OT microtonal

Concerning midi tracks, pitch bend has poor resolution (MSB only, resolution 128 instead of 16384 with MSB+LSB), but maybe it would suffice.

No MPE implementation, and this requires multi channel recording, OT can’t.

You can get very fine pitch resolution on the audio tracks by using 2 scenes 1 semitone apart (extreme example)

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LSB means ‘least signifcant byte’ - right? didn´t find too much about that thought to understand the concept behind it completely I fear…
put´shortely:
Thanks sezare56 for answering - so, pitch bend / utilizing an Hpi for working with mictrotonality that way will be a bummer?

How Hpi works ? It sends differents notes with pitchbend on different midi channels to correct scales ? OT won’t work with several midi channels recording. Maybe Digitack.

A regular midi message is coded with 128 values.
Pitchbend and NRPN are more precise, with 128 x 128 values (MSB + LSB, Most Significant Byte and Least Significant Byte)

Maybe MSB is enough if the pitchbend range is small (1 or 2 semitones) and if values are fixed (no pitch modularion).

While almost all channel voice messages assign a single data byte to a single parameter such as key # or velocity (128 values because they start with ‘0,’ so = 2^7=128), the exception is pitch bend. If pitch bend used only 128 values, discreet steps might be heard if the bend range were large (this range is set on the instrument, not by MIDI). So the 7 non-zero bits of the first data byte (called the most significant byte or MSB) are combined with the 7 non-zero bits from the second data byte (called the least significant byte or LSB) to create a 14-bit data value, giving pitch bend data a range of 16,384 values.

“You can get very fine pitch resolution on the audio tracks by using 2 scenes 1 semitone apart (extreme example)”

this is possibly the coolest technique for honing the tuning.

when the tuning is ‘correct’, Kopplog could then cue the audio track then set another Flex Recorder on a different track to record the Cue signal (last option on the recording screen input source at the base of the screen (not the AB or CD option above it).

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excellent point, could also use MIDI loopback and have a MIDI track to CC sequence the crossfader

this is indeed interesting now.
But, I fear not to understand all, after I never had my fingers on an OT.
Could you please get more specific, Previewlounge? What do you mean by when the tuning is “correct”? I´m getting curious.

Do you want to correct samples tuning (OT audio tracks mode) or midi notes with pitchbend (midi tracks mode) ?

The Scenes / crossfader semitone thing is a solution for fine tuning, it let you morph between 2 pitch values, for entire track; as microtonal things requires different pitch per note, you’d need resampling, or control with midi, depending on notes.

Anyway this is not practical at all.
I’d rather prepare a sample with a DAW, with all the notes you need (up to 64).

What about your Hpi between OT and a synth ?

Are you synths multitimbral, MPE ?

I think you’re starting to get the picture that the OT by itself is not going to give you what you’re looking for, unless you use it as an audio player, to play recordings you have made of microtonal instruments. You can do synthesis with it as mentioned, but you would have to jump through a lot of hoops to achieve what can be more easily done on a purpose-designed synth. At the end of the day, the OT is designed to be a sampler, first and foremost.

Take a look at the Audiothingies Micromonsta instead - it’s got MPE support and MIDI Tuning Standard support.

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I was thinking about Micromonsta too. :wink:

Guess your´e right, GovenorSilver.

Regarding the MicroMonsta - I was on that track too:
Someone in another forum mentioned it looses all alternative tuning
settings when turned off, so it won´t hold the scales in memory.

@kopplog the OT does work in the way you’re thinking. Yes it records pitch bend data from the midi in to its own sequencer…it then plays back that pitch bend data to the midi out.

I tried this with Lilmiss scale oven, then played back the recorded data to the A4 to play microtonal sequences :alien:

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Here is my original thread (under my previous name).

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Yes, if you turn it off, you need to send a sysex midi message again to make microtuning settings.

Yes, that someone was sezare56. :sunglasses:

If you’re going to be using a sequencer though, you just set up your sequencer to send sysex to load the tuning stuff first, before playing the actual music.

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so it was you, sezare56!
:v:
yeah the sysex initially via the sequencer will be a no-brainer.
thanks too, GovenorSilver

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talking of interesting, the TBX2 microtonal sysex microtuning is totes fascinating.
but this is for a synthesizer. and that is cool but really the Octatrack is not a synthesizer first and foremost (single-cycle waveforms do make for synthesizer opportunities).

by putting the word “correct” in quotations, i’m just referencing how contextual the idea of “in-tune” really is, not to mention subjective.

the Roli keyboard is also a delightul departure from the norm, and yet, like the TBX2, is oriented towards mainly playing synthesizers. The expansive functionality relies on the synthesizer set of parameters, or at least is initially oriented towards this purposing.

As regards micro-tuning on the Octatrack, there is the Pitch parameter, adjustable by 20 percent of one semitone at a time. There is also a Rate parameter, adjustable only downwards, the default is 64 and when set to 48 it is playing the lower fifth of the original sample’s tonic. At zero nothing is happening, at negative values the sample plays backwards.

If you are wondering whether to buy an Octatrack based on micro-tuning capacity, I wouldn’t know what to say, except that it is possible to re-tune samples.

To gain a finer resolution - less than 20 percent of one semitone, Clancy’s simple-yet-effective idea of using the crossfader is a sensible approach. Say for argument’s sake a sample is sounding a bit sharp at a Pitch of 1.8 and a bit flat at a Pitch of 1.6 … Trying to rejig things with the Rate knob isn’t going to offer much in the way of nano-finessing.

But that is where the often-overlooked crossfader comes in. Hold the crossfader B button and set the Pitch to 1.8 … release the B button and then hold down the A button, turn the Pitch to 1.6 … then press Play and move the crossfader left or right for micro-tuning of the sample. Sounds like a lot of work but really it isn’t.

This has inspired me regarding the [synthesizer] OB6 … there’s at least half a dozen different tuning architectures in the OB6, and more can be transferred via Sysex. The manual talks briefly about each tuning system, describing any particular advantage, disadvantage, or item of interest.

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if looking at other gear for this, the discussion between Aphex Twin and Tatsuya Takahashi about including microtuning on the Monologue covers some interesting ground - tuning tables available for download etc…

(from this bit onwards: “RDJ: It is now the only synth on the market currently being made to have full microtuning editing, congratulations!
TT: Thanks! But it was completely because of you that we included microtuning. If you hadn’t insisted on it, I definitely wouldn’t have discovered how powerful it was. Did you ever have a moment of realisation, or some kind of trigger that made you discover microtuning?”)

I didn’t get one but it’s what made me look at obtaining finer resolution from the pitch control

hey guys.
I did it - and ordered an OT today!
…my last word on this was to try it for some weeks, look how it feels and decide later if the OT is the right tool for me…
thanks all

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Hey mods, there seem to be several threads about OT and microtonality. Which should I post in? Should they be consolidated as other topics are?