If you listen to this video at 1:41, the main synth line pitch goes all over the place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwHR914oE

Yes it has a general melody that it follows, but it also modulates around too. How do you achieve that? All my synths only have options for Fine tuning and Transposing. No knob to freely change pitch. So how do they do it?
Right now, I'm trying to create a linearly increasing pitch effect on one of my synth lines. Like it starts at one note, then the pitch gradually increases over a long duration of time. More change than Fine allows, but more gradual of a change than just transposing repeatedly.

Help?

Portamento with legato triggering, if you are talking about the lead that starts @ 1:41.  If you are talking about the long glide that happens a bit before 1:41, that is usually done with an ENV with a long attack modulating the oscilator pitch.

js516


Portamento with legato triggering

I agree there is some portamento, but I don't think they are using legato triggering, as each note hit is distinct. For example, listen to 1:34. This is more similar to what effect I'm trying to achieve.


I think it has something to do with midi controller pitch. But I don't know how to edit/draw in the pitch in that way with Sonar X1

Yeah that slow rising supsersaw-ish sound that has gating?  That is usually done with an ENV with a long attack modulating the oscillator pitch. The gating you can emulate with a pair of square LFOs, one modulating the other which is modulating the AMP.

Or you can use a gate and sidechain the rhythim.

No knob to freely change pitch.

What about Pitch Bend?

Pitch bend is another way, you would program the bend range to get the width you want. Though pitch bending a sample accross two adjacent keymaps wll cause clicking, if you are using a sample based synth.

vaultwit


Right now, I'm trying to create a linearly increasing pitch effect on one of my synth lines. Like it starts at one note, then the pitch gradually increases over a long duration of time. More change than Fine allows, but more gradual of a change than just transposing repeatedly.

You can use Mod Wheel events (MIDI CC #1). You can manually enter them or use an LFO or other source to Modulate the pitch as js516 mentions. Easy to draw in PRV mode. For the stutter type effect you could Mod the Amplitude with an LFO or manually control it with a track envelope.