Hi. I'm fairly new to using Tidal, so I suspect I might be either doing something wrong, have some issues with my setup or have misread/misunderstood something.
When sending midi from Tidal, I was under the impression that note "0" and note "c3" should be the same. Thus: d1 $ n "c3" # s "midi" # gain 1 # midichan 0 and d1 $ n "0" # s "midi" # gain 1 # midichan 0
should give the same output/result.
However, the result I get is that note "0" produces a C3 while note "c3" produces a C1.
What could be the issue here?
Tidal inherits the Supercollider conventions, such that note 0 == midi note 60. (Search for “octave” here: Pattern Guide 07: Value Conversions | SuperCollider 3.12.2 Help) In some software, midi note 60 is referred to as C5. As a result, in this environment you’ll see those three equated. (Your screenshot on the right, however, appears to be software that associates midi note 60 with C3.)
Thanks a lot for your reply.
Sorry for being a halfwit here, but regardless of software I'd expect that when I use d1 $ n "c3" # "midi" from Tidal I would get a C3 in my midi monitor, Ableton Live or any softsynth and not C1. I felt it somewhat counterintuitive to have to think that "..ahh when I write C3 in Tidal I actually get a C1..to get a C3 i have to write C5"
But after trying things a bit more I see that one can just use c (instead of c3) for a C3.
So it maybe then makes more sense to just use the "basename" for a note (e.g c, d etc),
and then create melodic patterns with 'numeric offsets' something along these lines:
d1 $(|+| n "[12 5]/8") $ n "c a f e" # s "midi" # midichan 0 ..or one of the other million ways of doing things in Tidal
Love playing around with Tidal, but still somewhat confused 
Hopefully I can help quickly clarify what is confusing you: There is no standard meaning of C3, C5, or any other octave.
The only standard value is that midi note 60 is called “middle C,” and it is generally agreed that “middle C” in that definition is the C at the middle of a standard 88-key piano keyboard.
Software is free to number octaves as it wishes. Some software calls midi note 60 C5, some software calls it C3 (at the cost of more often having to use negative octave numbers,) some calls it C4, and so on.
2 Likes
Ah, I c. That was clarifying. I can conclude then that I had a misunderstanding going on
and that my setup probably works as expected.
Thanks a lot for your swift reply.
