Quartertone

Chikitin · October 11, 2019, 8:40pm

-steve-:

Qiujan:

i mean, all the notes which i can play on the keyboard like in the midi-editor, are set to controll a certain pitchfrequency, no?

No, actually. Midi notes played in a DAW are actually commands that are sent to the synth. The don’t contain pitch info, rather they are commands that tell the synth to “play note #60 with velocity of 84” and “Stop note 60”. It’s up to the synth to interpret what that means.

The MIDI specification, which pretty much all modern synths accommodate, only provides one way to change the pitch of a given note- pitchbend. The problem with it is that it affects everything on the channel. I think this is why this type of pitch manipulation has been the domain of the VST plugin rather than the DAW. Every company has their own way to do it, and there is a problem getting competing companies to agree to use the same exact method. This will never happen, imo.

Some VSTs, like Kontakt, provide tools for this, and you can set up a maqam, save it as a preset, then recall it using a CC or, using Expression Maps in Cubase. So you can have say, an expression map slot that called ‘rast’ which sends a CC to Kontakt to modulate.

One solution is to have two (or more) instances of the same VST on a track, assiging them to different channels. Then one is used for microtones, and the other for un-repitched notes. and you can use Note Expression in Cubase for this. The drawback is you have to still make sure both channels play the same articulation when the note plays, so you don’t have the sika note in a pizz section suddenly play arco, for example. So I gave up on using that method, and do it in the plugin.

Hi Steve,

Do you know any workaround to display qurtertone accidentals and/or key signature with quarter tone symbols in Score Editor?

Thank you in advance.

CS

steve · October 11, 2019, 9:50pm

Two ways that I can think of right now.

Create an Expression Map articulation. Set the font to one with microtone accidentals (or any character, frankly).

Create a user symbol.

If you use an Expression Map, you can also send a midi message to adjust the pitch. Which midi message to use will depend on the VST or synth involved.

Chikitin · October 12, 2019, 2:56am

Thank you Steve. However, my use symbols are note listed among the choices available. I have a specific font ( Persian Music ) https://www.4shared.com/photo/vcK-p-Tz/actual_size.html that I’d like to use. I don’t think it is even in the unicode character set.

Chikitin · October 12, 2019, 4:47am

Hi Again Steve,

I followed your approach. But I guess I am doing something wrong. Would you please take a look at my project and see that is the wrong? I doesn’t play notes except the last notes. It seems it is switching to different channel on the HSO ( loaded on Halion Sonic SE). I have the output of the mappings to program to 2 and 3 ( corresponding to each channel with pitch bends).

Here is my .cpr project. microtonal-01.cpr - Google Drive

Thank you very much in advance.