An Event module which can quantize note pitch to a certain scale and root note would be nice. The use case would be to place it after a Step Sequencer module so that any note transpositions taking place either via note changes in the piano roll and/or via a Mod Group (in the Step Sequencer) would stay in key.
There are several DAW's such as Abelton and synths such as HY-Poly (pictured) which have this functionality.
FR: Note Pitch Quantizing Module
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- KVRAF
- 13862 posts since 24 Jun, 2008 from Europe
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- KVRist
- 251 posts since 3 May, 2003
I was also curious about this so I had a look at what is available to simulate the Ableton Scale midi effect. I also wanted a solution that would work on all versions of MuLab (32/64 bit Windows and Mac) and this narrowed down the options:
The pizmidi midiForceToKey VST does the job nicely and it is relatively quick and easy to set up the desired scales and save them as a bank of presets. The plugin also goes one step further than the Ableton effect by offering a choice of what happens to notes that are not in the chosen scale (Nearest, Always Up, Always Down and Block). Pizmidi VSTs are also “faceless” so they automatically adopt the MuLab GUI.
You can also try the pizmidi midiScaleChanger to create a similar solution. I did not spend much time exploring this option as scale creation takes longer but I did notice that the transpose function gives different results.
If you only want to use MuLab’s built in modules, then similar results can be achieved by using a Note Key Mapper along with a Note Modifier (found in the Event Processor folder). Setting up the presets is quite time consuming as you have to manually map the notes that are not in the chosen scale. I could not find a way to create a bank of presets for the Note Key Mapper but I did manage to create a set of individual presets for some common scales.
The video below shows both the pizmidi midiForceToKey and the MuLab Note Key Mapper solutions in action (although, not very tunefully!!).
The pizmidi plugins can be downloaded here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180124160 ... ?p=pizmidi
…or here:
https://code.google.com/archive/p/pizmidi/
The scales bank I created for the pizmidi midiForceToKey plugin can be downloaded here:
https://mega.nz/file/XmoT1ZDQ#TERAOIV7S ... 1K-8uQfcdA
The folder of scale presets I created for the MuLab Note Key Mapper can be downloaded here:
https://mega.nz/file/W6hXzbCA#_YZEx-wKo ... gj2AIXQ0Ec
The presets should probably be double checked for accuracy.
The pizmidi midiForceToKey VST does the job nicely and it is relatively quick and easy to set up the desired scales and save them as a bank of presets. The plugin also goes one step further than the Ableton effect by offering a choice of what happens to notes that are not in the chosen scale (Nearest, Always Up, Always Down and Block). Pizmidi VSTs are also “faceless” so they automatically adopt the MuLab GUI.
You can also try the pizmidi midiScaleChanger to create a similar solution. I did not spend much time exploring this option as scale creation takes longer but I did notice that the transpose function gives different results.
If you only want to use MuLab’s built in modules, then similar results can be achieved by using a Note Key Mapper along with a Note Modifier (found in the Event Processor folder). Setting up the presets is quite time consuming as you have to manually map the notes that are not in the chosen scale. I could not find a way to create a bank of presets for the Note Key Mapper but I did manage to create a set of individual presets for some common scales.
The video below shows both the pizmidi midiForceToKey and the MuLab Note Key Mapper solutions in action (although, not very tunefully!!).
The pizmidi plugins can be downloaded here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180124160 ... ?p=pizmidi
…or here:
https://code.google.com/archive/p/pizmidi/
The scales bank I created for the pizmidi midiForceToKey plugin can be downloaded here:
https://mega.nz/file/XmoT1ZDQ#TERAOIV7S ... 1K-8uQfcdA
The folder of scale presets I created for the MuLab Note Key Mapper can be downloaded here:
https://mega.nz/file/W6hXzbCA#_YZEx-wKo ... gj2AIXQ0Ec
The presets should probably be double checked for accuracy.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 703 posts since 15 Sep, 2003
Thanks for posting about pizmidi and the scale files.you created, Calum!! I've been away from my machines for awhile so now just getting to this. I'll give these a try and see what I see but looks to be exactly what I'm looking for.
"Music is directly tied to the technology of a culture."
"Modular gear is the craft beer of music."
"Modular gear is the craft beer of music."
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- KVRist
- 251 posts since 3 May, 2003
You're welcome. I took this a bit further and posted the results in the Community Library thread:
viewtopic.php?t=483718&start=225
On that page you will find an updated Scales FXB and an experimental interface for Piz MIDI ForceToKey, three MUX "Scaler" presets I created that do a similar job of mapping notes to scales and a video showing one of these MUX "Scaler" presets in use:
viewtopic.php?t=483718&start=225
On that page you will find an updated Scales FXB and an experimental interface for Piz MIDI ForceToKey, three MUX "Scaler" presets I created that do a similar job of mapping notes to scales and a video showing one of these MUX "Scaler" presets in use: