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Is there some software available to bend the pitch of a note by a precise amount?

I would like to be able to play a note, press F4 and have the note come out exactly a quarter step low.

The purpose is to be able to experiment with some quarter tone scale melodies. I don't have a software piano, unless you recommend something better I'd be using the built in MIDI on the laptop.

Do you want to be able to bend notes in real-time as part of a performance or is it good enought o be able to go back and edit a MIDI file?

Certainly the latter is easy with almost any MIDI editor. You would incert the required 1/4 bends where needed.

If you want to do it during a performance then you need a MIDI controller with assignable pads or controls. You could asin the 1/4 bend to the control

There is also software that will allow you to "bend" the pitch of a note in a WAV file. This is typically used to correct a vocal track where the vocalist did not hit the correct pitch but it could be used to raise or lower a note played by a piano. It's common, even Garage Band has this function.

You don't say what software you are working with or what budget you have for more software and equipment

You might want to look around for a used GEM WK series "world" synth. They made an Oriental/Arabic model (including an expander module version) that allowed for using quarter tones. They come up on ebay now and again. Try this video (and related offerings) to get a feel for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX3SeGVOLVU

Other than that, there have been various exotic attempts at building dedicated quarter-tone keyboards - run a Google search. As for software, I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if some enterprising university department had developed something. For everyday purposes, though, it might be easier to see if you can program a pitch-bend wheel to the required frequency shift - might take a bit of skill to operate successfully over an entire piece.

Another keyboard, besides the GEM, that will do quarter-tones is the Korg Pa800. I know nothing about it, but I believe you can set it to play in quarter-tones and Arabic scale.