Pitch bend sounds incorrectly when export to MIDI

• May 11, 2021 - 17:01
Reported version
3.6
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S3 - Major
Reproducibility
Always
Status
closed
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project

I applied a pitch bend raised 6 semitones to a note using the bend tool, and export it to an MIDI file. The result is a single semitone bend, since the default value of pitch bend sensitivity in normal software implementation is 2 semitones, but in MuseScore it's 12 semitones. (Ref.: https://musescore.org/en/node/297926)

It is confirmed that by manually adding the control change events CC 101 (0x65) = 0, CC 100 (0x64) = 0 and CC 6 = 12 to the MIDI file, it works perfectly in all software and devices.


Comments

The problem also occurs with the website as well.

Song example : https://musescore.com/trevorscores/crab_rave (Synth part at bar #12 at 21")

Please add the proper RPN events for each of the 16 channels to set the pitch bend range to 12 at the beginning of the MIDI file (after the 0x79 "Reset All Controllers" events) :
Bx 65 00 // Controller/chan x, RPN coarse (101), Pitch Bend Range
Bx 64 00 // Controller/chan x, RPN fine (100), Pitch Bend Range
Bx 06 0C // Controller/chan x, Data Entry coarse, +/- 12 semitones
Bx 26 00 // Controller/chan x, Data Entry fine, +/- 0 cents

RPN specs: http://midi.teragonaudio.com/tech/midispec/rpn.htm

Hopefully, this shouldn't be too difficult to implement.

Workaround No Yes

So (at least locally) there's a workaround, by setting Edit > Preferences > Export > MIDI > Export RPNs

But what do you mean by I'm not using the app?

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

I'm using the website only.

I mostly search for songs on the website (ie https://musescore.com/trevorscores/crab_rave ) then I click the Download button then MIDI.

IMO, the Export RPNs option should be set to true by default in the app (so it can still be unchecked if this causes issues for some users as explained in the code) and always set to true for MIDI export from the website.

Attachment Size
Screenshot from 2022-02-11 11-11-23.png 250.55 KB

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Workaround Yes No

The issue still occurs on the website today (2023-01-31)
Example with this song : https://musescore.com/user/2636861/scores/5361474
The pitch bend effect on the Halo pad track at 0:22 should cover a whole octave but only covers 2 semitones.
It renders well with the website player but is still wrong on a MIDI sequencer.

Workaround No Yes

The fix is not yet released, so not yet on the website either. And even if it were, it'd affect only newly uploaded scores, as the MIDI export is done at upload time

Download the score, open in MuseScore, set the export RPNs option, export to MIDI

Fix version
4.1.0