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midi pitch off


Kawika

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Hi,

I haven't recorded in a few months and came back to find all of my midi instruments (e.g., cakewalk, wave piano, Omnisphere) all producing  sounds that are around 1/4 tone sharp to standard 440. I checked it with multiple sources. They are consistent with each other. Is there some sort of global tuning to be found in Cakewalk by Band Lab?

 

Thanks,

 

Kawika

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14 hours ago, Kawika said:

...all producing  sounds that are around 1/4 tone sharp to standard 440.

What's the pitch reference? If it's an audio file and all your VSTs are in tune with each other, it's probably playback of that file that's off. And are you sure about the interval? Sample rate mismatch (either between CbB and the audio interface or between the audio file metadata and the actual audio data) is the most likely cause, but the difference between 48kHz and 44.1kHz is more than a half step.

Edited by David Baay
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Hi, thanks,

All audio files are in tune (checked against multiple sources such as 2 different gtr tuners, youtube-pitch examples, tuning fork etc). I am sure the difference in pitch in the midi instruments is around a 1/4 tone (between a half step such as B and C.)

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It happens in all projects, and in all soft synths e.g., cakewalk SI electric piano, and Omnisphere.  It does not seem to matter if it is VST2 or VST3. It happens with the mouse as a trigger. It is consistently 1/4 pitch out. I have wiggled the controller pitch wheel. I am up to date with Windows and CakeWalk band.

 

thoughts?  thanks!

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Thank you all for your time!

I found the problem: Apparently my 2-year old son turned a  pot on the midi controller which is designated to pitch. Bringing it back to 0 solved the problem. I should have looked there first.

 

Thanks again!

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oops, I thought I had it. It will be fine for  a few recordings and then suddenly jump up 1/4 tone. I checked event list and there is a pitch wheel notated at the point of departure. I tried using Automap unsuccessfully and am now using ACT.

Edited by Kawika
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It would appear to be a problem with your controller.

Try this: physically disconnect the keyboard, open a new project, add a soft synth and manually draw in a note in the PRV. This should play back in tune. Make sure you're using an external reference to gauge the tuning, e.g. a tuner app on your phone.

Because of their mechanical nature, pitch wheels are the most common point of failure on keyboard controllers. See how hard it will be to remove the wheel. If it's convenient to get to, have a peek inside. They vary a lot in construction. Yours may be a simple potentiometer that can be cleaned with a spray solvent made for that purpose. Or it may be a mechanical issue where the wheel isn't returning to zero because it's binding or sticking. There will usually be some kind of adjustment in there to let you zero the controller.

Or just buy a new controller.

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Very possible that you can either disable the Pitch Wheel or set it to "Zero" on your controller... If you actually use the Pitch Wheel then that would be a problem... You can also set Cakewalk to not respond to Pitch Wheel control changes in Preferences -> MIDI -> Playback and Record... It will not respond to or record pitch control changes...

You can also install Midi View to see just how much info your controller is sending to Cakewalk... Midi View doesn't show every thing but does show Pitch Wheel controller...

You may also be able in install something like MIDI Patchbay to filter out the control changes into Cakewalk if you can't fix the Pitch Wheel...

Edited by SirWillyDS12
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Wow, bitflipper and SirWilly!!!

Thanks for all the work-arounds. I have been working on this problem for the last 2 days, 4hours per day. It was very frustrating because of the intermittent nature of the problem: That is, sometimes just playing and/or  recording for  a full 2 minutes without incident and sometimes  the problem happened after 2 notes/events. I did spray -dust the wheel.

Anyway I contacted Novation and we will see what they have to say. Between your plentiful suggestions (thanks again guys/gals) and Novation support, I 'm confident the problem will be solved if only for buying a new controller.

In the mean time, I found my old 2-octave-midiman Oxygen8 in my garage. Surprisingly, I was able to locate a Legacy driver. It works great! I can finally do some music, today.

 

Thanks again,

 

Happy New year,

Kawika

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Hopefully Novation will have a calibration routine or maybe just a hard reboot step that will re-calibrate the pitch  wheel. Typically the wheel is just a manual potentiometer. How it measures that resistance is the key.  You can also buy contact cleaner for that pot - but it may be tricky getting to it depending on how the unit is designed. The best shortcut is to dis able the pitch wheel from the midi stream through preferences as stated above.

Edited by RBH
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