*
* ... a short digression into how pitch bending works...:
*
* A MIDI pitch bend mimics the "pitch wheel" found on many electronic
* keyboards. As an example, to get a "justly intoned" C Major chord,
* you'd sharpen the G (via a positive pitch bend), and flatten the E
* (via a negative pitch bend):
*
* C Major chord
* ------------------------------
* Equal tempered Justly intoned
* -------------- --------------
* G+0 G+80
* E+0 E-561
* C+0 C+0
*
* The notation used here is the note name, followed by the positive
* or negative pitch bend value. The values are based on a semitone
* having 4096 pitch bend units.

Good luck! I look forward to hearing what you come up with.

--Mark
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Mark Nowitzky |
| email: nowitzky@alum.mit.edu AIM: Nowitzky |
| www: http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky |
| "If you haven't visited Mark Nowitzky's home |
| page recently, you haven't missed much..." |
+------------------------------------------------------+