Pitches of Soundloops?

drgnsprt wrote on 11/29/2018, 1:57 AM

Hi all,

Downloaded MM19 and have two problems with soundloop pitches. I think someone posted earlier to say that pitch 1-2-3.. etc are keys of C, D, E etc. If all soundloops are made in the same key, why confuse the bejeezus out of everyone and label them 1-2-3? Even if the pitches are different, can't those buttons change automatically to show correct soudloop pitches? Shouldn't be a big issue as far as I can see, since the proper pitch is displayed in object properties anyway.

Secondly, is there an easy way of changing soundloop pitch to something other than the standard key? Say I want a C flat, what do I do?

There's a greyed out button at the top of the arranger window that says Pitches with a drop down arrow... when does this get activated, if ever?

Finally, what do you do if a loop is longer than you need? For example, i have a bar of A minor followed by a bar of C, i have a guitar loop that fits perfectly, but the piano section is a bar and a half long. Cutting it doesnt work in most cases.

Thanks!

Oh and if the devs read this at all... why not make an editable time bar where you can arrange your keys the way you want them, and then throw in loops and have them automatically arranged in the keys you defined? This would make creating a new song so much easier and faster!

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 11/29/2018, 4:25 AM

Hi, welcome to the Magix forums.

Say I want a C flat, what do I do?

That's quite easy, since Western Music uses Equal Temperament tuning: Cb = B.

Finally, what do you do if a loop is longer than you need? For example, i have a bar of A minor followed by a bar of C, i have a guitar loop that fits perfectly, but the piano section is a bar and a half long. Cutting it doesnt work in most cases

Cutting works for me! Can you give us more details about which loops(s) can't be cut? How, exactly, are you making the cut and are you then deleting the unwanted part from the timeline?

I'm not by any means an expert in MM so I will leave others to hopefully more fully answer your other questions.

Jeff

drgnsprt wrote on 11/29/2018, 8:50 AM

Hi Jeff, thanks for your input!

Re. keys: ok, so the C flat to B was a bad example, lol. What if I want a C minor or a C7? :)

For me cutting a loop to the needed bar length usually results in a skipping sound when the tape moves to the next bar. Otherwise, at bar end it stops in midair and the next bar starts with a different pattern. Not sure if I'm explaining this correctly... its more evident when you have a long bar with a sustained sound, say a decaying bass.

emmrecs wrote on 11/29/2018, 9:17 AM

What if I want a C minor or a C7?

Changing the modality of a loop (e.g. C major to C minor) is a rather different proposition to simply changing the key! This thread has some information on possible methods of achieving this.

You ask about C7, but that is a chord/harmony so really a completely different question! If you are asking about how to change the harmonic content of a loop, the thread I referred to above is, again, at least one method of doing this.

Yes, cutting a loop may very well produce a "glitch" as the new "end" doesn't match the old beginning. Have you tried removing a section from the middle of the original loop? This is incredibly difficult, not least to match the sounds immediately before and after the cut, especially when, as in your example, a decaying sound is involved, but can be done, with care and almost infinite patience!

OTOH, have you tried simply "shortening" the existing loop by dragging left on the right hand edge of the object on the timeline? The object then becomes visually shorter and, in my experience, it is possible to "join" this new object to either itself (ctrl+drag) or another loop. (I've just checked/tested this with a perc. loop in MM and it worked perfectly!)

Jeff

browj2 wrote on 11/29/2018, 9:22 AM

Hi,

Soundpools are not all in the key of C. Most are, but some, like Score and Movie Score are in Am.

The filenames of the loops that have a pitch built-in are labelled as name 1.ogg (or .wav) through name 7. Thus, MM reads them in and associates them with the pitch numbers 1 through 7. As you saw, you can turn on the column to see the pitch that is built into the loop. If there was no pitch built into the loop, then MusicMaker would not know what to do with it. You can create your own loops, use the same numbering system, and they should show up correctly, even if there is no pitch assigned within the file information. I agree that it would be nice to see the pitch rather than a number, but I expect that this is a programming problem. The loops would have to be read and somehow sorted using the information contained in the loop, if any, whereas reading the number that is in the filename is easy. You can raise a ticket with Magix and ask them if you want.

For Soundpools and changing the pitch, etc., there are 2 sources:

1. The manual. Press on F1, click on search and type in Pitch, enter. The second one should be Pitch bar; double-click on it. Read. The pitch is shown at the top as soon as you put a loop that has a pitch on the Arranger. Drums and percussion have no pitch.

2. Watch my tutorial:

For loops, you can drag the left or right side out to extend them. Since they are loops and MusicMaker knows that, they repeat. This is one of the very first basic things to know. I suggest that you read the Quick Start part of the manual and watch the tutorials on the Magix.com web site.

When you drag the end of a loop, it will either be free to stop anywhere, or if you have the magnet in the top toolbar lit, it will snap magnetically to whatever quantization value that you have selected under the magnet.

Pitches - if you cannot access the pitches dropdown in the Arranger header, top, left side, then you probably have the free version and this feature is probably not available.

On a loop that is on the Arranger, there is a dropdown button at the bottom right of the loop that allows you to do many things, like change the pitch.

The image below shows the dropdown to change the pitch once a loop is in the Arranger.

It would be nice to be able to easily predefine the pitches oneself in the header. Put in a request to Magix. However, there is a way to do it. In the pitches dropdown at the top left, are presets called: Be; Blue; Cherry... When you select one, the pitch bar is automatically filled in, as shown below:

These preset song pitches are all under:

C:\ProgramData\MAGIX\Music Maker\27\HarmonyPresets

They are all xml files that you can open:

As you can see, they have various parts. Try copying one and saving it with a new name, then edit it. Change the name in the xml file to your new name. Open MM and click on the Pitch popdown and it will be there. So, you can modify the file as you wish. This way, your work is not lost and you can use it over and over.

John CB