Plastic Pitch MIDI Microtuner

The Plastic Pitch is an award winning* MIDI microtuner with an intuitive interface made for experimenting with pitch. Create a custom scale with the twelve black and white tuning knobs, and play the scale with a standard MIDI keyboard or other MIDI controller. The tuning knobs operate at a one-cent resolution and can also be quantized to a Scala tuning. Tune multiple synths and multiple voices simultaneously using the four MIDI inputs and four MIDI outputs.

The Plastic Pitch receives input from MIDI controllers and transmits microtuned output to MIDI synthesizers. On the input side, use any combination of an MPE controller, basic MIDI keyboard, or other MIDI source like a DAW or sequencer. On the output side, MIDI tuning is accomplished using MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE), basic MIDI pitch bend, and/or MIDI Tuning Standard (MTS)–the tuning method is user configurable and independent for each of the four MIDI outputs.

The Plastic Pitch is a complex device with many user-customizable options. Be sure to check out the video demos below or our YouTube playlist to see examples of how it can be used.

*earlier prototype awarded Second Prize by industry judges in the 2021 MIDI Innovation Awards.

Configuration Tool

The configuration tool can be accessed here or downloaded for offline use below. It must be used with a web browser that supports Web MIDI. Opera, Edge, and Chrome are some examples. A current list can be found at the bottom of this page. Also, if prompted by your web browser, be sure to allow access to your MIDI devices.

Downloads

Videos

FAQ

Q: Why does the tuning sound wrong (in an unexpected way)?

A: Confirm that the pitch bend ranges configured on the Plastic Pitch are the same as the pitch bend range setting on the synth or MPE controller you are using.

Q: Why are the tuning knobs not tuning?

A: Confirm that the Range knob is not set to zero.