MusicReasonPitch, Tuning, Intonation, and Fret Geometry
What MIDI pitch-bend value gives me this many cents?
Declare a desired cents offset and the bend range (in semitones) your receiving instrument is configured for. This tool computes the normalized 14-bit MIDI pitch-bend value that produces it. It never assumes a receiver's own bend range; that must be declared explicitly since MIDI pitch bend carries no range information of its own.
Answer
Want to learn more? MIDI Notes, Pitch Bend, and Musical Pitch Data
Understand
MIDI pitch bend is transmitted as a 14-bit number with no built-in unit or range; the receiving synthesizer or sampler decides, via its own configured bend range setting, how many semitones the extreme values represent. A pitch-bend message meant to raise a note by 50 cents on one receiver could raise it by a very different amount on another receiver configured for a different range, which is exactly why this tool requires the range as an explicit input rather than assuming one.
Worked examples
A cents offset of zero always maps to 8192, the 14-bit center value, regardless of the declared bend range. With a 2-semitone bend range, a full positive bend of +200 cents maps to 16383, the top of the 14-bit range, and a full negative bend of -200 cents maps to 0, the bottom.
Method and limitations
The desired cents offset is normalized against the declared bend range in cents (the semitone range times 100), then mapped linearly: zero normalized offset lands at 8192, a normalized offset of +1 lands at 16383, and -1 lands at 0, with the two halves of the range treated separately since 8192 does not sit exactly in the middle of 0-16383. A request beyond the declared range is clamped to the nearest endpoint and flagged, rather than silently wrapping or producing an out-of-range MIDI value. This tool covers standard 14-bit MIDI 1.0 pitch bend only, not MIDI 2.0's higher-resolution per-note bend messages.
A wider declared bend range spreads the same 14-bit value space across more cents, which means a fixed cents offset produces a smaller normalized value, and therefore a coarser step size, on a wide range than on a narrow one; a 50-cent nudge is a much larger fraction of a 2-semitone range than it is of a 24-semitone range. This is exactly why the same MIDI pitch-bend message can sound like a subtle wobble on one patch and a dramatic slide on another, purely because their bend ranges differ.