Daqarta
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
Scope - Spectrum - Spectrogram - Signal Generator
Software for Windows
Science with your Sound Card!
The following is from the Daqarta Help system:

Features:

Oscilloscope

Spectrum Analyzer

8-Channel
Signal Generator

(Absolutely FREE!)

Spectrogram

Pitch Tracker

Pitch-to-MIDI

DaqMusiq Generator
(Free Music... Forever!)

Engine Simulator

LCR Meter

Remote Operation

DC Measurements

True RMS Voltmeter

Sound Level Meter

Frequency Counter
    Period
    Event
    Spectral Event

    Temperature
    Pressure
    MHz Frequencies

Data Logger

Waveform Averager

Histogram

Post-Stimulus Time
Histogram (PSTH)

THD Meter

IMD Meter

Precision Phase Meter

Pulse Meter

Macro System

Multi-Trace Arrays

Trigger Controls

Auto-Calibration

Spectral Peak Track

Spectrum Limit Testing

Direct-to-Disk Recording

Accessibility

Applications:

Frequency response

Distortion measurement

Speech and music

Microphone calibration

Loudspeaker test

Auditory phenomena

Musical instrument tuning

Animal sound

Evoked potentials

Rotating machinery

Automotive

Product test

Contact us about
your application!

Pitch Display

Controls: Sgram/PT Dialog >> Show
Macro: PitchShow

This button controls the way Pitch Track information is shown on the main display. It defaults to 'Show Tracked Pitch' but can be toggled to 'Show MIDI Note / Vel', 'Show MIDI Note / Inst', 'Show MIDI Note / Voice', or 'Show MIDI Note / Level' by repeated clicks.

In all cases, the Pitch Track display background is a series of white (actually gray) and black horizontal bars that represent the "musical space" of the white and black keys of a piano or synthesizer keyboard. (These key colors are adjustable, such as to show more-prominent white keys.)

The pitch of a tracked input or MIDI output note is shown as a colored dot or horizontal line at the corresponding note height, on the proper key bar. Tracked pitch will be shown at its actual pitch position if off-key, when the Pitch Steps button is toggled off.

Unpitched MIDI Percussion events are shown as thin vertical lines. The Percussion dialog allows you to select up to 6 Percussion instruments, which could all be struck at the same time. Each is shown as a line taking one-sixth of the display height, from instrument A at the top to F at the bottom.

Both tonal notes and unpitched percussion events are shown at their proper times. If Note Lag or Percussion Lag is used on any instrument, the note horizontal line start or the percussion vertical line position will be displaced accordingly.

Tonal notes are shown with a length equal to the full duration of the MIDI note, which may be much longer than the apparent sound duration for plucked or struck instruments. Consider playing a piano note on a keyboard: The displayed note line would last as long as the key is held, even though the sound starts dying away almost immediately.


Show Tracked Pitch:

This mode shows the pitch extracted from the signal, which may be the Input, the Generator output, or the DaqMusiq random source. The color is related to loudness using the same palette and color scale as the normal color spectrogram. This display mode is always used when Pitch-to-MIDI is off, regardless of the setting of the Pitch Display button.

When Pitch-to-MIDI is active, 'Show Tracked Pitch' shows the input to the Pitch-to-MIDI converter, which is always a single note at a time.


Show MIDI Note / Vel:

By contrast, 'Show MIDI Note / Vel' shows the MIDI output you hear, which may include multiple notes at the same time. The notes are shown on the proper key bars, and their colors are related to key "velocity". That's controlled by the character specified in the Velocity Pattern, if any. If no pattern is supplied, each note defaults to an effective pattern character of '8', which is maximum velocity (MIDI velocity = 127).

The color scale at the right edge of the main display area changes from 'dB' to 'Vel', running from 255 at the top down to 0 at the bottom. Unlike the default dB scale, this doesn't respond to PgUp/PgDn magnification changes.

If Voice Velocity Track is active for a given voice, the velocity (and hence the loudness and Pitch Display color) are scaled proportional to the current Pitch Track amplitude.

Since multiple MIDI notes may play at the same time, it's possible for two or more to fall on the same key bar. In this case their velocity values are added together for display, and the total velocity for that note is shown. The display total is limited to 255, the top color on the color bar.

Non-tonal Percussion vertical lines are shown with a similar color scheme. The velocity color is scaled both by the Percussion Velocity Pattern, and also by the value of the Velocity control in the Percussion dialog. The maximum velocity color (red, with the default palette) corresponds to '8' in the pattern with the control set to maximum (127).

Unlike tonal notes, simultaneous Percussion hits don't interact with each other since each of the 6 percussion instruments has its own segment of the vertical line.


Show MIDI Note / Inst:

In 'Show MIDI Note / Inst' mode the notes are shown in their proper positions as above, but their colors are derived from the MIDI Instrument number. MIDI Instrument 0 (Acoustic Grand Piano) is shown in the top color (red, using the default palette), with higher Instrument numbers going down the color palette. (Instruments above 118 are sound effects that aren't commonly used, so they were assigned to fall on the darker colors at the bottom of the palette.)

Velocity is ignored in the Instrument display mode. If two or more instruments play the same note, the instrument color of the lower-numbered voice is shown.

The color scale at the right edge of the main display area is labeled 'Inst', with 0 at the top and descending in steps of 16. Like 'Vel', it doesn't respond to PgUp/PgDn magnification changes.

In the Pitch-to-MIDI dialog, the instrument colors for each voice are shown on small color windows next to each Voice Setup button. When the instrument for any voice changes, either due to a manual control change or Changes script operation, the corresponding color window changes to match.

The label over the top of the column of color windows is 'Inst' to remind you what the colors mean. (The labels for the previous two modes are 'Trk' and 'Vel', but no colors were shown because the main display colors are not voice-specific.)

Non-tonal Percussion vertical lines use the same color scheme, but with a different set of MIDI Instrument numbers. The Microsoft GS Wavetable synthesizer included in Windows only uses 27-87, but you may use a synthesizer with a larger range... or smaller, since the "standard" set is only 35-81. Of course, a reduced number range thus means a reduced color range, making different instruments harder to distinguish based on color.

Simultaneous Percussion hits never overwrite each other since each of the 6 percussion instruments uses its own vertical line segment.


Show MIDI Note / Voice:

In this mode each note is shown with a color indicating which voice is playing it, and the color windows in the Pitch-to-MIDI dialog are shown with a fixed color for each voice. The color window column is labeled 'Vox' (since 'Voice' won't fit). Voice 1 is at the top of the dialog, and likewise is shown with the top color in the palette... red, with the default color palette. Higher-numbered voices are shown lower on the dialog, and use correspondingly lower palette colors:

    Voice 1     Red
    Voice 2     Orange
    Voice 3     Yellow
    Voice 4     Green
    Voice 5     Cyan
    Voice 6     Blue
    Voice 7     Violet
    Voice 8     Magenta

If two or more voices play the same note, the lower-numbered voice color is shown.

The color scale at the right edge of the main display area reverts to 'dB' and responds to PgUp/PgDn magnification changes.

Non-tonal Percussion instruments use the same color scale, but since there are only 6 instruments (A-F) that can be active at a time, only the first 6 colors are used (red through blue).


Show MIDI Note / Level:

In this mode the note color is related to the Level (volume) setting for each voice, as shown in the Pitch-to-MIDI color window column (now labeled 'Lev').

Higher levels correspond to higher palette colors. If two or more voices play the same note, the main display shows the sum of their Level values.

The color scale at the right edge of the main display area is labeled 'Level', running from 255 at the top down to 0 at the bottom just like 'Vel', and likewise doesn't respond to PgUp/PgDn magnification changes.

Non-tonal Percussion instruments use the same scale in this mode, but since they don't have independent Level controls for each instrument the Velocity control values are shown instead. These serve the same function as the tonal Level controls to set the relative loudness between instruments. The actual loudness of each Percussion instrument is further affected by its Velocity Pattern value, with '8' giving the maximum loudness specified by the Velocity control.


Macro Notes:

PitchShow=0 sets 'Show Tracked Pitch'.

PitchShow=1 sets 'Show MIDI Note / Vel'.

PitchShow=2 sets 'Show MIDI Note / Inst'.

PitchShow=3 sets 'Show MIDI Note / Voice'.

PitchShow=4 sets 'Show MIDI Note / Level'.


See also Pitch Track Toolbox - Overview, Spectrogram / Pitch Track Controls, Spectrogram / Pitch Track (Sgram/PT)


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