PitchGrid (tuning theory plugin) by Node Audio

[El°HYM]

Very well known in the microtonal community for Entonal Studio, Node Audio has already got their next sophisticated alternate tuning Plugin in the making, actually also already available as open Beta.

The Art of Building Scales

There is a continuum of frequencies. Which of them should we play?

A scale is a set of frequency intervals a musician might want to play, together with a naming convention for each note. The Western 12-tone scale is just one of infinitely many possibilities. PitchGrid makes many of them accessible for exploration and music-making.

Every scale has its own characteristic interval relationships, which influence the sound and feel of the music possible within it. This is tuning theory. PitchGrid is a tuning theory plugin.

https://node.audio/products/pitchgrid

https://pitchgrid.io

[Cuauhtli]

Looks cool. Who's paying for a beta version though?

(Note: recommended playback speed: 1.75 or greater)

[foosnark]

Looks cool. Who's paying for a beta version though?

I am going to think of the 14-day trial as a beta and if I buy it, it's "early access"

Entonal Studio is cool, but some aspects of tuning theory still eluded me. This seems like it offers interesting insights and is just overall really well thought out.

[foosnark]

I gave it a try, and I like it a lot. But, in its current state, at least in Bitwig, it blocks MPE pressure and slide completely (no matter what the output mode is set to). Oddly if you slide high enough, it sends pressure at a high value instead

Entonal Studio works fine in Bitwig as long as I'm using VST or CLAP instruments. (Bitwig's weird translation of MPE -> expression causes problems with its own instrument devices.)

I assume this is a bug but maybe it's a trial limitation or something? I contacted the developer. I rely on MPE pressure a lot, often with no envelopes at all.

[peterjungx]

Thanks for flagging PitchGrid. It is built to make alternative tuning more legible and playable, especially for MOS and other rank-2 temperament structures, not just to retune notes abstractly, one by one. If anyone wants the quick overview, the main pages are pitchgrid.io and the Node Audio product page. Happy to answer workflow questions if people are curious how it differs from standard microtuning tools.

[peterjungx]

I gave it a try, and I like it a lot. But, in its current state, at least in Bitwig, it blocks MPE pressure and slide completely (no matter what the output mode is set to). Oddly if you slide high enough, it sends pressure at a high value instead

Entonal Studio works fine in Bitwig as long as I'm using VST or CLAP instruments. (Bitwig's weird translation of MPE -> expression causes problems with its own instrument devices.)

I assume this is a bug but maybe it's a trial limitation or something? I contacted the developer. I rely on MPE pressure a lot, often with no envelopes at all.

Unfortunately Bitwig's opinionated MPE handling implies that the approach I took to retuning via MPE does not work in BitWig at all, so you are out of luck if you want to use that. (Other major DAWs like Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Reaper, Cubase, Pro Tools have been tested to be compatible with the PitchGrid approach.) You still can use PitchGrid in Bitwig using MTS-ESP, though. Also, I had some early tests adding CLAP compatibility, but with very mixed results, so this addition is currently rather low in my TODO priorities. Sorry about that.

[foosnark]

Unfortunately Bitwig's opinionated MPE handling implies that the approach I took to retuning via MPE does not work in BitWig at all, so you are out of luck if you want to use that. (Other major DAWs like Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Reaper, Cubase, Pro Tools have been tested to be compatible with the PitchGrid approach.) You still can use PitchGrid in Bitwig using MTS-ESP, though. Also, I had some early tests adding CLAP compatibility, but with very mixed results, so this addition is currently rather low in my TODO priorities. Sorry about that.

Unfortunately, I have several instruments I like quite a lot which don't support MTS-ESP, including some of my favorites.

Also, PitchGrid blocks pressure/aftertouch ieven if I'm using MTS-ESP for the output -- I have to put it on a separate mixer channel and enable MIDI for both, to get it to work. Between that, and the fact that Entonal Studio works for me, makes me think this isn't entirely a Bitwig issue.

[Tj Shredder]

I bet its a confusion between Midi and expressions. The Bitwig scripts translate MPE input into expressions. If you are not aware about that, its doomed to fail. You can use a script that does not translate MPE into expressions, but that has its own disadvantages as well…

[peterjungx]

Unfortunately, I have several instruments I like quite a lot which don't support MTS-ESP, including some of my favorites.

Also, PitchGrid blocks pressure/aftertouch ieven if I'm using MTS-ESP for the output -- I have to put it on a separate mixer channel and enable MIDI for both, to get it to work. Between that, and the fact that Entonal Studio works for me, makes me think this isn't entirely a Bitwig issue.

Entonal Studio comes as CLAP which I guess you are using. It does the very specific BitWig MPE handling. CLAP is a planned feature for the PitchGrid plugin, too. But since most customers are on other DAWs and it reliably works for them, this is low priority right now. Sorry about that.

Also you might want to test the new v0.3.4 of the PitchGrid plugin available for download starting today, which made minor tweaks to MPE message handling, which might or might not fix some of the issues you observe.

[foosnark]

Entonal Studio comes as CLAP which I guess you are using. It does the very specific BitWig MPE handling. CLAP is a planned feature for the PitchGrid plugin, too. But since most customers are on other DAWs and it reliably works for them, this is low priority right now. Sorry about that.

I'm using the VST2 of Entonal Studio.

vst2.png

Unfortunately 0.3.4 doesn't fix the issue for me.