Pitch Bending using a MIDI controller and FL STUDIO

1. Pitch Bending using a MIDI controller and FL STUDIO

2. Ronald Jenkees

3. Use Pitch Bend to create a “glissando” of “fall-off” effect much like a trombone or a string instrument like violin or guitar. • Many synthesizers have either a pitch bend wheel or a joystick. • All the keyboards in the lab use a 2 wheel system with pitch bend and modulation wheels. • We will discuss the modulation wheel in a future lesson.

4. Using the Pitch Bend wheel • Place your thumb on the middle of the wheel. There will be an indent on the wheel. • Anchor the base or your hand comfortably below the wheel. You may need to allow your hand to ‘travel’ up or down to execute the full range of the wheel.

5. Bending up Strike and hold (sustain) the starting key while the wheel is at the center or ‘zero’ position. Now move the wheel up (+) towards the top of the keyboard. Bending down Strike and hold (sustain) the starting key while the wheel is at the center or ‘zero’ position. Now move the wheel down (-) towards the bottom of the keyboard. Pitch Bending

6. You can also start at the + position and pull the wheel to the zero position for a bend down effect. • You could start at the – position and push the wheel return to the zero position to get a bend up effect. • Experiment with all four types of bending to get used to the technique. • When releasing a note while playing with pitch bend, it is important to lift the key first before releasing the pitch bend wheel. • Otherwise, you will get a fall-off or gliss sound; which itself is a useful technique.

7. Calibrating Pitch Bend in FL STUDIO • Open a new file in FL STUDIO • Right-click on any channel in the Channel Window and highlight Replace, then choose FL-Keys.

8. After choosing FL-KEYS, a window will appear. • Right-click again on the KEYS channel and the Channel Settings window will appear.

9. Open the Pitch Bend Worksheet in the Public folder in the Homework drive. • Practice the first four exercises without using the pitch bend wheel, you need to get the correct sound into your ears before you use the wheel. • Identify where the ½ steps (1 semi-tone) and whole-steps (2 semi-tones) are in each exercise. • To execute an accurate ½ step bend, you will move the wheel half of the travel from the zero position.

10. We will set the pitch calibration using the pitch window next to the pitch knob at the top of the window. • The default is 2 semitones (half-steps) but you can change it to as high as 48, the equivalent of 4 octaves.

11. After you can play the first 4 exercises we will change the pitch range in FL-KEYS. • Place the mouse over the window, click and drag up to increase the number from 2 to 3. • Practice the Harmonic Minor and Blues scale lines without the wheel first, then, use the wheel to play each line.

12. Now change the pitch range to 4 semi-tones. • Practice Mary Had A Little Lamb without the pitch wheel. • Once you are comfortable the song, use the pitch bend wheel to play the entire song while only using the E key.