I note internet discussions where other vsti or other keyboards are not calling middle c c3. Playing middle c on my digital piano and then playing c3 on a kontakt grand piano puts out the same pitch. IIRC in terms of actual musical pitch, the low E on a guitar is on one ledger line below the bass clef. Hence the phrase 'double bass', as it was doubling the cello.

In older orchestral music, the bass simply played what the cello played, only an octave lower. But since my system works within itself, I see no reason to change things.Īlso, it is customary for contemporary music scoring to write the guitar and bass parts an octave higher then they play-otherwise the sheet music for a bass part would consist of dozens of ledger lines below the bass clef. Its a little frustrating that cubase may not be following the standard, as I have memorized the octave numbers based on what cubase is calling them. Also, midi keyboards often have an octave up or down switch. Neither the keyboard nor the vsti cares about what we use as octave numbers, and they are working with numerical midi values.)Ĭurious myself if cubase has a global setting regarding this octave numbering.

The octave number is simply a labeling that cubase puts on note numbers-apparently in a commonly used, but not always used, octave naming standard of note 60 being middle c. The keyboard emits that, and kontakt plays that. (Writing this has taught me a lot on the subject, and I think the important thing to keep in my mind is that middle C is midi note 60-to my knowledge the same audible pitch for standard devices. If one does not have an 88 key keyboard, for instance like my two octave mini keyboard, the concept of middle c seems a bit arbitrary-but these keyboards tend to have a c key in the physical middle, so it might as well emit note 60 until one starts changing the octave up/down value. Nice thing about standards-there are so many of them. Strikes me as a surprising amount of confusion on the internet about this, but many daws and keyboards consider middle c to be c3, but there is an official standard that calls it c4. The piano emits numerical midi data so it has no conception of octave numbering. Midi ox reports that middle c on my yamaha digital piano emits note 60-so that tracks. I cannot find anything showing that the midi standard defines octave numbers for note letters. Online shows that the official midi implementation has note 60 being middle C. Apparently some official standards call middle c c4. With cubase 9.5, middle c records midi note 60 decimal or hex x'3c' as C3 in terms of octave naming.

Piano and midi note number