Calculating Pitch/Intonation from Fret ???

[BuddhaMaster]

Hi everyone *welcomes myself to the forums*

Well, i'am mixing for a while. But now i found some tabs from various Guitar & Bass-lines.

I want to transpose them in my sequencer ( i dont own a real guitar or anything but i got some knowledge..)

Every guitar/Bass or most string-instruments, have the 'Frets' - the guitar player holds them (whatever it is called) to give a note a slight intonation.. as i know: Usually a guitar has 24 Frets ? every Fret tunes the note a slightly higher.

The first Fret is the widest (in lenght) and they get ascending smaller..

Now i wanted to know:How big is the pitch-difference of one Fret, in cents ?

I believe every guitar sounds a little different but there must be some "standart" arround. Or the guitar would sound totally out of tune! Now, i searched for this all arround in the net and i'am not able to find anything about that.

Only stuff about fret-positions, intonation calculated in Hz etc..

But how big is the intonation that one fret gives to the tone, measured in CENTS ?????? c'mon guys - there must be some info about this.

my goal is to transpose all the notes at the exact pitch from a Guitar or Bass Tab according to the Fret-positions. How the hell do you guys do that ? i'am 10000% sure that's possible and well known to a every digital musician ..i can't believe i'am the really first guy that wonders about it

Edit: Well it is that simple: I got a guitar soundfont (all notes are 'fretless'), a sequencer and a nice guitar-tab. Now i want to transpose all the notes in the correct tone-height, including the intonation of the fret-positions but with a soundfont that only contains 'fretless' samples. How do i do that ? How does anybody out-there do that ?

only thing i got so far: The 12th fret gives the difference of a half half-tone. So the 24th Fret should give the difference of a whole half-tone ..is that true ? i think not ...elsewhere i read something like: one Fret has to be about 2 cents difference ..the 12th fret 16 cents and so on.. but i really have no idea !

Oh and here's the desired Tab http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/c/cypress_hill/cock_the_hammer_btab.htm

It is a really simple thing: The intro repeats 4x and then theres the same repeating all over the song. Where do i need to place the notes inside a Piano-Roll and how much pitch changing do i need to apply, to get the notes correct ?

[tgfoo]

Welcome.

only thing i got so far: The 12th fret gives the difference of a half half-tone. So the 24th Fret should give the difference of a whole half-tone ..is that true ? i think not ...elsewhere i read something like: one Fret has to be about 2 cents difference ..the 12th fret 16 cents and so on.. but i really have no idea !

Where'd you find this at? Each fret on a guitar (or bass) increases the pitch by a half step, thus the 12th fret is an octave higher than an open string. For example, on the low E string, open is an E, 1st fret is an F, 2nd fret is a F#/Gb and so on.

The fact that your soundfont says "fretless" just means that it's a fretless guitar, it doesn't affect the programing of the notes into your sequencer but a fretless guitar or bass has a different sound that a fretted one.

[zircon]

Hmm, the samples I have of fretless basses tend to be more mellow than normal electric basses (even fingered ones). There is of course the infamous "Fretless" on the Korg M1 that is fairly unique. But I have no idea what the deal is there.

[BuddhaMaster]

Omg, you trying to say me: One fret just changes the base-note a half-tone upwards ? That even sounds very logical to me

I didnt know, its that easy!

The 12th fret raises it by a whole octave ! wow, thats alot. That also means: one string can reach lower/higher sounds as another string? This is a big help

I got a huge load of different soundfonts, they are basically all sampled with 'open strings' (or at a specific 'fret-level') but at least it seems common to me.

So i just use a soundfont that contains the samples at fret-level '0' ..and then transpose the note a +50cents upward for one fret ? Thats almost as simple as playing piano and also lets me think: All the scales out there are just used for that same reason: a piano has only # notes (black-keys) between some specific keys ..and all instruments are the same - in 'theory'

well, i think its a question of the 'harmony' and 'accoustic'

at least thanks for now. I will try how my results will be with this new knowledge

[suzumebachi]

No offense, but you should probably learn the very basic fundamentals of music before you go off trying to do... whatever it is you're trying to do.

First, some terms you should know

Pitch - the frequency of a note. basically how "high" or "low" the note is. pitch is measured in frequency, but is usually refered to by note (ie 440hz is A above middle C)

Interval - an interval is the distance between two notes, usually measured in semitones, but can also be measured in cents.

Semitone - a semitone, sometimes called a "half step," is the smallest interval between two notes (in western music). it is a difference of 100 cents, the same as one key upward on a piano, or one fret on a guitar. for example, C to C#, or E to F.

Octave - an octave is an interval of 12 semitones (1200 cents), a repetition of the original note at double frequency. for example, C5 to C6.

All you really need to know, is that one fret is the same as one key on a keyboard, one semitone, or one half-step in notation.

The six strings on a guitar are tuned at six different pitches. In standard E tuning, the strings are as follows (in order from highest to lowest in pitch): E6, B, G, D, A, E4. Note that the highest and the lowest strings are both E, but two octaves (24 semitones) apart. Knowing this, it's a relatively simple manner to interpret tablature as notes.

Here is a chord as played on guitar shown in tablature:

e|-0
B|-1
G|-0
D|-2
A|-3
E|-0

Now, knowing that each fret is one semitone, we can figure out which notes are actually being played.

E + 0 = E

B + 1 = C

G + 0 = G

D + 2 = E

A + 3 = C

E + 0 = E

So, ECEGCE. An inversion of the chord C Major. (Drop the redundant notes and we have the triplet C E G). See what we did there?

Another quick and easy example:

e|-5  (e + 5 = A)
B|-7  (B + 7 = F#)
G|-6  (G + 6 = C#)
D|-0  (D + 0 = D)
A|-x
E|-x

So we have D, F#, A, C#, or D Major 7. It's a pretty simple process. You don't even have to know the names of the chords if all you're doing is changing tablature to notation. However it wouldn't hurt to learn them.

...man I feel like a teacher or something.

OK now, to deal with this "Cock the Hammer" song. Standard bass tuning is G, D, A, E, or basically the same as the lower four strings of a guitar. However the tablature notes that in this case, the bass is tuned 2 and 1/2 steps, or 5 semitones down. This puts it at B, A, D, E. Knowing this, we can begin the process of transposition. I'll do the first couple of phrases for you, but you're on your own for the rest.

B|----------------|----------------|
A|--------6-5-----|------6-5-*-*---|
D|8-5-7-8-------88|--5-7---------88|
E|----------------|0---------------|
  A#  A   D#    A# E   A   D     A#
    G   A#  D    A#  G   D#       A#

It ain't pretty, but it's there.

Hopefully this helps.

[po!]

Hmm, the samples I have of fretless basses tend to be more mellow than normal electric basses (even fingered ones). There is of course the infamous "Fretless" on the Korg M1 that is fairly unique. But I have no idea what the deal is there.

they typical fretless sound is more nasal and mellower, and has an attack referred to as "mwah" (cuz thats what it kinda sounds like) caused by the string hitting the fretboard

listen to fretless bass by the greatest ever, Jaco Pastorius

http://www.amazon.com/Jaco-Pastorius/dp/B00004VWA7/sr=8-1/qid=1170125342/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2561206-8274416?ie=UTF8&s=music

u can really hear the MWAH on Continuum

[Jagori]

<snip>

OK now, to deal with this "Cock the Hammer" song. Standard bass tuning is G, D, A, E, or basically the same as the lower four strings of a guitar. However the tablature notes that in this case, the bass is tuned 2 and 1/2 steps, or 5 semitones down. This puts it at B, A, D, E.

Nice post. You swapped a couple strings at the end, though. A bass tuned down 5 semitones would be, high to low, D, A, E, B.

D|----------------|----------------|
A|--------6-5-----|------6-5-*-*---|
E|8-5-7-8-------88|--5-7---------88|
B|----------------|0---------------|
  C   B   D#    C  B   B   D     C
    A   C   D    C   A   D#       C