Pitch Standard, Fine Pitch, and transposition
What they do
Above the keyboard are several controls that can help you in the studio and at your next gig. Use the Pitch Standard menu to set the frequency for A4 (the A above middle C), and the Fine Pitch box to uniformly sharpen or flatten the piano up to 100 cents (one half-step). You can use these controls to help make sure that you're in tune with the audio in your project, or with the musicians on stage.
The Semitones menu allows you to transpose what you're playing up or down by up to 11 half-steps, and the Octave menu allows you to transpose up or down by up to three octaves. The transposition controls can help you navigate the entire range of the piano on a smaller keyboard controller, or help you play the next tune in your set in a key you didn't expect.
- Click the Pitch Standard menu. A drop-down menu with common pitch standards appear.
- Choose a pitch standard from the list. The piano tuning is adjusted automatically.
Selecting an option from the Tuning Region menu shifts the pitch of the entire piano up or down in pitch. It does not employ any kind of stretch tuning, and it respects the current temperament being used.
For each pitch standard, a name as well as the frequency of the A above middle C is displayed.
Click the Fine Pitch box, and then drag up or down until you achieve the desired change in tuning.
- Drag up to sharpen the pitch. Sharpened Fine Pitch values display a + next to the number of cents tuned.
- Drag down to flatten the pitch. Flattened Fine Pitch values display a - next to the number of cents tuned.
- CTRL+click (Windows) or COMMAND+click (Mac) the Fine Pitch box to remove any pitch adjustments.
- Click the Semitones menu. A drop-down menu with semitone transposition choices appears.
- Choose the desired direction and number of semitones by which you want to transpose.
- Play your MIDI controller, or click a key on the keyboard. Both the MIDI note that you send, and the transposed pitch display on the keyboard.
The list contains numbers representing the number of semitones to transpose by, and the direction in which you transpose, where positive numbers transpose your MIDI input up, and negative numbers transpose it down.
- Click the Octave menu. A drop-down menu with octave transposition choices appears.
- Select the desired direction and number of semitones by which you want to transpose.
- Play your MIDI controller, or click a key on the keyboard. Both the MIDI note that you send, and the transposed pitch display on the keyboard.
The list contains numbers representing the number of octaves to transpose by, and the direction in which you transpose, where positive numbers transpose your MIDI input up, and negative numbers transpose it down.