Pitch Bar

Ron-Coutts wrote on 12/29/2019, 9:24 AM

Hi, I'm experiencing issues with the pitch bar - the grey bar along the top that indicates the chord the loop is being played in.

I'm using Music Maker 2020 Plus/Premium (version 28.0.2.47) on Windows10.

The problem I'm having is the pitch bar "chord" i.e. C / D /Em / F etc. etc. is constantly changing and not reflecting the value of the loop that I have dragged into the "Arranger" panel i.e. 1 = C / 2 = D / 3 = Em etc. I understand that if I drag in a loop that is (for arguments sake) 4 bars long in *C* but only want to use 2 bars, the excess 2 bars will extend past the point where the *C* chord will play and over-lap an existing *G* chord (for example), and this will cause the pitch bar at the top to show as C/G. but when I trim the loop back to the required 2 bars it has a habit of creating all sorts of confusion (for want of a better word) with the pitch bar ... often throwing all the surrounding chords in the pitch bar into disarray.

I have on numerous occasions, painstakingly re-set the pitch bar to ensure the chords along the top are correct and accurate in reference to the loops in the arranger (and saving constantly as I go), only to introduce a new soundpool loop into the arrangement and find that the pitch bar is shot to pieces again - it's driving me nuts!! Is there any way to lock the pitch bar once the arrangement has been set? For example, I like to set out a whole song structure using an acoustic guitar soundpool - C / Am / F / G / C / Am / F / G and so on, and use that pitch bar as a reference when adding additional soundpools/loops. But I can't do that if the pitch bar keeps changing. It means I have to zoom in on the Arranger so I can see the loop name and number/chord.

Refer the attached screen grab ... I spent close to an hour ensuring that the pitch bar and loops were identical on the entire arrangement, only to discover after adding an additional instrument that they no longer matched. I'm careful not to 'overlap' the ends/beginnings of loops as I know that confuses the pitch bar, but there's nothing I can do when a loop is longer in bar length than I need to use.

Is there a solution to this or is it one of those 'live with it' situations? I sure would appreciate any feedback/options

Comments

Ron-Coutts wrote on 1/12/2020, 7:32 PM

Hey Guys, not sure if my outline was too confusing or if nobody else is having this issue ... can anyone throw a little light on the topic?

Former user wrote on 4/14/2020, 8:03 PM

I also hope that someone with more knowledge will comment on the situation you have described here. I have found the pitch bar to be confusing at times and am working on sorting out how it behaves. The goal of just specifying a chord progression and having it hold in place while different ideas are tried is one of mine also; I too am not sure if this is done easily. Appreciate your comments on this, CEC

browj2 wrote on 4/14/2020, 10:07 PM

@Former user

Hi,

I just looked quickly and everything looks correct in your image. The Soundpools come with a pitch or scale. It looks like you have MovieScore Vol. 12, which is in the key of Am. So:

[HarmonyTable]
Scale=a

Sample1=a
Sample2=B
Sample3=C
Sample4=d
Sample5=e
Sample6=F
Sample7=G

When you select a loop with 1 set, you get Am or a, etc.

John CB