Using MIDI Pitchbend and MIDI Tuning Dump to LucyTune your music.

Pitchbend

It is possible to LucyTuned your sequences to the nearest 64th of a semitone using MIDI pitchbend.
Check that your MIDI equipment can recognise and respond to pitchbend data

The current pitchbend range operating on your equipment may be adjustable (see the operating manual), if this is not clear or you wish to test the current range test it as follows:

1. Make a simple MIDI sequence of two adjacent notes (one semitone apart) Eg. G#4 and A4. Play the sequence and you should hear two notes a semitone apart.

2. Now add a pitchbend value to the lower of the two notes, at a value of +4096 and a value of 0 to the higher note. Listen to the two notes again. If the notes are now the same pitch your pitchbend range is set at 4096 units per semitone.

Experiment by changing the values until you get it right, and discover how many pitchbend units are required to bend your equipment by one semitone. This will tell you which column (d, or e) of the table below to use.

Pitchbend usually effects only the assigned channel, and all notes played on that channel will be "bent" until another pitchbend command is received. Therefore to LucyTune your sequence you may have to move notes to other channels, so that there is only ever one note per channel at any time.

(Remember to reset all the A's to zero)

3. Each note will need to be pitchbent by the appropriate amount. This is a tedious procedure, yet the results can be quite satisfying. You can make the conversion easier by using copy and paste in your sequencer's edit program.

Using the table below and the appropriate pitchbend ranges (columns d, or e) you can set the pitchbend of each note (column a) which you wish to use by adjusting the value for the MIDI note named in column b.

The cent values are also included for users of Ensoniq, Korg M series, and other cent programmable equipment (column c).
 

Lucy 

Note 

Name 

a

Bend 

12tET 

Note 

b

cents 

from 

A4=440Hz 

c

Bend 

+/- 

64ths 

d

Bend 

4096 

ths 

e

Ratio from 
A=1.0000

(Octave=2.0)

f

Dump 

64ths 

(Proteus) 

g

Dump 

xx (hex) 

semitone 

h

Dump 

yy (hex) 

MSB 

i

Dump 

zz (hex) 

LSB 

j

Nearest

Semitone

to pitch

k

Cents Change

(to nearest

1/10th cent)

l

C 0313.521 +9 +554 1.198531 0009 00 11 27 +13.5
Dbb 0367.605 +43 +2769 1.236564 0043 00 56 45 C#  -32.4
C# C#  0381.972 -12 -738 1.246869 0052 00 68 75 C#  -18.0
Db C#  0436.056 +23 +1477 1.286437 0087 01 2E 14 C#  +36.1
Cx 0450.424 -32 -2031 1.297156 0096 01 40 45 -49.6
D 0504.507 +3 +185 1.338320 0131 02 05 62 +04.5
Ebb 0558.591 +37 +2400 1.380789 0166 02 4B 00 D#  -41.4
D# D# 0572.958 -17 -1108 1.392295 0175 02 5D 31 D#  -27.0
Eb D# 0627.042 +17 +1108 1.436478 0209 03 22 4F D#  +27.0
Dx 0641.410 -37 -2400 1.448445 0218 03 33 00 D#  +41.4
E 0695.493 -3 -185 1.494412 0253 03 7A 1E -04.5
Fb 0749.577 +32 +2031 1.541834 0288 04 3F 3B +49.6
E# 0763.944 -23 -1477 1.554682 0297 04 51 6C -36.1
F 0818.028 +12 +738 1.604018 0332 05 17 0A +18.0
Gbb 0872.112 +46 +2954 1.654918 0366 05 5C 27 F#  -27.9
F# F# 0886.479 -9 -554 1.668709 0375 05 6E 59 F#  -13.5
Gb F# 0940.563 +26 +1661 1.721663 0410 06 33 76 F#  +40.6
Fx 0954.931 -29 -1846 1.736018 0419 06 46 28 -45.1
G 1009.014 +6 +369 1.791099 0454 07 0B 45 +09.0
Abb 1063.098 +40 +2584 1.847936 0488 07 50 62 G#  -36.9
G# G# 1077.465 -14 -923 1.863336 0498 07 63 14 G#  -22.5
Ab G# 1131.549 +20 +1292 1.922466 0532 08 28 31 G#  +31.5
Gx 1145.917 -35 -2215 1.938491 0542 08 3A 63 G#  +45.9
A 00000.000 0 0 1.000000 0576 09 00 00 00.0
Bbb 0054.083 +35 +2215 1.031734 0611 09 45 1D A#  -45.9
A# A# 0068.451 -20 -1292 1.040331 0620 09 57 4F A#  -31.5
Bb A# 0122.535 +14 +923 1.073344 0654 0A 1C 6C A#  +22.5
Ax 0136.903 -40 -2584 1.082291 0664 0A 2F 1E A#  +36.9
B 0190.986 -6 -369 1.116633 0698 0A 74 3B -09.0
Cb 0245.070 +29 +1846 1.152068 0733 0B 39 58 +45.1
B# 0259.438 -26 -1661 1.161667 0742 0B 4C 0A -40.6
 

Programs to microtune your MIDI files using pitchbend
Oct 1999 A recent trio of PC programs called   Midi Tempering Utilities by Fred Nachbaur (free midi pitchbend software)  can be used to midi microtune existing midi files.
Download lucy****.dat files for use with Nachbaur miditemp program.
Lucy0f5s 0 flats - 5 sharps (i.e. black notes are C#-D#-F#-G#-A#)
Lucy1f4s 1 flat - 4 sharps (i.e. black notes are C#-D#-F#-G#-Bb)
Lucy2f3s 2 flats - 3 sharps (i.e. black notes are C#-Eb-F#-G#-Bb)
Lucy3f2s 3 flats - 2 sharps (i.e. black notes are C#-Eb-F#-Ab-Bb)
Lucy4f1s 4 flats - 1 sharp (i.e. black notes are Db-Eb-F#-Ab-Bb)
Lucy5f0s 5 flats - 0 sharps (i.e. black notes are Db-Eb-Gb-Ab-Bb)
To LucyTune your files with these programs use the ratios from A = 1.000000 in g column above
 
 

Tuning samples, in cent values.

Some sample programs, such as EMagic's EXS24, and tuners, such as Peterson VS-1, show microtuning values in cents and tenths of a cent respectively, yet only within +/- 50 cents for each semitone. Therefore to set these values the columns k and l have been provided to simplify calculations. When using EXS, a separate zone will be needed for each note in each group. For example to set up an 88 note sample mapping with three groups requires 264 zones to be individually adjusted. I hope now that Apple have taken over EMagic, they will consider introducing a more user friendly interface with more accurate tuning resolution.

EXS Instruments
The following samples and 12tET.exs files were generously provided by Patrick Hall, and may also be found on his site at: pbone.org

EVP73 Pretty self explanitory. Default settings from the EVP73 - 3 velocity layers.
B4Jazzy2 The "Jazzy2" preset from the B4.
Oddity2HIGH A preset from the Oddity VST that reminded me of the Bass sound on Stevie Wonder's "Too High".

To LucyTune these samples, also download LucyTuned .exs files for these samples

MIDI Tuning Dump

In 1992, a new MIDI tuning dump standard was introduced. This is intended to transmit tuning data to a resolution of 16,384 units per semitone, (196,608 per octave). As many of the psychological effects of LucyTuning depend upon subsonic beating: the more accurate the tuning; the greater the effect. Unfortunately I have yet to find a manufacturer who has fully implemented this standard, although it should eventually happen. (Please encourage manufacturers to introduce it in their new products). A number of tuning programs (eg. Tuning Wrench) and some hardware (eg. Proteus 3) already use these values to transfer tuning data.

By using the table above in the Dump columns (g, h, i, and j), you can tune to the LucyTuned notes listed in column a. The tuning resolution which is played will depend upon your hardware. The 64th of a semitone (Proteus) and xx (hex) values shown in the table are for the lowest octave. For higher octaves add 768 units per octave to the 64th of a semitone (Proteus) column (g), or 12 (0C in hex) per octave to the xx column (h).

[Frequency data format (all bytes in hex)]

xx semitone = 100 cent units; yy MSB (Most Significant Byte) of fraction (1/128 semitone) = 0.78125 cent units; LSB (Least Significant Byte) of fraction (1/16384 semitone) = 0.0061 cent units



Download .zip files of ten LucyTuning tables for microtuning programs Scala (.scl) or Max Magic Microtuner (.mtx)

LucyTuning table of 52 arrangements for microtunable synths and samplers
LucyTuning table of 107 Hertz values per octave from A0 = 27.5 Hz. to Bbbb9 = 13,963.642,967,453,6 Hz.

Brian Pugley's EMagic Logic Tuning Environments include LucyTuning features - download from here.
Download printable version of this page (Adobe .pdf)

Download printable version of table of 23 notes per octave cent tuning values and tempos. (Adobe .pdf)

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