ThumbJam Forum

Hello,

First of all thanks for the excellent app and for implementing my pure continuous pitch request. It was exactly what I was looking for. I am currently having difficulty sending polyphonic continuous pitch to my computer, although I wouldn't be surprised if it is my fault. If I have two voices activated, and move only one in continuous pitch (either glide mode or continuum mode), both end up moving in parallel, preventing true independent motion of the voices. This problem does not occur when using TJ independently, only when I send messages to my computer. I think there are also pitch issues in Contiuum mode and Glide mode even with only one voice, but these are harder to characterize (if I glide up a fifth, for example, the sound may only glide one or two steps). I use CoreMidi, and "Send Pitchbend", "Send Pitchbend Range", "Send Continuation NRPN", "Channel Per Touch (16)", "Omni Mode" are all enabled. I use EnergyXT as my DAW and encounter the same problem across various VST instruments. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I should probably add that I am using a Windows Vista Machine w/ rptmidi.

Thanks,
Miles

In order to get polyphonic bending for MIDI output you need to enable Channel Per Touch, and set the channel range.. it sounds like you have. If you can monitor the midi you are receiving on your computer you should see a new channel used for every touch, and every note retrigger, while the bends should be sent on the appropriate channel for the touch. Many synths do not handle this automatically, sometimes you have to set it up with multiple instances of the instrument, each listening on a different channel. Sadly, the most common way synths implement Omni mode is to just ignore the channel, which is a shame because if they just kept track of the channel of the notes and the bends, they could do the right thing with only one synth instance. Some synths can support it without trouble, but it is very dependent on the synth (and maybe host).

As for the pitchbend range, that is another place you often have to manually ensure that the range is the same on TJ's side and the synth's side. Even though the MIDI spec supports a pitchbend range message, and TJ can send it, I've found that very few synths honor it. You have to be vigilant to ensure that the synth you're playing is using a pitchbend range that you know, or can set. It seems the default is 2 for a lot of them, but you never know.