I’m interested in the idea of composing in microtonal scales. I use hardware only, sequencing on Elektron machines mostly.
Elektron machines do not record PitchBend data on their sequencer, but it is possible to record another parameter called “Tune” that is assignable with midi CC.
I want to know if it’s possible to use Midihub’s Transform Pipe to transform Pitchbend values (sent from Midihub’s Micro Scale Pipe) into Control Change values - that way, if I’m thinking correctly, Elektron sequencer’s should be able to record notes on a Microtonal scale.
Am I thinking correctly here? Anyone else using Microtonal scales with Elektron machines can tell me their experience?
Thank you
EDIT: Sorry for my ignorance here, I don’t know much about MIDI (except basic assigning of some controllers). It seems the Elektron’s Analog Four does not accept Midi CC for the “tune” parameter but NRPN. I’m having a hard time understanding if (and how) that would compromise my challenge here.
I tried running the Midihub Editor and it’s a bit more work than I anticipated.
As I said before I’m not familiar with Midi at all (except mapping CC’s on a controller). So I’ve been reading a bit on CC Pitchbend MSB LSB etc.
So Pitchbend MSB should be around CC value 64 when close to note pitch and should go to CC value 0 when going to -1st and go to CC value 128 when going to +1st.
That is not how the Pitch CC works on the A4. A4 receives Pitch messages on CC MSB 16(0-127) CC LSB 48(0-127) and its LSB works that CC value 0 is note pitch, value 64 is +0.5st and value 127 is +0.99st while its MSB goes through octaves on a resolution of semi tone values.
So the way I was thinking about it is:
Have a MCR Scale pipe, depth set to 1 semitone.
Have a Transform pipe working with PitchBend MSB inside Range 64 to 127 sending its value on CC 48. Have a Rescale Pipe rescaling 64-127 to 0-127. [This converts the upper Pitchbend values to a Fine Tune message that goes from Note Pitch to +1st]
Have a Transform pipe working with Pitchbend MSB outside Range 64 to 127 sending value 63 on CC 16. [This sends a Tune message of -1st when the Pitchbend is working with lower Pitchbend values.]
Have a Transform pipe working with Pitchbend MSB outside Range 64 to 127 sending its value on CC 48. Have a Rescale pipe rescaling 0-63 to 0-127. [This converts the upper Lower Pitchbend values to a Fine Tune message that goes from -1st Note Pitch(assigned on previous step) to Note Pitch.]
I might be missing something - probably.
I’m reconsidering this setup idea as I am very out of my comfort zone here, probably making errors, not confident at all that MidiKeyboard+Midihub+A4 would work for me as a way to approach and compose with Microtuning (I don’t have a Midihub at hand to try if this works).
In theory, it should be possible to somewhat convert the Pitch Bend messages into Analog Four’s CC parameters, but with less accuracy. In practice, this would work as absolute parameter values, so it would be inconvenient in cases like when you have OSC2 detuned somewhat to OSC1, the Midihub’s preset would necessarily have to be made aware of it to keep the correct parameter distance.
The Performance params can be also controlled via CCs (but probably not recorded in the sequence though?), maybe they could be used to do ‘relative’ pitch param changes? In that case it could be easier that way.
The easiest solution could be to actually not use Analog Four’s sequencer at all, but use an external sequencer (or a computer) to send a note sequence through Midihub’s MicroScale pipe and then to the Analog Four, so it can react to Pitch Bend + Midi Note messages all the time.
Indeed it does seem a far fetched ambition to use the Analog Four’s internal sequencer with micro tonality for the reasons you mentioned.
I will consider using another sequencer other than A4 if I go through with my microtonality hardware experiments.