Calibrating the pitch bend wheel

[Buttrey]

Greetings: I'm sure this has been answered a zillion times; I apologize for not finding it. I talk to Reaper from my Axiom 49 MIDI keyboard. When I use the pitch bend wheel on a note, the note's pitch bends by two semi-tones in either direction. I'd like to modify that to, say, 12 semi-tones.

When I look at the list of MIDI events, I see pitch bend data going up to +8191, which I believe to be the maximum. So I conclude that the keyboard is doing all it can. I need to tell either Reaper or the VSTi to convert +8192 into 12 semi-tones. But does anyone know how I do that?

Dr. Von Noobenstein

[DarkStar]

If anywhere, it'll be in the VSTi - which one is it?

Or you may need to control the Coarse and Fine Tuning controls.

[Buttrey]

Hi Dark Star,

Thanks for the reply. Right at the moment I'm using ShortCircuit, becuause I'm a SoundFont guy. I also use SFZ as well as some other VSTi's that aren't SoundFont players, among them SQ8L, based on the Ensoniq SQ-80 -- see below.

My belief is that every one of my VSTi's seems to produce a maximum bend of exactly two semi-tones in either direction, so this made me think that maybe this was a global setting in Reaper itself. However, I know that the original SQ-80 had a pitch bend range setting, and, while I can't find it on the VSTi, that leads me to think that you must be right. Each VSTi must have that in there, somewhere. I just have to find it.

Thanks for the reply and for any other thoughts you might have.

Noobalicious

[RJHollins]

Doesn't your midi controller keyboard have pitch bend range/ settings ???

Should be somewhere in the Global set-up page of the hardware.

[EricM]

Originally Posted by RJHollins

Doesn't your midi controller keyboard have pitch bend range/ settings ???

Should be somewhere in the Global set-up page of the hardware.

Not relevant. As said, VSTis usually seem to have the default
range of +/- 2 semitones, it has to be changed in the VSTi itself,
as keyboard is already sending the full scale (14 bit) data.

No way around it.

e

[Buttrey]

Hi RJHollins: Thanks for your input. As I say, I believe my keyboard (an M-Audio Axiom 49) is putting out the maximum +8191 in its pitch bend messages. To EricM: I have to agree.

For anyone who ends up following this thread, I did this in shortcircuit, and it seemed to work "okay." Click on the instrument(s) in the top left, and, for each one, choose one of the slots in the left column and select "pitchbend." In the right column, I chose "pitch," so I'm modulating pitch by the wheel, which seems fair; then, in the center column, I double-clicked the "+0.0st" and typed in "10" so that it read "+10st". That got me a bend of an octave (that's right, 10 -- I'm not sure why that's the right number) . The bend is a little slower than I'd like -- there's some mod envelope or something, maybe, but it's getting the job done for right now.