MIDI setup

If you click on the MIDI tab, you will see the following screen:

.

The Pitch Palette uses the multimedia drivers for your MIDI interface to connect your MIDI equipment to the software. You will see a list of the MIDI Input Drivers which are installed on your system by clicking on the down arrow which is on the right hand side of the message “Device not enabled”. If there are no devices listed, they will have to be installed on your system. Your MIDI interface comes with drivers. If you do not have a MIDI interface, you will have to get one. They are available at most music stores.

MIDI input

Select the MIDI Input device you will be using for the Pitch Palette to receive MIDI data from your MIDI keyboard or other MIDI device.

MIDI output

Select the MIDI Output device you will be using for the Pitch Palette to send MIDI data to your synthesizer or other MIDI device.

Tuning channel

The Pitch Palette receives tuning information on a Tuning Channel which can be any channel (1 to 16) selected by you, the musician.

You can choose any channel to be your Tuning Channel. Key, Root and Scale choices are sent as MIDI Note On events on this channel. The Pitch Palette uses this information to build and send MIDI System Exclusive (SysEx) re-tuning messages to your synth.

Note On events received by the Pitch Palette on the Tuning Channel will not be sent on to your synth.

You can send Tuning Channel data to the Pitch Palette in several ways:

• Using one keyboard for performance and tuning data, set one or more zones on your keyboard to transmit Key, Root or Scale on the Tuning Channel. If you set the Tuning Channel to the same channel as your keyboard, the Pitch Palette will set the zones of your keyboard for you (see example below). or;
• Use a second Midi controller to transmit Key, Root or Scale on the Tuning Channel or;
• Use a sequencer to transmit Key, Root or Scale on the Tuning Channel or;
• Make your choices on the Pitch Palette screen using a mouse or;
• Set the Auto Root feature to On and let the Chord Detector choose the Roots for you

Tuning Low C

 Whichever method you choose, you need to setup the Pitch Palette to tell it where to find the Key, Root and Scales. The Key/ Root zone needs 24 notes beginning with the note C.

• The first 12 notes in this zone select the Key;
• The next 12 select the Root.
• The next notes select a Scale, starting with Scale # 0, which is the equal tempered scale. As there are 128 MIDI notes, there are over 100 notes in the Scale zone which can be used for selecting musical scales.

• As you will read in Chapter 8, you can organize your scales into any order you like. You can change scales during a performance by playing the appropriate note on the Tuning channel in the Scale Zone.

Example: using one keyboard for performance and tuning data:

You could decide to use the lowest octave of your keyboard to select Keys and Roots. Middle C is MIDI Note # 60. The C below that is # 48, and so on. If your lowest C is MIDI Note # 36, you could set the Key/Root Low C to # 36. Then the octave beginning with your lowest C would transmit Key changes on the Tuning channel and the octave above it would transmit Root changes. Since this takes up 2 octaves of your keyboard, a better setup might be to set the Key/Root Low C to # 24. Then the lowest octave on your keyboard would transmit Root Changes and you could make Key changes on the Pitch Palette using a mouse. Root changes occur more frequently than Key changes.

You might want to use the highest C upward to select scales. If you set # 84 as the Low C for scale choices, then #84 will be Scale # 0 (equal tempered), # 85 will be Scale # 1, and so on.

Example: of using a second MIDI controller (Keyboard or Foot Pedal) for Tuning Channel

Set the transmit channel of the second MIDI controller to the Tuning Channel which you selected. Merge the MIDI Out cables from your performance keyboard the second keyboard or foot pedal by using a MIDI patch bay or MIDI merge box.

Tempered toggle

Clicking on the light above the word Tempered will toggle the tuning between the current scale and Equal Temperament (Red light).

The note assigned to Scale # 0 (equal tempered) also acts as the Tempered Toggle. If you have selected any scale other than Scale # 0, when you use the Tuning Channel to select Scale # 0, the Pitch Palette will retune your synth to the equal tempered scale. If you select Scale # 0 again, it will go back to the scale you were using before you selected equal temperament. This can be useful for comparing other scales to equal temperament. You could set up your tempered toggle as the highest C on your keyboard.

Channel mask

 If you click on the Channel Mask button on the MIDI tab in Setup, you will see the following screen:

You can use the Channel Mask to filter MIDI data being received by the Chord Detector by clicking in the appropriate check boxes. For example, you would not want your drum channel MIDI data being received by the Chord Detector, so make sure your drum channel does not have a check mark beside it.

Any MIDI channel(s) assigned to the Tuning Channel(s) will automatically be disabled for use with the Chord Detector.

The MIDI In data received on all MIDI channels, except for the Tuning Channel(s), is sent to their respective MIDI Out channels.