Topic by Jake Johnson

  • Avatar
  • Jake Johnson
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Atlanta
  • Registered: 04-05-2007
  • Posts: 4,501

Topic: Using Scala to repitch a limited range?

I know this can't be hard, but I get lost in the many controls in Scala.

(My thought is that it might be best to use Scala to just set the bearing\temperment, while leaving the rest of the notes pitched to Equal Temperament. Since a Scala file usually repitchs all of the notes to the temperament pitches, a final tuning actually becomes harder, since one is no longer entering cent offsets from ET, but instead from the temperament pitches applied to notes outside the bearing\temperament range.)

Reply by jcfelice88keys

  • Avatar
  • jcfelice88keys
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 22-09-2008
  • Posts: 1,149

Re: Using Scala to repitch a limited range?

Hello Jake,

Pianoteq PRO allows you to lay the bearing on a note-by-note basis, without disturbing the rest of the notes if that is your desire.  I do this all the time, while listening through a good set of headphones *, so as to tune the overtone series of individual notes to my liking.  A helpful hint, while doing this, is to temporarily increase the soundboard's impedance, so as to suppress the notes' decays while tuning.  In this manner, you have more "time" with each strike of one or two notes to evaluate how your work is progressing.

Cheers,

Joe

[EDIT:  *   When tuning or otherwise laying the bearing at rather high volume levels, headphones work especially well, because it is otherwise very annoying to my wife's sense of sanity when she's in the same room with a Pianoteq piano being tuned.]

Last edited by jcfelice88keys (16-12-2010 19:49)

Reply by Jake Johnson

  • Avatar
  • Jake Johnson
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Atlanta
  • Registered: 04-05-2007
  • Posts: 4,501

Re: Using Scala to repitch a limited range?

Hi, Joe.

I've tuned using the Pro version, but I was interested in using a Scala file so that I could take an existing Scala file, perhaps one of the many Well temperaments, limit its range in Scala, import it, and then tune the notes outside the bearing without having to manually drag the tuning sliders to set the temperament.

I'm not sure that it would save that much time, really, but this method would at least offer an alternative way to quickly enter the freqs for the bearing.

(Funny how editing and tuning a software piano seems less fascinating, and more maddening, to almost everyone other than the people doing it. Without headphones, the world would be a more violent place...)

Last edited by Jake Johnson (16-12-2010 23:31)

Reply by Jake Johnson

  • Avatar
  • Jake Johnson
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Atlanta
  • Registered: 04-05-2007
  • Posts: 4,501

Re: Using Scala to repitch a limited range?

Found it:

In Scala,

1. To open the scl file, click on the Open button and double click on the file name.
2. Once the file is loaded, click on the Edit menu and click on Edit Mapping. (Near the bottom of the menu.)
3. In the Edit MIDI Keyboard Mapping dialog box, select the First MIDI note and Last MIDI note to limit the range.
4. Click on Apply and then on OK.

Remember that PianoTeq uses C3 as middle C, while Scala uses C4


One thing that worries me greatly about Scala is that it assumes a bearing that has middle C as its left boundary (with A=440). Many temperaments are set from A440 to the A below it, or use the two F's as the boundaries for the bearing. Doesn't the assumed range of C3 to C4 completely wipe out the correct tuning of the A3-B3 (A2-B2) range in the temperament, and do worse damage to a temperament that uses the F's as its range? Ideally, the people who create the scl files would take this situation into consideration and adjust the notes accordingly, but my guess is that such adjustments are, um, neglected.

Last edited by Jake Johnson (17-12-2010 00:19)