Tempo Grid, does it exist?

[Morningfatty]

This is officially my first post on the forum, howdy! Let's jump right in.

I've been working with Quickshow to control my X-beam 2500, and two Ds-2400's from laserworld. After a week with the software, I've logged around 60 hours (I'm a full time musician so I definitely have time for obsessive compulsive software learning ). I discovered that a tempo grid does not exist on Quickshow. After a little research, i found a tempo grid was non existent for any other projection software (I hope I'm wrong).

When I say tempo grid, I'm referring to viewing your timeline in musical "measures" or bars. In Quickshow, the timeline editor has BPM but is displayed in seconds with a minimum of 1/10th second intervals. This is problematic when trying to sync intricate rhythms to your laser show. You can sync cues on downbeats easily, but try syncing a syncopated rhythm in the middle of a phrase and forget it! It's possible but takes hours and involves a lot of shooting in the dark. You might get close, but will never have 100% accuracy.

If you're completely confused as to what I'm talking about, heres the quickest music lesson you'll ever learn.

All music is dictated by 3 things. 1) a key signature (what notes are played) 2) a time signature (the most common is 4/4 meaning there are 4 beats in one measure. 3) a tempo or BPM (how fast you count the beats in order to complete one "measure" of music). As you know 60 BPM represents 1 beat per second. So in a time signature of 4/4 at 60 BPM, it would take exactly 4 seconds to complete 1 full "measure". Likewise 15 measures would take 60 seconds.


The song I'm currently working with has a BPM of 126. If you divide 126 by 60 you get 2.1 beats every second. In one "measure" of music, there are 4 quarter notes. At a BPM of 126 It takes 2.1 seconds to complete 4 quarter notes. Each quarter note takes exactly .525 seconds (2.1 divided by 4). It takes 8, 1/8 notes to complete one full measure and lastly sixteen 1/16 notes to complete one full measure. Each 1/8th note would take .2625 seconds (2.1 divided by 8) and each 1/16th note would take .13125 seconds (2.1 divided by 16).


Lets take the famous Maroon 5 song "harder to breathe". Near the beginning of the song the drummer plays eight , 1/8th notes on his snare drum. Lets say you wanted your lasers to change color and shape in perfect time with the drum beat. The song is at 150 BPM or 2.5 beats per second. That means each 1/8th note takes exactly .312 seconds (2.5 divided by 8). Using the Quickshow time line method, you would first have to figure out the exact time at which the drummer started the notes (It's approximately 3.75 seconds). You would then set 8 laser cues to exactly .312 seconds. Quickshow timeline editor only goes to .1 tenth of a second. You will never be exactly precise.



You're dealing with 1/10th, 1/100, and occasionally 1/1000 of a second. It is physically impossible to have perfect precision unless using a tempo grid. There are dozens of examples with Garage band, Logic, Ableton, pro tools, or any music software.


Lets replay the earlier scenario, but on a tempo grid this time. The maroon 5 song "harder to breathe" is in 4/4 time signature with a 150 BPM tempo. Our goal is to have the lasers change in sync to the 8 ,1/8th notes the drummer plays. On a tempo grid, the first number would represent the first measure. We know there are 8, 1/8th notes contained within 1 measure. Because you know what the BPM is, you wouldn't have to guess what time the drummer's 1/8th notes started. It would simply start exactly on the second measure, or number 2 on the tempo grid. The 8 laser cues could then be evenly placed at perfect intervals in the second measure. This would synchronize the lasers perfectly to the music within a matter of seconds. Music is universally controlled by this method.

Being a musician, I only work with tempo grids on my other software. It would be impossible any other way. Seeing that lasers and music are almost synonymous, you would think there would be a more intuitive control for intricate precision. I'm splitting hairs a little, but I really want to create some beautiful intricate art work with my music and lasers. For now I'm having to dumb down the show a little to stay in time with the music. I'm still new to this so I'm hoping theres an answer out there.

I'm officially addicted to lasers and look forward to growing with this culture.

Peace & love

-John Pop
Morning Fatty

[hitekvoop]

Welcome. I'd love to see the timeline evolve into something more resembling a sequencer. I heard Pango is working on it... perhaps even a record mode that slots events into the timeline live while you "play". Not sure if we'll see it in QS or Beyond, or both (with obvious limitations on the QS side) but here's to hoping something like this happens soon. If you're not busy Aug 8-14 you might want to head up to NC for SELEM, I guarantee you wouldn't regret it.

[mixedgas]

You posted this in what, Three places? Uncool...

Here's my reply...

http://photonlexicon.com/forums/show...mpo-grid-patch

Short version: Move from Quickshow to Showtime or Beyond and be VERY happy at 1/3oth or 1/60th of a second...

When I'm scripting a show in Showtime I can "tap sync" my beats in while playing music during editing, using the PC keyboard. I have like 20 different marker colors if I wanted, each assigned to a different key plus the spacebar..

Gainsville to Orlando is 1 Hour 45 Minutes, go See Pangolin and explore what is available..




Steve

[Morningfatty]

Someone else was telling me about that conference. I'm going to try and make it.

[Morningfatty]

Thank you for reply. I spoke with Aaron from Pangolin. He said nothing is available like that yet. Thats a good idea with tap sync. It's not as precise as a grid, but probably close.
Sorry, this was my first post. At the time the lounge seemed appropriate before I found the software thread. I was going to delete one but each already had a response. If it's really taboo I will erase one.