Pitch bend range

[SanderXpander]

It only contains the actual pitchbend. Moreover, I don't think those CCs are universal, it seems to me they would be Kronos (or Korg) specific.

[danatkorg]

OK, to recap:

1) The Kronos joystick always sends the full range of values.

As required by the MIDI spec, yes. All keyboards do this.

2) The semitone response to pitch bend data is controlled by the sound source or the VST concerned.

By the *recipient* of the MIDI data, yes.

3) Selecting the semitone response can be achieved by CC messages, which are :

CC#100 = 0
CC#101 = 0
CC#06 = x with x being a value from 2 to 12

Yes, this the standard MIDI RPN for pitch bend range. It is used by the *recipient* to map the full range of the 14-bit pitch bend controller, which has no intrinsic meaning in relation to pitch, to a range in semitones. This is generally equivalent to setting an internal parameter in the *receiving* synth.

You can also think of this as a SysEx-type message, used to directly set an internal parameter, which many (though not all) MIDI devices should be able to understand.

For me, only one question remains:

If I program the Kronos internal engine to respond as 12 semitones to maximum pitch bend data, will this response of 12 semitones be the same when the VST receives the MIDI Out data from the Kronos? In other words, the data sent by the Kronos to its MIDI Out port, does it contain only joystick data or the above CC as well?

RPNs can be sent manually, and it's possible that they are sent when actually editing the Pitch Bend Range value (I'd have to check; my guess would be no, but it's possible). However, they are certainly not transmitted automatically along with every Pitch Bend message. I would expect that most other synths work the same way, though there may be exceptions.

[Francois]

However, they are certainly not transmitted automatically along with every Pitch Bend message.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I would expect as much. But if I can send the CC messages once to a VST, using the Kronos as the controller, then the MIDI Out data would still produce the semitone bend as programmed on the Kronos, since the VST would have received the pitch bend calibration data via the Kronos MIDI Out.

This is what I was trying, not very successfully, to convey at the beginning of this thread. The replies confused me a bit, but I think the situation is pretty clear now as to what is possible.