Pitch bend Pitch bend normally allows you to alter the pitch of a note by up to a whole step (tone) up or down, although there are a couple of ways to increase this range – see below. The syntax of pitch bend is ~B0,bend-by, e.g. ~B0,96. messages one after another. The pitch bend does not last for just one note – it remains indefinitely, so you usually put a pitch bend in the opposite direction on the next note to revert to normal pitch. If you want finer control over the pitch bend, you can change the initial byte, also in the range 0– 127, to give very small deviations in temperament (1/128 x 32 half-steps) e.g. ~B127,64 will sharpen the written note by a small amount. To create a pitch bend effect over an interval wider than a whole step (tone), you can either use the portamento control change (see Control changes below) to make a pitch bend, or use the following method: * First, set up the range over which the pitch bend can operate: insert the MIDI messages ~C101,0 C100,0 C6,half-steps in your score, where half-steps is the total range of the pitch bend in half-steps (semitones), from 0-12. For example, to set up pitch bend with a maximum range of an octave, use ~C6,12. (It’s best to put these messages at the start of your score.) * When you want to add a pitch bend to your score, insert a ~B0,bend-by command as usual, except that now you must divide the bend-by parameter into the number of half-steps (semitones) set up with your ~C6 command, e.g. if you entered ~C6,12, each half-step (semitone) adds or subtracts 5.3 (64 divided by 12) to bend-by. So to bend upwards by four half-steps (semitones), you would enter ~B0,85. This method requires that your MIDI device supports standard “Registered Parameter Messages” (RPMs), which is common but not universal. If you intend to use other RPMs in the same score, you should remember to “close” the parameters, by adding ~C101,127 ~C100,127 after the ~C6,half-steps message. Slide A slide is achieved by striking the first note then sliding the same finger up or down to the second note, which is struck if the slide is a shift slide, and not struck if the slide is a legato slide. On both notation staves and tab staves, shift slides are notated as a straight line (as shown on the left). Legato slides are notated as a line together with a slur. If the second note of the slide is higher, the line points upwards; if the second note is lower, the line points downwards. On tab staves, the line is at a fixed angle, but on notation staves, the line is angled according to the position of the notes to which it is attached. To create a slide, input the first note of the slide and click the slide button (, shortcut .) on the second Keypad layout (shortcut F9), then input the second note. You can also input the slide after creating both notes – just select the first of the two notes and click the slide button. To make a legato slide, just add a slur in the normal way Slides are magnetic and position themselves automatically. You can adjust their position by selecting either end and moving the handle with the mouse or the arrow keys. Gliss. and port. lines play back, defaulting to an appropriate kind of glissando for the instrument to which they apply, e.g. passing through chromatic steps for wind instruments, but a continuous slide for strings. If you want to change the way a line plays back, select it and use the Playback panel of the Properties window: * Glissando type provides different kinds of glissando. Normally you can leave this set to Instrument default. * For the Continuous glissando type (a smooth slide), the way the gliss. is played is specified as follows: % Early: plays the gliss. quickest at the start of the line % Late: plays the gliss. quickest towards the end of the line % Linear: plays the gliss. at a constant speed from beginning to end.