Which c is c3 in the MIDI sequencer??

[crazyfiltertweaker]

is it c', c'' or c''' ??

I ask because there is NOWHERE the answer!

[JumpingJackFlash]

is it c', c'' or c''' ??

I ask because there is NOWHERE the answer!

It depends. Which sequencer are you using?

[crazyfiltertweaker]

I use Studio One, but C3 is in every sequencer the same, that is why I can export and import MIDI where I want.

[sjm]

IIRC middle C is defined as note 60 in the MIDI spec, but the octave number is unspecified. That's why it depends from sequencer to sequencer; the octave number is not consistent across applications.

[whyterabbyt]

I use Studio One, but C3 is in every sequencer the same

No, its not. Which is precisely why JumpingJackFlash said 'It depends. Which sequencer are you using?"

[BertKoor]

A bit of background info...

In the Midi specs there's room for 128 different notes, numbered from zero to 127. The organisation that drew up the specs decided in all their wisdom that "middle C" should be somewhere in the middle as well, and they chose note nr 60 to be "middle C". That's all they said about the subject.

Since there's 12 notes in an octave, the middle C would be counted as C5. The octave number then starts at zero. It's a common practice in the digital world to start counting at zero. So if #0 = C0, then #12 = C1, #24 = C2, #36 = C3, #48 = C4 and #60 = C5. So if the whole midi range is your reference, then it makes sense to name it C5.

But... the midi specs allow a note range of well over 10 octaves. Theres no controller in the world with that many keys. If you take the standard 88 key piano keyboard, then there's plenty of room to transpose some octaves up & down and still remain in the range of note numbers 0-127.

If you keep in line with "note 60 = middle C", then what would it's number
be? Let's take a look at an actual 88-key piano keyboard:

If you can count, there's 3 C notes below middle C. If you call the first one C0 then middle C = C3.

However this poses a bit of a problem with the three notes below C0. Would you call them A-1, Bb-1 and B-1? Or rather assign this tiny part of an octave the number zero instead of minus one? If you put the zero reference there, then middle C becomes C4.

So in short, there's no one right way to do it. There's several different conventions floating around. In my opinion a DAW should be configurable to use the convention you like, and I think a couple of them allow that indeed.