Re: Midi not playing note I expect

On 05/02/2011 09:04 AM, Koenraad Lelong wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I think this is off-topic here, but I'm trying anyway.
>
> I'm learning to play the Flemish bagpipes. I use noteedit to help me
> study my pieces. No problem here.
> In a while I have to play together with a clarinet and a sax. The piece
> I want to play had no lines for clarinet and sax, so with the help of my
> teacher I transposed some other instruments. Then I played the piece
> with noteedit. On some places it sounds wrong, so I told my teacher
> something was wrong. She says that the output of midi does not transpose
> sounds like clarinet or sax do. I was surprised to hear that so I
> investigated. I let noteedit play some notes and measured them with my
> tuner, e.g. when noteedit plays a G with a clarinet-sound I measure a G
> with my tuner, same with a sax-sound. Then I asked my daughter to play a
> G on her clarinet, and, to my surprise, I got an F on my tuner. Other
> notes "behave" the same. I had heard of this fenomenon but didn't
> understand it then.
> I tried the experiment with my tuner with rosegarden, with the same
> results, so I don't think it's the score-editor, but midi. I even tried
> different sound-fonts with the same results.
>
> So my question is, why would a computer sound like a G when I ask to
> "play a G with a clarinet" when in reality a clarinet will sound like an
> F when the player sees a G on the score and presses the keys for it.
> What I mean is, when I copy a score which includes clarinet and sax, and
> then I play it via midi, it will not sound like when that piece is
> played with real instruments. So what's the use of midi when it does not
> play the reality ? Or do you have to be a musicologist just to copy a
> score, let alone transpose one ? You would have to have two versions of
> your score : one to play with midi and one to play with real instruments.
>
> Any references to this problem will be highly appreciated. If you know a
> better place to ask this I would be happy to hear about it. I did search
> with google, but I didn't get answers, but I don't really know how to
> ask this in google.
>
> Regards,
>
> Koenraad Lelong.

Try solfege to compare the sound G and F. Why don't you use rosegarden to enter the musical score and (assuming you are using an external 
midi recorder) transfer it to your midi, rosegarden has just about all the midi drivers possible. If you haven't an external midi then you 
can use a dssi soft synth in rosegarden it interfaces with midi keyboards as well.
Lastly reed instruments vary in pitch with breath pressure especially using a soft reed. A clarinet isn't so bad but a sax is very pressure 
sensitive. Another possibility is the tuners A to D can't handle the sound produced by the clarinet due to a bad sample rate.

Dave P
Maintainer
Multimedia apps and libs