source file: m1571.txt
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 13:28:28 -0000

Subject: Re:Yamaha XG pitch bend specs

From: Graham Breed <g.breed@telecomknowledge.com>

Drew Skyfyre wrote

>Sometime ago, I reported the following :

>"Pitch bend, I checked with the range at 1-semitone and 
>found no clear pattern in the data values that caused each >successive
>pitch change.
>etc"

I should have asked at the time, but how deviant are your results from a
linear response?  I've done some quick tests with my AWE64, and it seems to
be roughly 1 cent steps but not accurate to much more than a cent.  Also,
now I've had quite a lot of experience of playing with pitch bends, the
results do sound pretty good.  Certainly better than not using pitch bends.

If you're doing _serious_ work, tuning tables are usually better than pitch
bends because you don't have slurring which can be a problem with some
synths.  The exception is where you want more notes than you can get into a
tuning table, so you stick in a small correction from the nearest note that
is in the table.  Or, of course, if you don't have tuning tables and you
want to choose the scales you hear.  Is assuming a linear response good
enough for these purposes from what you've measured?