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Uneven audio metronome in session with a tempo change

Open contrapunctus-1 opened this issue 3 years ago • 8 comments

Version: 0.9.25 VST3 Plug-in support (EXPERIMENTAL) disabled. Using: Qt 5.15.2

Running on Debian Testing.

Steps to reproduce -

  1. Create new session
  2. Create a MIDI track and enable the metronome. If required, set audio clips for the audio metronome.
  3. Add a new tempo marker different from the default one; your tempo map might look like 55 BPM at bar 1 and 95 BPM at bar 4.
  4. Enable 'Continue Past End' (to play in a blank project)
  5. Play the project from the beginning, past the tempo change, without pausing/resuming in between.

Result - metronome plays evenly till the second tempo marker; afterwards, the metronome plays unevenly :scream: Pausing/resuming after the tempo change will result in the tempo playing evenly in the new speed, but playing from the beginning and past the tempo change will make it uneven again.

contrapunctus-1 avatar Jan 27 '22 15:01 contrapunctus-1

quite frankly, i'm failing to reproduce this 'uneven' behavior on tempo changes...

there must be something hiding in there :(

ps. how long are your metronome bar/beat samples? are they longer than a quarter-note or beat in any circumstances?

rncbc avatar Jan 27 '22 18:01 rncbc

@rncbc I don't think they are longer than a quarter note...and note that the metronome does play the same samples correctly when you pause and resume after the tempo change...🤔

contrapunctus-1 avatar Jan 27 '22 19:01 contrapunctus-1

thanks, the sample length question was just a hunch... believe me, I'm still trying to figure out what the "unevenly" thing is... to no avail... are there any other clue you may tell or as evidence? on me the metronome always plays rightly on the bar and beats, no matter it passes tempo changes or pause, play or rewind... again, there's something there one of us is seriusly missing :/

rncbc avatar Jan 27 '22 19:01 rncbc

Additional observations -

  1. I tried the same test in Ardour, and could not replicate it.
  2. I created a MIDI click track in Qtractor (using the same samples as the metronome). It confirmed my earlier observations about the metronome (so I wasn't imagining it, as I was afraid I might have been :smile: ) The MIDI tracks themselves are not affected by this issue with the metronome.

contrapunctus-1 avatar Jan 28 '22 14:01 contrapunctus-1

I have done also all your trial as per your last post (all but ardour, for obvious reasons...)

  1. made a MIDI drum track/clip with a snare sample on bars and kick sample on beats; using drumkv1 as instrument plugin;
  2. set tempo to 55bpm 4/4 on bar 1 and 95bpm 4/4 on bar 4, as in your example;
  3. turn on audio metronome;
  4. plays fine all the way from start, play, pause, replay and rewind and forth, no issues detected on both accounts (MIDI clip playback and audio metronome--both play in unison);
  5. exported track as Track > Export Tracks > MIDI... to a SMF (.mid) file for which it takes the tempo map into account;
  6. on a new blank session imported the MIDI file created in step 5) as a brand new track; tempo map is rightly imported as expected;
  7. played, paused and rewinded several times... can't find any "uneven" metronome bar or beat sounding whatever.

i'm out of ideas

rncbc avatar Jan 28 '22 15:01 rncbc

Hi,

i have a somehow related issue, if i have multiple time markers/regions with signature change , say marker 1 bar 1 time signature 4/4 marker 2 bar 5 time signature 7/4

it first works ok , then after autosave or opening a midi clip in pianoroll , timesignature for marker 2 gets reset to 4/4 Should i open a extra ticket ?

Thanks for your work i like qtractor a lot but lately it has gotten some "warts"

  1. the bus routing issue
  2. the preview playback of samples from filesystembrowser could be improved
  3. fader for midi tracks dont always affect actual volume of all plugins
  4. sidechaining is complicated especially because of 1.
  5. i would like to have a "swing" slider in pianoroll/miditracks that warps grid

Thank You very much Maurizio

polyrod avatar Feb 19 '22 14:02 polyrod

i have a somehow related issue, if i have multiple time markers/regions with signature change , say marker 1 bar 1 time signature 4/4 marker 2 bar 5 time signature 7/4

it first works ok , then after autosave or opening a midi clip in pianoroll , timesignature for marker 2 gets reset to 4/4 Should i open a extra ticket ?

yes

Thanks for your work i like qtractor a lot but lately it has gotten some "warts"

  1. the bus routing issue

what issue?

  1. the preview playback of samples from filesystembrowser could be improved

in what way?

  1. fader for midi tracks dont always affect actual volume of all plugins

how many time must i say that midi track sliders are just hard-wired GM standard controllers? it always depends whether and how plugin(s) reacts to MIDI CC#7 (for channel volume) and CC#10 (for channel panning); most plugins do nothing, some others do by design and/or default.

  1. sidechaining is complicated especially because of 1.

sidechaining is actually non supported, officially; it's just that some users have taken the extra loops and lengths and managed to make it work somehow in an extremely complicated way and always via and external contraption send/return loops.

  1. i would like to have a "swing" slider in pianoroll/miditracks that warps grid

there are no short nor long-term plans for tha, sorryt; the best you can get in is resorting to MIDI Tools > Quantize > Swing .

cheers

rncbc avatar Feb 19 '22 15:02 rncbc

i have a somehow related issue, if i have multiple time markers/regions with signature change , say marker 1 bar 1 time signature 4/4 marker 2 bar 5 time signature 7/4 it first works ok , then after autosave or opening a midi clip in pianoroll , timesignature for marker 2 gets reset to 4/4 Should i open a extra ticket ?

yes ok, will do

Thanks for your work i like qtractor a lot but lately it has gotten some "warts"

  1. the bus routing issue

what issue?

the old problem where you couldnt connect bus output to another bus input , to structure your busses. It used to work , now not more, i have to put some dummy plugins in carla in between to get sound output. I know thats a jack issue.

  1. the preview playback of samples from filesystembrowser could be improved

in what way? it does take some time till playback starts and you cant easily interupt playing of long samples by clicking on another sample.

  1. fader for midi tracks dont always affect actual volume of all plugins

how many time must i say that midi track sliders are just hard-wired GM standard controllers? it always depends whether and how plugin(s) reacts to MIDI CC#7 (for channel volume) and CC#10 (for channel panning); most plugins do nothing, some others do by design and/or default.

yes i get that, one solution would be to add another fader for generated output signal side by side , like you did with the peak meters , you have midi "signal" and audio signal meters.

  1. sidechaining is complicated especially because of 1.

sidechaining is actually non supported, officially; it's just that some users have taken the extra loops and lengths and managed to make it work somehow in an extremely complicated way and always via and external contraption send/return loops.

yes it works ,only that way

  1. i would like to have a "swing" slider in pianoroll/miditracks that warps grid

there are no short nor long-term plans for tha, sorryt; the best you can get in is resorting to MIDI Tools > Quantize > Swing .

i am using swing , was just a wish , nvm

cheers

thanx for rapid reply

polyrod avatar Feb 19 '22 16:02 polyrod