1/4 tone interval

[thomas]

Hi,

My music teacher told me that in many eastern country's it's quite common instruments use 1/4 tone interval instead of 1/2 tone, wich is the smallest interval on most keyboards.

Does anybody know how to play 1/4 tones intervals in cubase? I mean, when I lift a note in the sequencer it's smallest step is 1/2 tone interval. Is there some option in cubase to use 1/4 interval? (half a semitone)

my newly started keyboardlessons are really paying off

[blairwillis]

There are some MIDI programs and plugins that will allow "microtuning" of pitches using MIDI. First, info on this, and then a more simple idea to achieve what you want....

Check out http://www.lucytune.com/ for an interesting look at "true" tuning and intervals based on scale.

This specific page:
http://www.lucytune.com/midi_and_key...itch_bend.html
Has some MIDI tools to apply the "lucy tuning" approach, and most of the same tools could be used to do what you want, I think.

Now for a more simple approach: The first thing that popped into my head thinking about 1/4 tone intervals is how you would go about mapping tones to keys. How about just using two keyboards, and tune one up (or down) a 1/4 step. That way you still have the familiar tones on one keyboard, and the "in-between" tones on the second keyboard. This would also be much simpler than remapping the entire keyboard to 1/4 tones, in which case you'd be dealing with strange fingerings of chords in very unfamiliar ways.

Also, if you haven't yet discovered it, the Virus has a "Pure" vs. "Tempered" tuning adjustment, which relates more to the Lucy Tuning links rather than your question, but I think it's all interesting!

Blair

[thomas]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. The idea of having two keyboards and one tuned a 1/4 tone higher is indeed what I mean. But I don't think the tuning information is sent thru midi? I believe the lucy tuning in not about the doubling of key's in an octave. Intresting though, but a bit to complicated for me. When using the lucy tuning, the whole song has to be in that tuning. I want to use the standard western tuning with an occasional 1/4 interval. I have a hiphop loop libarary with eastern guitar melodies that, i believe, used some 1/4 interval. They don't sound dissonant, but immidiatly give that 'mistical' arrabic atmosphere.

It would be nice to have an option in cubase that doubles the note in the piano bar, how are they doing it in those country's? My teacher said they use the same keyboard as we do and so don't use 1/4 tone intervals on synth and piano instruments, but more on guitar like instruments.

Maybe the best way to do this is thru the pitchbend wheel?

greetz
Thomas

[thomas]

Off course! I can put the osc pitch keyfollow on 16 instead of 32

Now let's see if it's fun..

[feedingear]

Just use the pitchbend wheel and trust your ears. The quartertone intervals are quite hard to discern for most listeners anyway. You could always adjust the pitch of your notes using the MIDI sequencer values of pitch change in your DAW of choice. And yeah, the history of different tunings is actually quite interesting, i recommend reading some articles on the history of alterned tunings and how they affect the sound of classical pieces, to get a grip on the concept.