Pitch bender on Midi controllers

[fluffy_little_something]

Not sure this is the right section as a Midi controller is not a real instrument I suppose...

Anyway, I have a Roland A-49 and like it, except for the pitch bender, which only starts to have an effect on the pitch at a deflection angle of about 25 degrees or more in either direction. This makes it hard to use the bender in a precise way, so I have to draw pitch lines in the DAW

So, is it a design bug or do the pitch benders on other Midi controllers behave the same way?

[thecontrolcentre]

There should be a pitch bend sensitivity setting.

[fluffy_little_something]

You mean on the controller? Didn't find anything on that in the manual...
I don't think it has to do with sensitivity, but with the fact there seems to be a dead zone of 40 to 50° around the center position.

[TEKing66]

Think I would put this question to Roland.

I can say that my cheap little Acorn Industries Masterkey 49 does not behave in the manner you describe, nor does my Novation Impulse 49. On either of those keyboards I start hearing a change in pitch the instant I start to move the controller, in either direction.

Also, I am not aware of any settings to adjust this that are physically on any midi controller, though Rolands may have this (I doubt that though). And, I seriously doubt any software adjustment would help "tighten" up where the hardware actually starts to "see" movement from the controller. Reasoning this out like that, and I kind of start to think it could be a faulty pitch bend wheel on your controller. Though I could very well be wrong, again an email to Roland might clear up the answer either way.

[TEKing66]

Oops, double post (deleted)

[fluffy_little_something]

Thanks, I have written them a mail
I also think there are no settings to change something like that, nor will there be a driver or firmware fix for that, seems their pitch bend sensor has that behavior built right into it...

[fluffy_little_something]

They replied that I should update the keyboard's operating system to the latest version 1.4, that would fix the problem. But I was already using that latest version. Anyway, did the update again, just in case, but no improvement.
Before the A-49 I had their A-300 Pro, simply ceased to work after about two years (of most careful use in my den, it never left my desk), shortly after the warranty had expired.
Roland sucks

[bibz1st]

I'd ber tempted into opening it up to see if there is any dust in there, I had a similar thing with a keys velocity not behaving properly on a Novation keyboard and it worked for me.

[fluffy_little_something]

No, it is not due to dust, the bender behaved that way from the day I got it (it was a new unit, not a used one). Back then I used it little so I did not mind, I thought it was normal, actually.

[chaosWyrM]

i had a similar problem with my novation remote 25sl mkii...turned out i needed to increase the pitch range settings in the daw.

[fluffy_little_something]

The problem is the same in both of my DAW's and with any plugin.

[chaosWyrM]

The problem is the same in both of my DAW's and with any plugin.

yes...well it would be with any plugin. have you tried increasing the pitch range in both your daws?

[fluffy_little_something]

Yes, of course. Whether I set 1 semitone or 2 octaves, it is spread across the angle between 20 and 45 degrees or so, in either direction. And from -20 to +20 degrees nothing happens regardless of the bend range set

[thecontrolcentre]

Sounds like it's broken ...

[fluffy_little_something]

I think it is the Roland bender as such, because if I remember correctly it was the same thing on my previous Roland controller, which had exactly the same combined mod/bend lever that's typical of Roland. There must be many people using Roland controllers, I wonder if it is the same with theirs...

I have replied to the Roland support mail, telling them their supposed firmware update did not fix anything. Let's wait and see if and what they reply