I would like to have a precise reading in semitones on the pitch value of my pitch tweaks inside live’s clip envelopes. For examples say I am pitching up slightly a midi note from a soft stynth which has it’s pitch set to +/- 12st…mousing over the automation nods inside live’s clip envelope gives me numerical values; top and bottom values +/-8192. I’m assuming 8192=+12 st in this case. I am often faced with borderline situations when i use “in between” values for slighter more subtle pitch movements. Say for example 1777. say I am ramping up an “A” midi note from 0 to 1777 what is that in semitones? It sounds to me like it’s really close to 2 but how can I calculate precisely what it is in semitones? I always examine my sounds through a spectrum analyzer but analyzers will most often give you hints when things sound borderline not answers.
So what is the most precise technique for figuring out exactly what a value represents in semitones? In this case would it be 8192 divided by 12? Hence a semitone is roughly 683 so 2 semitones is 1366 therefore the sound of that note is roughly +2.5 semitones at it’s peak? There must be a simpler way?
I’ve had the same question for a while. I usually just go by ear. Tweaking it until it sounds in tune, but lately I’ve been doing what you said: taking the total value and dividing it by 12 and then I’ll just look up the values for each tone. You just have to keep in mind that E-F and B-C are only a semitone away and the rest are a whole tone apart.
Even so, I would still like to know if there is an easier way to do this since changing the Pitch-bend range of you synth ultimately ends in having to recalculate all the values for individual notes. I don’t work with Ableton, I use Cubase, but automation works pretty much the same on both.