KVR Audio

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:41 pm

What is it for? Could I potentially play in any key just by playing on the white keys or am I misunderstanding? Thank you very much. I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to music theory.

JumpingJackFlash · Post by **JumpingJackFlash** » Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:58 pm

arkmabat wrote:What is it for? Could I potentially play in any key just by playing on the white keys or am I misunderstanding?

Sort of, yeah.
To be more precise, it allows you to "play" in C major (or A minor), but the actual sound will vary depending on the transposition. For example, you can set it so that everything sounds a whole tone (two semitones) higher than what you actually play; so a C sounds like a D, and therefore playing in C major sounds like D major.

That doesn't necessarily mean that you can literally stick to just the white notes all the time, because most music will contain chromatic notes (notes foreign to the key) at some point, and minor keys will typically involve the raising of the sixth and/or seventh degrees in certain contexts (so in A minor, you'll probably play a G# at some point).

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:12 pm

Cool, thanks. That helps a lot. I'll try it out.

zethus909 · Post by **zethus909** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 5:08 am

it lowers all the keys by an octave

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 6:39 am

No, that's the octave change. Transpose is different.

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 2:57 pm

That's why I was asking. I used to think it was the same thing but it's not. The octave control changes octaves, and the transpose changes by semitones.

JumpingJackFlash · Post by **JumpingJackFlash** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:18 pm

arkmabat wrote:That's why I was asking. I used to think it was the same thing but it's not. The octave control changes octaves, and the transpose changes by semitones.

So setting the octave control to +1 would be equivalent to setting the transpose to +12.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:21 pm

JumpingJackFlash wrote:
arkmabat wrote:That's why I was asking. I used to think it was the same thing but it's not. The octave control changes octaves, and the transpose changes by semitones.
So setting the octave control to +1 would be equivalent to setting the transpose to +12.

Yes, -1 is one semitone, meaning all the "black" tones will become "white", and all the "white" tones will become "black" except F and C (because they will be shifted to E and H(B) )

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:29 pm

They really are technically the same thing just split into two different parts. Octave is multiples of 12, transpose is single steps.

It's just a number that you can add to the key you're playing to shift it up or down. MIDI goes from 1 to 128 (0 to 127) and "middle C" is 60. So even a 90+ key controller with key 45 = 60 is going to be able to shift up nearly two octaves (23) and down one and three semitones (15). It would be centered with 15 to 105, depending upon what arrangement it has for the extra half octave divided up at the top and bottom of the range.

My own preference is just to have a knob and display that shows semitones. I don't need to see 2 octaves and 5 semitones, 24 + 5 = 29 is easy enough to figure in a split second already.

The benefit of octave transpose controls is that you might not want to fiddle with multiples of 12, you might just want to always keep every key where it is on the scale and always half or double the frequency. So you don't need to press the button as much to get from 0 to +2 oct as to get from 0 to +24st.

Other than that, not any difference really.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:51 pm

This trick predates MIDI. Irving Berlin could only play in F# major. He had a mechanical transposing piano that allowed him to play in other keys.

(Not Irving Berlin's piano.)

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:57 pm

zethus909 · Post by **zethus909** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 12:26 am

damn idk, on my access virus....it says, TRANSPOSE -2 -1 0 +1 +2, and I press the left or right button to move up or down by octaves on my keyboard.....

hehe but you can set it to how ever many semtones you want +1 to be in the menu. why is music so complicated..

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 12:51 am

Thank you for sharing. My apologies; there isn't a standard name for octave/transpose. But yes, I want to think that any keyboard can do both a whole octave shift or just by semitones. Every keyboard is different though.

AutoTonic · Post by **AutoTonic** » Sat Aug 27, 2016 1:56 pm

Also don't forget about the existence of dedicated 3rd party MIDI transposing software (sort of Autotuning for MIDI) like my AutoTonic Note Transposer which also might provide you full compatibility to any other mac or win based DAW, Virtual Instrument, Outboard Gear, MIDI destination etc., a lot more of sophisticated controls, functions and also the option to manage your scales records in a Music Theory Library … there are even many more features and potential usages you really should discover on your own …

I am an off-mainstream indie-developer from Vienna and I've put lots of efforts into creating this … maybe it's something you should consider, maybe it helps … if not at least you know now it exists too. Thanks for your time with all of my respect, Clemens.

Help me understand the transpose function on my midi keyboard