I’m learning things from this conversation as I go, and I never saw any reason to attack anybody. And it’s also possible, that I might need to correct my own definition of what a ‘DAW’ really is.
But at this point, I feel that I should ask two questions, rather than stating an opinion. These questions are based on the fact, that I’ve never actually read the MIDI specification:
I assume that the keyboard’s transmitted controller values are on a logarithmic scale. But one idea which I don’t know the truth of, is whether Western semitones actually produce integer values, spaced by an interval of 1, from the controller. I thought that I had seen somewhere, that people can code a MIDI file to start a note at 450Hz, if one wants, which is not an exact semitone. Is this true? This strikes me as more nearly attainable if the logarithm of the frequency is given in 14-bit resolution, than it would be in7-bit.
But the fact is that I don’t know. I can deduce that with 7-bit values, only the Western semitones would make sensible norms.
Also, while it’s true that I can shift the octaves of my “Oxygen 61”, there is something which I found more remarkable for the moment: The pitch-bend wheel seems to work, even if it’s not being recognized by any software which I happen to be using. Now the Wikipedia tries to explain this, just by suggesting that the pitch-bend wheel is a “special controller”. But even I can see the limitation of the WiKi in this detail.
In order for the pitch-bend wheel to work, even though no additional MIDI controllers are recognized by the software, this would require that the keyboard itself is applying this controller, before it generates its messages to be sent to the synth. Which in turn would say something about the resolution of the messages.
Does most of the software have a hidden MIDI controller input, which I’m not aware of, for the pitch-bend wheel to work in fact, or is it the keyboard applying this pitch-bend wheel, and is the actual controller number for the pitch-bend wheel (labeled C18 on mine) just an additional, potential use for it by the software/synth?
Also: Does the pitch-bend wheel always have the same controller number, from one keyboard to the next, always #18 for the software to listen for?
Dirk