Adjust and save your tuning, using faders
The Tuning Board can display between four and 16 Faders.
The Faders are assigned to consecutive semitones, starting with the Root you select.
When you open the Tuning Board, each Fader is set to the same frequency of notes of the existing Root, in the Key of A in the selected Scale.
You can slide each control up and down by clicking your mouse on the thumb of the control and moving it vertically. The frequency of the note is shown above the thumb in Hertz (cycles/second), Cents and ET+/- (deviation from equql temperaament) in Cents.
When you change the value of a Fader, the program sends a tuning message to your synthesizer, tuning it to the frequency shown on the Fader.
The range of the Tuning Board Faders depends on which Tuning Method you have chosen on the Setup screen.
Tuning method:
System Exclusive (SysEx)
- Used by microtunable synthesizers
- The tuning range of the Faders are set to match the range of the selected Synthesizer
- The range may have a resolution of either one byte (128 steps per semitone) or two bytes (16,384 steps per semitone) as per the MIDI Standards for Scale/Octave Tuning, published in 1999
Pitch Bend
- Used by ALL synthesizers
- Fader range is the same as the MIDI Standard, 0 to 24 semitones per semitone.
- Pitch Bend sensitivity may be chosen on the "ALL Synthesizers - Pitch Bend" Synth details screen on the Output/Synth tab of the Setup screen.
- You can change the tuning of any Fader within the range of the selected Pitch Bend range (0 to 24 semitones per semitone) with a resolution of 16,384 steps per semitone, according to the MIDI Pitch Bend Standard.
- All MIDI synthesizers support Pitch Bend, although we have not found one yet that recognizes close to 16,384 steps. A popular brand we tested found the 2 byte pitch bend data was produced only 512 steps.
Because there are more than 20 different controls on this form, we have listed them alphabetically.
This box displays the current setting of the Base Pitch on which the frequencies of the scales are based. The usual default is A = 440 Hertz.
The Base Pitch of the note A can be changed:
This row shows the frequency of the notes of the current Scale in Cents.
There are 100 Cents in a semitone and 1,200 Cents in an octave, beginning with A440 Hertz.
You can use the left and right spin buttons on each Fader to select a MIDI channel from 1 to 16.
This row shows the deviation from Equal Temperament in Cents.
This row shows the frequency of the notes of the current scale in Hertz, or number of cycles per second.
If you want to see the MIDI Note number (0 to 127) for each Fader instead of the note name and octave number, click on MIDI # checkbox.
If you want the output of all Faders to enter the program as MIDI In, select the MIDI In checkbox near the top-left corner of the Tuning Board.
If you want the output of any Fader to be repeated each time the Play button is clicked, select the MIDI Out checkbox at the top of the Fader.
Each Fader can be assigned to any one of the General MIDI instruments (one to 128). Clicking on the Patch number will reveal the drop-down listing of Patches.
This button becomes active after the Pitch Bend channels and patch have been selected, as described on the Pitch Bend - Synth Details screen.
Clicking on this button will change the channels on the Faders to the same as the channels chosen for Pitch Bend, starting with the note C.
This button is only active when the Pitch Bend tuning method has been selected. Clicking on it will open the Pitch Bend -Synth Details screen, in which you can change the Pitch Bend Sensitivity per note from the default of two semitones per semitone to a maximum of 24 semitones per semitone. The MIDI Pitch Bens data provide 16,384 steps per semitone although most MIDI synthesizers do not recognize such fine tuning resolution. A popular synthesizer we tested changed its tuning only at every 32 steps. This reduces the number of steps between each semitone to 16,384/32 = 512 steps per semitone. At least it is a bit better than the usual 128 steps provided by most System Exclusive tuning messages.
When you click on the Play Button, any Faders with MIDI Out checked will send a MIDI Note On to their respective channels.
The Preview button at the bottom of each Fader will toggle the Note On and Off, at the set frequency, using the set instrument patch, channel and velocity.
Clicking the ratios checkbox will display the ratios of the existing scale. For scales created and saved on the Tuning Board, the first ratio is always shown as the frequency in Hertz/1 and the remaining ratios are the ratios of the interval to the Root.
Clicking the Reset button will reset all the Faders to their midpoint position.
The resolution of Hertz and Cents can be increased or decreased by clicking on the vertical spin buttons.
Clicking the horizontal spin buttons on the right side of the row of notes will cycle the Roots from the Note C, Octave 0, Midi note #0 to Note E, Octave 9, MIDI Note #112, leaving room on the board for 15 more Faders.
Clicking the vertical spin buttons on the right side of the row of notes will shift all the notes by one octave up or down.
The first Fader on the left is always the Root.
This button becomes enabled after you have clicked the Edit button.
When you click on the Save, your Scale will be added to the existing list of Scales and added to the file named PPalette2.SCL.
You can use the Show spin buttons to select the number of faders to display (four to 16).
Clicking on the Stop button will send MIDI Note Offs to all channels.
This button becomes enabled after you have clicked the Edit button and will undo any changes you have made.
You can use the left and right spin buttons on the velocity row to select a MIDI Velocity for each Fader from 0 to 127.
