Help with Tension.

[karta666]

Although i'm very new to Ableton, i'm not new to music production. I bought Suite 8 to go with my other DAW's.

I've got my head around the basics of the program and i'm enjoing it, but so far there is a problem I haven't been able to solve myself; so maybe an experienced user can help me.

With the Tension instument, even when the pitch bend value in it's perameters is set to +2, the tension limits it to just a semitone when bending notes upwards when key on happens before the bend. Downwards always responds fully to the full range. I've even tried placing the value at 12, and again, it will bend up only +1, but down the full 12. This only happens when note on (striking the key) occurs before the bend. If you bend before striking the key, the bend is full value.

I've noticed some patches bend the full two notes even when key on is first.

I've read the manual top to bottom on the tension, and noticed in the notes in the program (funny how the manual didn't mention it), that bending up is subject to (i can't remember what it said now), randomness or unpredictability?

Well, if other patches bend fully using the tension, then it must be a setting to turn off somewhere, and it's driving me nuts!

My question is WHERE, and how do you override?

Thanks in advance,

Lemniscate

[karta666]

Shameless bump...

Can anyone answer? There must be some experienced Ableton users in here...?

[karta666]

What a shameless bump indeed

Anyway, this is a somewhat rtfm kind of response; but I'm putting a little more effort into it than just that.

In general; pitch bend upwards is unpredictable. "pitch bend is only reliable when bending downward".

I cannot elaborate on the why since I obviously don't know (at the time of writing anyway). What I can explain is how I got to this info..

If a certain parameter confuses you I'd advice you to always start pressing "control ?" (or the arrow at the lower left corner of the screen) which opens up the help view. Then hover the mouse over the parameter and you get a rough description of some of the most important details of said parameter. That's how I got the info above.

As to the black book (electronic verion of the Live manual) I have to agree.. Its very sparse on this. Only one line: "The pitch bend modulation range in semitones is set by the P. Bend slider.".

Well, duh.. We already knew that one

Anyway, that's all I can tell you and in the mean time I'm going to check if a manual update has been released in between.

Haha, I often tell people to RTFM, but when this information isn't in the manual (and I have read it), then hence my need to post here. It must be a combination of parameters, I just haven't found them yet.

Anyone?

[Yasha]

There was a response on the AAS forums concerning pitch bend in String Studio, which is essentially the same instrument:

You can always change the semitones down, but not up. This is the same problem as with the pitch bend. Basically, when changing the pitch in our string model, the termination moves so that the string becomes longer or shorter. While it can always become longer (pitch bend down), it cannot go past the excitator position when becoming shorter; it just wouldn't work with bowed strings, and due to a model limitation, it can't work with the hammer or the plectrum either (I think there's also another reason, but I'm not the right person to explain it...). So the amount of upward pitch bend is limited by the excitator position (in the Geometry section).
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Benoit Charland
Applied Acoustics Systems DVM Inc.