Can you create smooth but large pitch gradients?

[GregB]

Q1 - How can I take an audio sound/noise and smoothly:

• change its current pitch
• to any target pitch
• over a specified time period (e.g. 1 bar or 10 bars)

 

Q2 - how can I smoothly change the pitch of a MIDI note/chord beyond a total of 4 semitones? 
MIDI keyboard pitch wheels seem to impose a limit of 2 semitones above/below, as does the pitch automation lane in my DAW.

 

All suggestions gratefully received. 

My available desktop tools are ProTools, Studio One, Logic Pro X, and Audacity.

 

Greg

[Gtar Pkr]

Midi automation is a pain... I recommend simply recording this keyboard effect on another track. Set your pitch wheel @2 octaves (2 down + 2 up = 4). If you need more than that then pause and overdub

[GregB]

5 hours ago, Gtar Pkr said:

Set your pitch wheel @2 octaves

 

Appreciate the reply.

• Do you have an example of this (the pitch wheel by default does 2 semitones up/down).

• Any suggestion for doing similar to for a waveform (i.e. NOT midi)?

[Gtar Pkr]

Hmmm... Are we talking about an actual keyboard, like a KORG, or a midi keyboard controller? My KORG has settings for the pitch and trem wheels, I've never used a midi controller. However, I would assume there are settings in your DAW for a controller since I can use my keyboard that way if I want. Pitch-bending an existing file for a specified length of time would simply be a matter of automating a pitch bending effect.

 

What exactly are you trying to do?

[GregB]

On 8/5/2022 at 6:03 PM, Gtar Pkr said:

What exactly are you trying to do?

 

Hi.  Appreciate the interest.

 

Yes I have a MIDI keyboard to input notes to ProTools (when note manually writing the notes ).  The keyboard's pitch wheel allows me to smoothly pitch change -2/+2 semitones, but it's is difficult to accurately control the speed and smoothness because the wheel has a 'notched' middle point.

 

In ProTools, I can automate pitch over time distance by drawing it in.  But am limited to -2/+2 semitones.  So, e.g. with a D note or chord, I can smoothly glide from C to E.    But that's the limit ... I can't for example do C to F, or B to E

 

SImilarly, if I played the chord of C on guitar, I'd like to smoothly pitch change the wave form e.g. to F, gliding at a speed (distance) of my choosing.

 

Greg

 

 

 

[Glammerocity]

I don't know ProTools but I'd imagine the default of 2 semitones should be editable - pitch bending has been a thing for a long time.

 

You're trying to create a sweep, right? There are a number of tutorials for creating sweeps in ProTools on YouTube but it possibly depends what synth you need it for - white noise ones are common. They should at least tell you how to extend the bend range.

 

The guitar would be different, assuming you're recording it as a sample. You'd probably end up with a bit of work changing pitch in cents first, then semi-tones, to avoid it rising in steps.

[MisterB]

MIDI pitch bend traditionally utilizes two Continuous Controllers - MSB (Most Significant Byte) and LSB (Least Significant Byte).  This allows a keyboard to send pitch bend data that has 16384 steps instead of the usual 128, which would not be enough to create really smooth pitch bends over an octave. Your midi device and DAW probably automatically handles this so that you don't need to think about it, but if you find a pitch bend over one octave has noticeable notches in the pitch bend itself, this would be something to look at.

 

The pitch bend range itself, should be part of the specs of the sound source, not necessarily the controller that's generating the pitch bend data. If you're using a soft-synth, you should be able to set the pitch bend range to something other than the default 2 semi-tones. A hardware synth should work in the same way, and that's where I'd look for the pitch bend range - in the sound source itself, not the controller.

 

For audio, there are a couple of ways I could approach this in Cubase, and I imagine its similar in most DAW's. I could use Audio >Processes > Pitch Shift, and create a pitch envelope to sweep over an octave. This would change my audio file. Or I could drag my audio to a sampler track (this is a track type, like Audio, MIDI...), and create a pitch envelope in that. That would create something that I could trigger with a MIDI key.

 

I imagine at least Studio One has sampler tracks, and likely the ability to create a pitch envelope.  Protools probably has at least the ability to create a pitch envelope.  Sorry, don't have either of these on my system (only Cubase... for life  ), but I think most DAW's have similar feature sets.

 

I know this is an old thread, but it didn't really have a definitive answer. I'm trying to give one here, so that it might help someone in the future.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by MisterB