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Parameter Types

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Jeremy Bernstein edited this page Sep 9, 2024 · 2 revisions

Parameter Types

  • position

    A time value representing a position. Time values may be in one of the following formats:

    • measures.beats.fraction(.subfrac): like 1.3.50 or 1.3.50.5. The former means measure 1, beat 3, 50% of the way through. This is REAPER's default, parts-per-quarter-note (PPQ)-agnostic way of telling time. Because REAPER supports MIDI items with different PPQs, this is a unified means of referring to time for the kind of stuff that the Transformer is doing. If you really want to directly specify absolute ticks, though, see the next entry, below.

      The subfrac term is not supported by REAPER's time entry code, but it's an additional x10 resolution if you need it. So where 1.3.10 would indicate 10% of a beat after beat 3 in measure 1, 1.3.01.1 would indicate 1.1% of a beat. If you need it, you have it.

    • measures.beats.tickst : like 1.3.480t or 4.2.240t. See the t at the end, right next to the number without a space in between? That's the only thing which makes this different from the version above, so don't forget it. Here's the rub: REAPER, god bless its little heart, supports multiple PPQs in a single project. So 1 tick might not mean what you think it means if you have items at PPQ=960 as well as items at PPQ=96000. Most of the time, if you do all of your recording inside of REAPER, and aren't importing MIDI files from questionable sources, you'll have a PPQ of 960 (REAPER's default, Cubase's default, Logic's default, Live's default, you get the idea...), and ticks will be a safe time mode to use. But sometimes it won't be (Digital Performer's default PPQ is 480, for instance), so use it responsibly.

    • minutes:seconds.fraction: like 0:30.500. This is a normal REAPER-supported clock-time format. The fraction term is already in 1000ths of a second (so, milliseconds) and doesn't require additional resolution.

    • hours:minutes:seconds:frames: like 1:23:45:06. This is also a normal REAPER-supported time format.

  • length

    A time value representing a length. Time values may be in any of the formats given above for 'position'

  • channel

    A 4-bit value between 0 - 15, representing a MIDI channel. In menus, channels are given as 1-16.

  • MIDI value

    A 7-bit value between 0 - 127, representing a MIDI data byte. Pitch bend is an exception, and is represented as a signed 14-bit value from -8192 - 8191. When both 7- and 14-bit events are in the selection, MIDI values are given as a percentage (0.0 -100.0), so that all events can be uniformly transformed.

  • velocity

    A 7-bit value between 1 - 127 (0 is used to indicate a note-off, and is not allowed by MIDI Transformer -- you cannot convert a note-on to a note-off).

  • release velocity

    A 7-bit value between 0 - 127, representing the note-off velocity. Often unimplemented by MIDI devices.

  • menu enum

    A symbolic value representing a menu entry.

  • percent

    A floating-point value between 0 and 100 (e.g. 33.3)

  • metric grid

    A symbolic expression combining a number of musical time parameters into a single string. Generally, these options can be chosen from a menu. For the purposes of the macro language, it comprises 5 sections, separated by the | character (pipe).

    • The grid division, one of:
      • $1/64 (64th note)
      • $1/32 (32nd note)
      • $1/16 (...)
      • $1/8
      • $1/4
      • $1/2
      • $1/1 (1 measure)
      • $2/1 (2 measures)
      • $4/1 (4 measures)
    • Dotted, Triplet and Swing flags, one of:
      • - (no flags)
      • d (dotted)
      • t (triplet)
      • r (REAPER-style swing)
      • m (MPC-style swing)
    • Wants Bar Restart flag, one of:
      • - (no bar restart)
      • b (bar restart)
    • Slop Before (percent of grid division), e.g. 20.5
    • Slop After (percent of grid division), e.g. 10.8

    A complete metric grid expression might look like $1/16|t|-|5.00|10.00, meaning triplet 16th notes, no bar restart, pre-slop 5%, post-slop 10%.

    About Swing: The 'Swing' option for quantizing event position (and note-off position) can be switched between MPC and REAPER modes.

    • MPC mode is centered on 50. 0 moves the event fully 1 grid unit to the left, 100 moves the event 1 grid unit to the right. 66 is a triplet swing to the right, 33 a triplet swing to the left, etc. This is how Roger Linn designed the MPC swing and is also what Logic uses.

    • REAPER mode is centered on 0. -100 moves the note 1/2 grid unit to the left, 100 moves the note 1/2 grid unit to the right. 64 is a triplet swing to the right. This is the swing mode used in the REAPER quantize dialog.

  • musical time

    A symbolic expression combining a number of musical time parameters into a single string. Generally, these options can be chosen from a menu. For the purposes of the macro language, it comprises 5 sections, separated by the | character (pipe). Musical time notation is identical to the metric grid notation, above, but the Wants Bar Restart parameter is ignored (and should be given as -); all other parameters are used.

  • binary bitfield

    A string of 0s and 1s, e.g. 00110, representing steps along a grid or a group of events, where a 0 means unselected, or a rest, or a nothing, and a 1 means selected, or an event.

  • every N configuration: TODO

  • new event configuration: TODO

MIDI Transformer

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