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weird octave playing

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Hello,

I experience this weird thing in Synfire, I'm sure I can turn it off, but I don't know how.

Let's say I have the same chord going through a whole bar.

I then have a note on the middle line (or anyline as long as it's always the same)

the notes seem to jump an octave at times, instead of always being the same note even if the chord is the same and the notes are on the same bar.

I hope I've explained this well, how can I turn this off?

Thanks,

dw


Di., 28.07.2009 - 21:20 Permalink

This is difficult to tell without seeing the figure and the progression.

Have you checked the Transpose parameter? Do the segments use the same playing range?

Di., 11.08.2009 - 17:16 Permalink

I have not had enough time to make a movie, but here is detailed description.

I have a brand new song. the Harmony is a simple C.

I have a brand new instrument. I put a single note on the third (or it might be the second line) line above zero in the figure.

I put the keyboard focus on the note, and use the arrows on the keyboard to move the cursor to different parts of the figure. Teh result is a different note playing some of the time, in a repeated manner.

Why is this? It drives me crazy.

This same thing happens if I have a phrase with multiple notes.

any help would be great.

Thanks,

dw

Di., 11.08.2009 - 18:11 Permalink

It might be the auto playback of selections. You could either try clicking the stop playback button after you make the selection or turn off the instant feedback option to see if that is what is causing what you are hearing? (If you turn on the instant feedback you might not hear the adjustments you make to the segments though..)

Di., 11.08.2009 - 18:18 Permalink

thanks for your reply, but I don't think I understand.

I'll try and actually play all the notes and see what happens.

so far I'm just using the arrow buttons on the keyboard and hearing differnet notes as the note is moved to differnt beats.

too bad I'm at work now and can't try it out.

dw

Di., 11.08.2009 - 18:25 Permalink

Oh, so it happens when you move the notes.. (that part is normal.)

I was thinking it was the repeated playback interpretation of the selection. When you select something, it will loop the container and solo the selection on each pass (also normal.)

The difference in the note interpretation is probably normal too, it happens for me when moving notes around to different areas depending on voice leading and a lot of other things. Certain notes would be favored at different beats I believe.

you might want to switch to the segment tool (not individual symbol) and try strong for the anchor type (instead of weak or medium).

Di., 11.08.2009 - 23:27 Permalink

[quote="keith_phillips"]Oh, so it happens when you move the notes.. (that part is normal.)
. . .
Certain notes would be favored at different beats I believe.

As far as I see, they do.
Notes on offbeats use more upper strutures of the chord.
So a Cm9 or Cm7 Chord would play the note d mainly or maybee all the time (?) only on offbeats. -
The problem sometimes for me with synfire is, that everything is connected with everything, so its hard sometimes, to reach something exactly as it is in my mind.

Alfred

Di., 11.08.2009 - 23:34 Permalink

You might want to try with the different anchor strengths then. It is possible that with the "strong" type you might get more pure chord tones. I think medium is the default (except for bass notes, I think they default to strong?)

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 05:38 Permalink

Notes on offbeats use more upper strutures of the chord.
So a Cm9 or Cm7 Chord would play the note d mainly or maybee all the time (?) only on offbeats.

I've made a quick video demo showing what I think is the behavior you are seeing, and how changing the anchor strength can rectify it. The rest of the parameters are default (voice leading, etc.)

Typcially, the behavior also happens with a "medium" anchor strength, so you might want to use "strong" to get a specific tone. That's what I do.

(Segment Anchor Strengths.mov)
segment_anchor_strengths_189.mov

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 09:38 Permalink

[quote="keith_phillips"]You might want to try with the different anchor strengths then. It is possible that with the "strong" type you might get more pure chord tones. I think medium is the default (except for bass notes, I think they default to strong?)

Thank You for the video. Do you have a Mac?
In my PC-version, as far as I can see, this different strengths of the anchors is not yet implemented, but I saw it already in the helping texts. -
I have more the problem from the other side, I´m loking for lines which have more than only chordtones, which have even chromatic enrichments.
Espezially walking bass. The challange her is, to get melodic interesting lines which still represent the harmony, lines which do not repeat, and where You can´t know in the beginning of a bar how the end of that bar will be. Just like a good Jazz bass player.
(In the moment I´m doing more arranging playbacks of jazz standarts than real komposition.)
I found, that it is easier for me to get the wanted results by importing midis by "Simplified bass notes". By this I get only anchors, and this I can manipulate much esier, can also change it to other symbols, which than also have only anchors.
(So a request from my side is a possibility to change symbols in segments to anchors completly.)
(This whole anchor and segment staff seems to be interesting, when you want to use the same material with different chords.)

Alfred

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 12:31 Permalink

. . . by the way, the choosing of non chord tones on weak bar positions (off beats etc) is, as far as I understand, partculary connected with the "adaptive" strategie in the interpretation parameter. See the helping texts

Alfred

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 14:55 Permalink

Thank You for the video. Do you have a Mac?

Not entirely... :happy: PC hardware, Mac OS.
With certain hardware one can install Mac OS X on it. 8)

In my PC-version, as far as I can see, this different strengths of the anchors is not yet implemented,
but I saw it already in the helping texts.

It is in the Windows version too, just make sure the segment tool is selected, it isn't available with the individual symbol tool.

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 15:37 Permalink

I´m loking for lines which have more than only chordtones, which have even chromatic enrichments.

I think that bass anchors default to strong, so you might want to check that.

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 17:16 Permalink

(So a request from my side is a possibility to change symbols in segments to anchors completly.)

If you select a segment you can use the "ungroup" command which will explode the segment into its individual symbols. If I recall, any symbol that is not grouped is automatically an anchor.

I think the hotkey for that is Ctrl+U for Windows and Command-U on Mac. Ctrl/Command+R I think is the hotkey to group things together again.

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 18:28 Permalink

Keith - that's a very helpful video. Thanks for posting it. What is the widget showing the notes that are playing? That looks awesome.

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 18:32 Permalink

That is part of Logic on Mac OS X.

All MIDI routing and devices/bussing/etc. are controlled through what is called the Environment and it has some useful tools, one of which is a MIDI monitor window and keyboard.

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 18:59 Permalink

Re: Midi monitor widget.

I use a PC but there must be something similar out there. I'll look around - could be useful for lots of users until the synfire team come up with the goods

Thanks

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 19:08 Permalink

[quote="Tim UK"]I use a PC but there must be something similar out there.

There is a freeware MIDI monitor VST plugin from the guy that runs
(http://www.rs-met.com/) (check the "Freebies" section)
...closest thing I could think of (I've used it before.)

It would be nice as a Synfire feature request to have a similar MIDI monitor window (maybe in the style of the Harmonic Context window) and to have the Synfire display keyboard respond to the realtime feedback events output during editing...

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 21:08 Permalink

[quote="keith_phillips"]

(So a request from my side is a possibility to change symbols in segments to anchors completly.)

If you select a segment you can use the "ungroup" command which will explode the segment into its individual symbols.

Thank You very much, it works. :D

Mi., 12.08.2009 - 21:17 Permalink

[quote="keith_phillips"]

In my PC-version, as far as I can see, this different strengths of the anchors is not yet implemented,
but I saw it already in the helping texts.

It is in the Windows version too, just make sure the segment tool is selected, it isn't available with the individual symbol tool.

It works also, deeply hidden in the software, but it is there.
Perfect.
Thank you again.

Do., 13.08.2009 - 18:59 Permalink

[quote="keith_phillips"]
There is a freeware MIDI monitor VST plugin from the guy that runs
(http://www.rs-met.com/) (check the "Freebies" section)
...closest thing I could think of (I've used it before.)

Thanks - and I found a pc utility on: (http://www.l-and-l.net/) that shows 16 keyboards - one for each channel!