Chromatic Random pitch - Or snap to scale?

FMOD Studio
1

Is it possible to randomize pitch that snaps to musical intervals?
Like i would set the pitch random modulation to 5 semitones, but i would like to get 5 discrete musical steps. Even better if i could select a major/minor/pentatonic scale and the pitch randomization would snap to those intervals.

2

Itā€™s possible to do this by automating the pitch property on a parameter such that the property can only have specific fixed values within a range, then randomizing the value of that parameter. By adjusting the automation curve, you can freely customize the values to which the pitch snaps and the probability of each value occurring.

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3

Would be nice to have a ā€œHoldā€ (or ā€˜squareā€™) mode for envelope points for these kind of purposes.

4

A labelled parameter or discrete parameter could be used to get that effect, though it would make it harder to fine-tune the probability of each pitch value.

5

Ok managed to do this by modulating the parameter with a stepepd noise LFO , but this is another instance where a Randomize Value in the Command instrument could make life easy.

6

You may be pleased to know that we plan to add this feature in an upcoming major version of FMOD Studio.

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7

I found this past post useful, and wonder if any more straightforward improvements are planned? Or should I still do @joseph 's workaround?

And can I please have more insight into what happened with ā€œRandomize Value in the Command Instrumentā€?

Background for anyone not familiar with what @Highvoltaged is describing: for musical tonal purposes, itā€™s often more useful to have some quantization with randomization values, and that includes snapping Pitch to a whole semitone so it still might be ā€œin keyā€. This would be highly beneficial for generating variations for procedural music and such, without it being ā€œout of tuneā€.

Even further, if Pitch could be locked to a certain scale (also as described) or relative notes with a direct UI, this might save on some resources and allow us to get more use out of a smaller amount of tonal musical samples, where pitch-changing within a small range doesnā€™t sound too undesirably artifactey.

Within all the rad Pitch controls and modulators in FMOD Studio, it would be nice to just lock those Pitch values to whole ā€œstā€ increments.

(If anyone else cares about something like this, Iā€™m curious to hear from you!)

8

We do plan to add support for quantized pitch randomization (i.e.: being able to lock pitch randomization to semitones) in future.

Yes. As of the time of writing (August of 2022), we have not yet implemented any feature that would simplify or replace the workaround.

This feature was implemented in FMOD Studio version 2.02.00.

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