MIDI Pitch: transpose a phrase or restrict its input range

Change register without rewriting the rhythm

This original MIDI bass phrase begins on note 36. Pitch is set to +12 st, so the instrument receives note 48 instead. Twelve semitones make an octave: the notes move up while their start times, lengths and velocities stay the same. A simple sine sound makes the register change easy to distinguish from changes in filter brightness.

Play the phrase, then enable Bypass and use Rewind to compare from the beginning. Bypass disables Pitch, not the Synth after it. The lower source notes should return without silence. Disable Bypass and compare the before-and-after note blocks: the entire phrase is shifted, rather than doubled at the octave.

Now change Pitch from +12 to +7 st. A perfect-fifth shift preserves the distances between successive notes but changes their pitch classes. It can put the phrase in a different harmonic context; it does not know which key the rest of your arrangement uses. Return to +12, or try 0 when the original register is the better fit.

Raising a bass can help it read above another low part, but may remove the weight that made the line useful. Lowering it can create depth or push it beneath a speaker’s useful range. Compare in context rather than treating an octave change as an automatic improvement. The instrument may also respond differently to different notes even though Pitch preserves their velocity values.

Lowest and Range decide which notes are allowed in

The second example intentionally leaves holes. Lowest is MIDI 60 and Range is +4 st, admitting notes 60 through 64 inclusive. Pitch then moves those surviving notes down twelve semitones. The melody originally contains eight notes; only four pass this input window.

Listen for the opening three notes, a gap, and the later return of the third pitch. The surviving inputs are 60, 62, 64 and 64; the outputs are 48, 50, 52 and 52. Their original positions remain in place. Blocking notes does not pull the survivors together into a faster phrase.

1. Raise Range from +4 to +12 st while leaving Lowest unchanged. All eight source notes now fit. The missing upper notes return, still transposed down an octave.
2. Return Range to +4 and set Pitch to 0. The same four events survive, now at their original pitches. This separates the gate decision from the transpose decision.
3. Use Reset parameters to restore the example, including its instrument settings. Rewind separately to compare the same part of the phrase.

Input limits are not output limits

The window is checked before transposition. That is why the accepted output can fall below Lowest in this example. Range measures a semitone span, not a maximum number of simultaneous voices. A zero range admits only the exact Lowest note; it does not mean unrestricted input.

Lowest is displayed as a note name, with MIDI 0 labelled C−2 in this panel. MIDI 60 therefore appears as C3 here; octave labels in other software may differ. The event details’ numeric pitches are the unambiguous reference.

Pitch offers −48 to +48 semitones. Notes shifted beyond MIDI 0–127 are clipped to that boundary rather than wrapped into another octave. Several extreme notes can consequently meet on one pitch. The visible device blocks out-of-window inputs; it does not offer a fold-mode switch or automatic key correction. Use Scale for pitch-class mapping and Chord when you want additional notes rather than a replacement pitch.