Overview
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Overview
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Seeds etc | User guide | Main Window | Musical note intervals | Scales | Midi in | Analyse sound |
Test , Upgrade, How to reset pitch bends , What Tune Smithy does , Note for those technically minded - short version of this page
The MIDI clips play in various tunings - gamelan, jazz, Japanese Koto, Indian Sitar scales. etc. They do this by changing the pitches of the MIDI channels, and playing notes on various channels depending on the exact pitches needed.
First of all, your soundcard or synth has to be able to respond to pitch bends. Most do, but a few don't.
Play this clip: c_twice.mid
It plays a Bb raised by a tone, followed by a D lowered by a tone. They should both sound the same, as middle c. So if you hear the same note twice, everything is fine. Otherwise, you need to get a soundcard or synth that can respond to pitch bends, or install a softsynth. On a modern p.c (e.g. Pentium 75 or later)., a softsynth is a reasonable solution, and the Yamaha softsynth (free 90 day trial) is a suitable one to use - see Tips for better sound quality .
The other thing is that your player needs to reset to be able to reset the ordinary concert pitch tuning after playing these clips.
Some do this automatically when they start to play (and when they stop playing too), but some, noteably the original version of Windows MPlayer, for Win 95, don't.
Play this one: B flat then c. It drops the pitch of channel 1 by one tone, and keeps channel 2 at concert pitch. You should hear a note played on a grand piano, then another note a tone higher
Now play this one: Two notes plays the same note on channel 1 and channel 2, and has no pitch bends in it.
Do you hear the same note played twice? If so, your MIDI player is okay, and you don't need to do anything.
Otherwise, continue to next section.
If you hear two pitches a tone apart, then you need to upgrade Windows Media Player (it's free) .
Or alternatively, reset pitch bends after listening to any of the Tune Smithy files.
If you want to reset pitch bends, continue to next section.
Play this midi file.
You'll hear a middle c played on a grand piano. Actually, it's played simultaneously on all the melodic channels, (uses quietest note available). This is to use all the new values, in case they are ignored by your MIDI player as not being needed for actual notes.
Now play Two notes again, to check that the pitches of the channels have been reset. You should hear the same note twice.
If you need to reset pitch bends, return to this page after listening to Tune Smithy midi clips, and click Reset.mid .
Tune Smithy will reset all the pitch bends at the end of each MIDI file. It also does that if you click stop to stop play.
But that doesn't completely solve the problem, as if you play one of the retuned midi clips in your midi player, you may well stop playback before the end, and miss out any resets at the end of it. The only real solution is to upgrade your MIDI player, or reset the pitch bends after listening to the clips.
Here are hex dumps of the three files:
The notes played are B Flat and middle c, and after resetting the pitch bends, you should hear middle c twice.
The reset file also resets the expression (volume of note) for all the channels including channel 10 (non melodic percussion).
For all the melodic channels, it also sends an all sound off, resets modulation (i.e. vibrato) and tremolo controllers, and resets the voice patches to the grand piano.
It doesn't do a general reset, in case you have a soft wave table sound card that unloads the sound font when it receives a general reset.