PChannel Octave and Interval Transposition

If the instrument patch selected for a PChannel needs to transpose the pitches it plays either higher or lower by a fixed interval, or if an instrument's notes are written at a transposed pitch in a style or segment, you might need to set playback to account for the transposition. You can set the playback transposition of an instrument's pitch, higher or lower, in octave increments and in half-step increments using the following settings in the PChannel Properties window:

• Transpose

  If this check box is selected, new transposition settings are applied. If not selected, the previous settings continue to be used.

• Oct

  Number of octaves by which the instrument part should be transposed. This value must be a whole number in the range from –4 to 4, where a negative number indicates a transposition downward, and a positive number a transposition upward.

• Int

  Interval by which the instrument part should be transposed. Possible values range between a minor 2nd and a major 7th. A minus sign indicates a transposition downward; otherwise the transposition is upward. Alternatively, you can type a number between –11 and 11 to represent the number of half steps for the desired transposition. This number will be changed to the standard notation when the text box is deselected.

You can combine the values in the Oct and Int boxes to express large intervals as a number of octaves plus an interval. For example, an interval of a major 10th could be defined by entering 1 in the Oct box and ma3 in the Int box.

If you enter a positive value in the Oct box, the Int box always shows a transposition interval that is either zero or a positive number. If you enter a negative value in the Oct box, the Int box always shows a transposition interval that is either zero or a negative number. If you enter an Oct value of zero, the full range of transposition intervals from -ma7 to ma7 is available.

For example, if you start with an Oct setting of +3 and an Int setting of zero, and reduce the Int value by one increment, an Oct setting of +2 with an Int setting of ma7 is produced, instead of Oct +3 and Int -mi2. Even if you explicitly enter a negative interval in the Int box, the Oct setting and the Int setting are reinterpreted to follow this rule.

While playback of previously entered notes is always consistent, different results can occur during playing or MIDI capture when you use transposed instruments. For example:

• When in step-record mode or when you click the piano roll notation pitch guide, MIDI data is played back with transposition.
• When not recording, or when recording in real time to a low-latency output port, MIDI data is passed from the keyboard to the PChannel without transposition.