Topic: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

A couple of Pianoteq Pro questions:

Q1. Is there a way to limit the range of notes, as is done by default e.g. for Church Bells, Cimbalom (as well as some other instruments in the KIViR collection)? That is, I want to disable notes/keys below and above a certain point (or individual keys). (I realise that I could turn the volume setting right down but it'd be preferable to explicitly disable keys.)

Q2. Can one reassign notes to different keys or can this only be done by detuning?

Practical application of this is, e.g., to model a short-octave tuned clavichord.

3/2 = 5

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

1. Not that I know.

2. You could use the scale/tuning feature for this.

Last edited by EvilDragon (01-02-2016 19:10)
Hard work and guts!

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

Thanks EvilDragon. I haven't been able to achieve the short octave tuning - the Detune parameter only allows +/- 50 cents, but short octave tuning requires the lowest key, which would normally be an E to be tuned to C, F# to D etc:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/ShortOctaveOnC.svg/300px-ShortOctaveOnC.svg.png

But maybe I need to look at what can be done with Scala files.

Last edited by SteveLy (02-02-2016 00:37)
3/2 = 5

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

I am new to both Pianoteq and Scala, as of yesterday, but I believe you can easily do both with Scala keyboard mappings. You don't even need to run Scala to make .scl and .kbm files, both of which are simple text-file formats.

[Edit] The Files section here doesn't accept .kbm files, but again it's a really simple format, just a plain text file with the .kbm filename extension. Here's a short-octave mapping, with unused keys disabled. Just copy the entire contents of the code box below, save it in plain text format as short-octave.kbm (or whatever you'd like to call it), and load it into PT. There might be a more efficient way to map this; again I'm new to Scala. But it's not a repeating pattern so this is what I came up with.

! short-octave.kbm
! Size of map:
128
! First MIDI note number to retune:
0
! Last MIDI note number to retune:
127
! Middle note where the first entry in the mapping is mapped to:
0
! Reference note for which frequency is given:
60
! Frequency to tune the above note to (floating point e.g. 440.0):
261.625565
! Scale degree to consider as formal octave:
12
! Mapping.
x
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Last edited by jsoo (02-02-2016 18:06)

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

Thanks, jsoo! That's brilliant. Works like a charm! And it takes care of disabled as well as re-tuned/-assigned notes. Pretty damn clever especially given you have just one day of experience!!

I must say I don't like how the pitch droops when one releases the key (for the lowest several notes). The clavichord my spouse had was a lot more stable w.r.t. pitch (sold to a student a coulple of weeks ago, unfortunately; but it'll get played a lot more, so it's a good thing really). Also the pitch upon hitting the note and the fall in pitch upon release is independent of key velocity. When you strike a clavichord key harder, the initial pitch should go up because the string is being stretched more as it's being struck.

Anyway, these are shortcomings of the Neupert physical model in Ptq. Your kbd file code is perfect, and it's nice that it's just human readable text. Thanks again!

3/2 = 5

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

SteveLy wrote:

Also the pitch upon hitting the note and the fall in pitch upon release is independent of key velocity. When you strike a clavichord key harder, the initial pitch should go up because the string is being stretched more as it's being struck.

Well, this is a bug; Stevely, it seems you are very good at finding them . It will be fixed in the next release (coming very soon).

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

The bug is fixed. You need to download both the new engine 5.5.1 and the new KIViR.ptq file from the user area.

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

@SteveLy:

You may even want to challenge yourself with a completely reversed keyboard: reverse.kbd

Download from above or create a .kbm file by yourself by copy-paste:

! Reverse Keyboard mapping
!
! Size of map. The pattern repeats every so many keys:
12
! First MIDI note number to retune:
0
! Last MIDI note number to retune:
127
! Middle note where scale degree 0 is mapped to:
55
! Reference note for which frequency is given:
55
! Frequency to tune the above note to (floating point e.g. 440.0):
440
! Scale degree to consider as formal octave (determines difference in pitch
! between adjacent mapping patterns):
-12
! Mapping.
! The numbers represent scale degrees mapped to keys. The first degree is for
! the given middle note, the next for subsequent higher keys.
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

I found it on this forum sometime ago, sorry, don't remember who posted it.

Last edited by AKM (02-02-2016 16:35)

Re: Qns: Limiting the range of an instrument, reassigning notes

Philippe Guillaume wrote:

The bug is fixed. You need to download both the new engine 5.5.1 and the new KIViR.ptq file from the user area.

Thank you, Philippe. You and your team are amazing. Look forward to trying out the updated version.

3/2 = 5