How to create automation track for pitch bend

Hello.

I wonder if there is any ways to create automation track for pitch bend(pitch wheel).

Pitch bend control is recorded on the controller bar in piano roll window.
But it is hard to control or draw it on the controller bar and controlling automation on the automation track is easier.

Please give me some help.
Is there any way to create automation track for pitch bend?

JunL

Look in the operation manual p.299 “Midi Controller Automation”. That should get it.
Actually, it’s nice to know it can be done… bookmarked for future reference.

yeah, but it’s not possible for the pitchbend parameter, only for CC’s (ie. it’s not available for only the most common and useful parameter…).

you can write a transformer (midi plugin) patch that will convert and arbitrary MIDI CC # into pitchbend data in realtime, and then write project automation lane for that selected CC, but it’s not working great especially when looping a section (it doesn’t ‘chase’ so you need to input extra automation events everywhere so the correct data is always being sent out to the VSTi you’re controlling).

see automation lane for pitch bend ? - Cubase - Steinberg Forums

Thanks for the link, that explains a lot. And I’d have bet a paycheck that pitch bend was actually a CC.

Thanks for the reply :slight_smile:
I hope that Stainberg releases Cubase update including this feature (pitch bend control with automation track instead of controller lane in piano roll window).

Just FYI, CCs have a range of values from 0 to 127. Pitch bend has 16K discreet values (or maybe it’s 32K - whatever, it’s a whole lot finer grained than CC data).

Yeah, been requesting updates to the midi for years, and pitch bend automation is one of the most important ones.

I use the CC and transformer route sometimes. I also use the Track Control plugin with a special script to control the MSB of the pitch bend message. I then automate that.

But what we really want is to be able to record pitch-bend then turn it into automation like all the other CCs, and tidy it up…

Mike.

i wonder if you could you elaborate on this one please.

Certainly :slight_smile:

Here’s my PitchBend.txt file. You can put this in %APPDATA%\Steinberg\Cubase 7.5_64\Scripts\Trackmixer and then add a Track Control plugin and it should be in the selector at the top, called Pitch. If all’s working then you get two controls, Bend and Touch. You can then go and control these two values with an automation lane.

The Touch value works at full resolution of 0-127 but the Bend only works on the MSB value 0=127 so it’s quite coarse. Adequate for 1 tone bends but maybe not slow bends or large tonal bends (well, try it and see how it works!).
PitchBend.zip (663 Bytes)
Mike.

Hi,

thank you for that. Is there a documentation about track control scripts out somewhere?

Cheers, Ernst

Thank you from my behalf as well

Can you name a example for a Track Control plugin?

I thought I know Cubase 10 out of 10 and yet I have no idea what are you talking about here ))) Where did you learn about it and what the heck is Trackmixer and Track Control plugin???)

Anyway, it’s 2020, Cubase 10.5 out there and yet there are still no easy way for pitch automation :laughing:

LOL, my file dates from 2009! I expect I stumbled across it largely by accident and repurposed it… So, the Track Control plugin is a MIDI plugin which makes faders send midi values. It is programmed by scripts placed in the TrackMixer folder. Steinberg provide default scripts which control various General MIDI functions (e.g. reverb send), but also give enough info to understand how to create your own script - there’s no manual! The important thing is that you can automate the faders and I realised that I could write a script to control pitch bend and aftertouch and therefore automate those too. At the time I really needed smooth lines and easy node editing to compose and edit quickly. Way better than drawing in the MIDI Editor controller lanes! I was also using it to automate Juno106 filter/resonance sweeps which can only be controlled via SYSEX MIDI messages.

I dug it out just now and it all still works in the latest Cubase although the plugin looks a bit different.

But it’d be great to have native automation of course, 6 years since this thread started and 11 years since I started using this plugin :slight_smile:

Mike.

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Anyway, it’s 2020, Cubase 10.5 out there and yet there are still no easy way for pitch automation :laughing:
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We should really push this request to the top :exclamation: