I have what's probably a really basic question: what do the MIDI names mean? For instance, the names you see for vocaloids' optimal tonal ranges, like C4, F3, etc.
I had been thinking that they basically corresponded to the keys on a piano roll, with the letters proceeding A-G from left to right (lower to higher pitch), and the numbers going up similarly, numbering each occurrence of each letter. So you would start with A1, proceed through B1-G1, and then begin again with A2. A2 would then be 1 octave higher than A1.
However, when working in Anvil Studio, I've just seen that A4 is apparently a higher pitch than F4. Checking where it's plotting the notes on the piano roll, F4 is actually not the fourth occurrence of F--it's putting F4 where I would expect F3 to have been. So it seems like there's something wrong with my understanding.
Can anyone explain this to me, or link to an article? (The articles I've seen want to talk about how MIDI relates to tonal pitches in hertz, or else discuss the MIDI specification without any indication of how the note names work.)
I had been thinking that they basically corresponded to the keys on a piano roll, with the letters proceeding A-G from left to right (lower to higher pitch), and the numbers going up similarly, numbering each occurrence of each letter. So you would start with A1, proceed through B1-G1, and then begin again with A2. A2 would then be 1 octave higher than A1.
However, when working in Anvil Studio, I've just seen that A4 is apparently a higher pitch than F4. Checking where it's plotting the notes on the piano roll, F4 is actually not the fourth occurrence of F--it's putting F4 where I would expect F3 to have been. So it seems like there's something wrong with my understanding.
Can anyone explain this to me, or link to an article? (The articles I've seen want to talk about how MIDI relates to tonal pitches in hertz, or else discuss the MIDI specification without any indication of how the note names work.)