How can I change the tuning of the entire project less than a semitone?

Cubase
1

This feature is especially useful when you have already made a wave recording and you want the midi content that is added to be consistent with the recording. That is, i want the recording to determine the tuning of the midi instruments which might not be in 440, if you understand me. I read other discussions regarding the issue and saw that there is no possibility to change the tuning! I admit that I was surprised. In the free app that I have downloaded on my mobile for tuning, you can specify whether the A will be at 440 or elsewhere and the cubase does not have it! I would have expected to see it in the project setup or in the bottom bar next to the tempo.

2

The MIDI 1.0 specification defines Channel Fine Tuning as an RPN message. Whether or not your receiving instrument will respond to that message is up to the manufacturer. If it does not, you could look for a local setting parameter on the instrument or revert to using a Pitch Bend message.

1 Like
3

What @mlib said. Some Steinberg VSTis are capable of finetuning, 3rd party plugins don’t necessarily offer this option.

I would approach the task from another angle: Why don’t you alter the fine-tuning of the wav file instead? That’s quick and easy.

Or if you want to keep the tuning of the recording: Do a mixdown of all VSTis and tune this wav file instead.

If you are still tweaking your MIDI tracks and you want to keep the tuning of the original recording: Duplicate the original recording (e.g. track version) and finetune the wav for the time being. If you are done tweaking your VSTis go back to the original track version of your problematic wav file. Now, do a mixdown of all VSTis and tune this newly created wav file to the tuning of your original recording.

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4

Trying to use Cubase and many other plugins with other than 440 tuning is like swimming against an overwhelmingly strong current.

Approaching the mismatch the other way round by converting all audio material to 440 is just so much easier and generally works really fast and well.

p.s. If needed, there are lots of existing tutorials how to do that - easy to find via simple web searching.

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5

This is a middle-of-the-road solution. Useful, however. Thanks

1 Like
6

Alternatively you could do it the other way around:

  • Retune the original file to 440Hz
  • Create your Cubase project then mute the original track and export the WAV for all other tracks
  • Open the exported WAV and tune that down to your original pitch
  • Mix with the original track