Master tuner

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 07 Sep 2016, 14:47

I need to be able to tune all of my VSTs to other than A=440Hz. Most of the players I work with are happy at 440, but Steinway pianos are usually actually tuned to 442 in the UK, and the further east you go the higher the pitch. I believe most orchestras in mainland Europe tune to 443.

Is there a simple way of tuning all VSTs to anything other than 440?

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I'm a new convert to HH!

iococoi · Unread post by **iococoi** » 08 Sep 2016, 09:31

Hi there,
that really depends on your VSTis and if and how they are capable of using a custom concert pitch. HH could certainly help you with setting up some automation processes. F.i. You could set up a constant and distribute it via a Data bus to all of your VSTis.

Unread post by **oli_lab** » 08 Sep 2016, 15:08

you can set the pitchbender and send it on each VSTi !?

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 08 Sep 2016, 17:34

Well my VSTs could all handle it, and I could go through changing them one by one. But it's very fiddly and any time doing this in a rehearsal is wasted time. Much better to tune a single central control which does the necessary to all VSTs used. That's how MainStage handles it. I could set up AUPitchShifter on each patch which would go some of the way to a solution but it seems to increase latency quite markedly. I'd love to dig in to setting up automation but it's probably beyond me for the moment.

Unread post by **oli_lab** » 08 Sep 2016, 20:37

if you can tune it from the VST, maybe you can find the input on the vst module in the patch editing window and connect a bus to it ? then in anather rack build a patch with a fader and a bus send and make preset.

nay-seven · Unread post by **nay-seven** » 08 Sep 2016, 21:04

you have to know that devices in Usine are also patches so you can connect a create midi t module inside your main device to change the main pitch bend this way for example:

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 08 Sep 2016, 23:51

Thanks everyone. I'll look into this but for personal reasons I'm not going to be able to pursue this for a little while. Apologies....

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 11 Sep 2016, 22:24

Thanks for holding this up for a couple of days. This solution works amazingly but not on every patch. It seems to work fine on everything except Native Instruments patches. Any ideas?

nay-seven · Unread post by **nay-seven** » 11 Sep 2016, 23:12

if you use my solution, be sure you use the same device instance on each rack input and you can also check that your Reaktor ensemble works on the same MIDI channel ( by default many Reaktor ensembles accept only Channel 1)

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 11 Sep 2016, 23:26

Looking further into this none of my Native Instruments or Vienna Instruments respond. Everything is set up with the same device on channel 1.

nay-seven · Unread post by **nay-seven** » 11 Sep 2016, 23:38

i don't own vienna instruments, but i can test the reaktor ensembles if you give their names ?

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 11 Sep 2016, 23:40

I don't use Reactor in fact. Mainly for the tuning function it's Pianoteq, Native Instruments or Vienna Instruments. Simply VSTs run through HH.

nay-seven · Unread post by **nay-seven** » 11 Sep 2016, 23:44

ok, but which native instruments ?

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 11 Sep 2016, 23:57

"The grandeur" (ridiculous name!) and Aria pipe organ. Funnily enough the Pianoteq (piano, harp, celeste) all behave exactly as they should.

nay-seven · Unread post by **nay-seven** » 12 Sep 2016, 09:06

ok, so kontakt instruments,
The first thing you can check is if our pitch bend infos arrive to the plug-in, click on the with square of the MIDI wire , you'll see incoming notes and the PB pitch bend infos:

if this is ok, the issue came from the kontact instrument.

About pianoteq, you don't really need this cause you can tune it directly ? here on the stage version:

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 12 Sep 2016, 09:53

Thanks nay-seven, I tried it by changing the pitch from 64 to 97 and the number that came up by doing this was 97. Clearly the problem is at the VST end.

BTW I knew about the Pianoteq tuning, and in fact it is possible to change the tuning of the Kontakt instruments in a similar way. But it all has to be done individually, and I need a quick and simple way of changing ALL tunings simultaneously.

nay-seven · Unread post by **nay-seven** » 12 Sep 2016, 10:12

ok, i understand about the global tuning

about Kontakt, it is easy to add a modulation source in Edit mode:

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 12 Sep 2016, 10:22

That looks promising. I'll investigate further. Thanks.

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 12 Sep 2016, 17:35

Well progress so far... I looked at Kontakt Aria organ and did exactly as you suggested: worked perfectly. Went to Vienna Instruments and did similar and it worked. But in the Grandeur (Kontakt) it simply doesn't seem to work at all. I've put in a call to Native Instruments for technical support and will report back. Thanks for the help and if I manage to get Grandeur working properly I'll add a message here.

nay-seven · Unread post by **nay-seven** » 12 Sep 2016, 22:15

ok, good news !

EspressoPianist · Unread post by **EspressoPianist** » 12 Sep 2016, 22:49

Well I've managed it so thanks for the help. There was a curiosity though:

1. playing the midi keyboard and playing Kontakt as a VST, the virtual PB wheel in Kontakt worked, but NOT the other way round;
2. playing in Kontakt (ie NOT as a VST) both wheels worked.

The solution to setting up a master tuner seemed to work in version 1 even though the hardware wheel wasn't working. Not sure what this means but it's feels as if someone who knows more about this kind of thing may know more...

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