intonation

[charleyrich]

I am finding that the pitches synthesized are slightly sharp of the ones from my guitar.

I have a tuner on my guitar and it is in tune. However, as I play I hear the pitches coming out of the speakers of my DAW consistently a bit out of tune with my guitar. I have tried it with two different softsynths with the same results.

What is wrong?

Thanks,

Charley

[strashilol]

I am finding that the pitches synthesized are slightly sharp of the ones from my guitar.

I have a tuner on my guitar and it is in tune. However, as I play I hear the pitches coming out of the speakers of my DAW consistently a bit out of tune with my guitar. I have tried it with two different softsynths with the same results.

Please confirm that:
1) you're having the same problems when utilizing your i2m in chromatic mode;
2) there are no such problems when playing a real synthesizer through the samplers (or are they standalone VSTs?) you're using (in case you have a synth of course and thus can afford such a test).

[charleyrich]

I am finding that the pitches synthesized are slightly sharp of the ones from my guitar.

I have a tuner on my guitar and it is in tune. However, as I play I hear the pitches coming out of the speakers of my DAW consistently a bit out of tune with my guitar. I have tried it with two different softsynths with the same results.

Please confirm that:
1) you're having the same problems when utilizing your i2m in chromatic mode;
I have the same problem in chromatic mode. The output of the i2m is almost a half step sharp.
Of course, if I tune my guitar higher in pitch the i2m goes higher as well.

2) there are no such problems when playing a real synthesizer through the samplers (or are they standalone VSTs?) you're using (in case you have a synth of course and thus can afford such a test).

I am using soft synths with Sonar X1 PE. Within Sonar I have tried Dimension Pro and Garritan Jazz Big Band soft synths with the i2m with the same results.

Is it possible that all my midi is transposing itself a half step up?

[james]

It's possible your synth is transposing the MIDI. Have you used the i2M editor? That will let you transpose the MIDI too. If you've not used this it should be in it's default settings of no transpose.

You could try a few things:

(1) Use the i2M editor to transpose 1 semitone down to see if this fixes the problem.

(2) Record the MIDI data and examine this. Are the recorded notes 1 semitone wrong?

(3) Manually play a note in your synth (using the piano roll keyboard) and see if that matches the same note on your guitar when you play that (without the i2M, just the audible note).

When pitch-bend mode is used, if the pitch-bend settings of the synth match those on the i2M, it should always play in tune, with accuracy better then 1 cent. Even if it detects the initial note wrongly, it will use pitch-bend to bring the note back to the correct pitch.

[charleyrich]

It's possible your synth is transposing the MIDI. Have you used the i2M editor? That will let you transpose the MIDI too. If you've not used this it should be in it's default settings of no transpose.

You could try a few things:

(1) Use the i2M editor to transpose 1 semitone down to see if this fixes the problem.

(2) Record the MIDI data and examine this. Are the recorded notes 1 semitone wrong?

(3) Manually play a note in your synth (using the piano roll keyboard) and see if that matches the same note on your guitar when you play that (without the i2M, just the audible note).

When pitch-bend mode is used, if the pitch-bend settings of the synth match those on the i2M, it should always play in tune, with accuracy better then 1 cent. Even if it detects the initial note wrongly, it will use pitch-bend to bring the note back to the correct pitch.

Apparently, as soon as I plug the i2M in to my computer the key of the recording in Sonar X1 drops by 1/2 step.
I recorded some analog tracks with guitar in the key of A. But, when I plug in the i2M the analog tracks drop to the key of G#.
I would guess this is a Sonar X1 problem. But why would plugging in a midi device change the pitch of the project?
I use other midi devices such as a keyrig 49 and Tranzport with out any problems. So, something in the i2M is causing this.

Looking further I have found that when I plug in the i2M to my computer the sampling rate on my project changes. That seems to be why the pitches change.
Any ideas?

[james]

It must be switching to use the i2M as the audio input device, and as the source for the project clock?

This shouldn't be a problem because the i2M natively supports 44.1kHz and 48kHz, and has an accurate internal clock. Moreover, if you use the i2M ASIO driver, that will work with any sample rate, even non-standard rates, and do software sample-rate-conversion as necessary.

What options are available for selecting the audio device in Sonar X1? I have Sonar but not that version, and it's possibly a bit different. I've never seen this happen before.

[charleyrich]

In Windows/Sound I see both my sound card an Echo Mia and the i2M Hi-Z set at 48hz.

In Sonar: under drivers I see the Echo Mia ASIO driver, but not one for i2M
It says the record and playback timing master is the driver for the Echo Mia. Since the i2M is not on this list, there is no option to select it.

For some reason I can't paste screenshots in this email. I could before. It would make this easier.

Under Midi in Sonar, there are numerous options for Midi MMC, sync and timecode. None of those are selected. Should they be?
i2M is set as an input device in Midi. Any reason to also select output device?

The clock for the project is set to: audio. Other choices are: midi sync, internal, smpte

Does this help?

--Charley

[james]

Your settings seem similar to mine. The Windows settings shouldn't affect SONAR, but having both set to 48kHz is a good idea. If there is no i2M ASIO option, I assume this is because you haven't installed the ASIO driver... which isn't a problem since you have your Echo Mia.

Playback and record master as Echo Mia is correct, as is setting project clock to audio.

MIDI sync doesn't matter. It lets you synchronise MIDI devices using MIDI messages. If you have not external MIDI gear to synchronise, don't worry about it.

So, you can see the project sample rate change when the i2M is connected? If you change this back to the correct setting does that work?

[charleyrich]

Your settings seem similar to mine. The Windows settings shouldn't affect SONAR, but having both set to 48kHz is a good idea. If there is no i2M ASIO option, I assume this is because you haven't installed the ASIO driver... which isn't a problem since you have your Echo Mia.

Playback and record master as Echo Mia is correct, as is setting project clock to audio.

MIDI sync doesn't matter. It lets you synchronize MIDI devices using MIDI messages. If you have not external MIDI gear to synchronize, don't worry about it.

So, you can see the project sample rate change when the i2M is connected? If you change this back to the correct setting does that work?

This is resolved now. I had to set both my project and the I2M to the same sampling rate. Apparently my project was at a different rate and as soon as I plugged in the i2M the project in Sonar would switch to what the I2M was set for. I recreated the project with both at the same rate and all is good.