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I am planning to try adding MIDI clock slaving, but I can't guarantee it will work flawlessly in combination with the built-in FilePlayer (or any hosted AUv3/IAA that implements synced audio playback). Making a simple low-resolution sequencer that slaves to MIDI clock is not hard, but having continuous soundfile playback synced to MIDI clock is a lot harder, if you want it free of jitter, glitches or weird pitch wobble. How many DAWs do you know that slaves to MIDI clock?
It's a challenge, no question.
Have a look at @Michael's Loopy HD and Beatmaker 3.
If I remember correctly, Michael has implemented a two-way time stretching process:
A fast, lower-quality algo for following bpm changes quickly and a higher quality algo that renders the file for the new detected bpm in the background and switches to the HQ version as soon as it's done processing.
In most cases, frequent bpm changes will be the exception.
You can also have a look at apps that implement time stretching in conjunction with Ableton LINK like e.g. BlocsWave, they have solved the exact same challenge.
Also folder tracks/overview. Its not right when u have patterning open with 9 channels.
That’s all you can do is try. It’s not like Ableton Link is perfect either.
In what way does this have anything to do with MIDI clock?
Oh, I'm not planning to implement time stretch in the FilePlayer, it will continue to work as it currently does - as a tape machine, pitch follows speed.
Well, you can always hand that job over to AUv3 plugins 😉
Re-pitching an audio file is exactly what MoDrum did on iOS 5 eight years ago.
@j_liljedahl I would happily pay for MIDI sync in, regardless of what the file player does.
Not only that, but I would encourage you, no...I would ~implore~ you to charge for your efforts.
AUM has been the single most used and useful app I have ever purchased, and I WANT to support additional features like sync in, and perhaps a way (at your discretion as to how) to see more channels at once. At least those are my 2 big ones.
But again, my main point is I know many of us would like to provide some additional support for features, as AUM is the gift that keeps on giving and long ago I got my money worth...and I want you to be paid for your efforts! In any case, thank you for playing such a major part in making iOS production as valuable as it has become.
May I suggest a SYNC mode then that allows for using audio loops in a better way?
Currently, we only have two options:
1. Playing the audio file in a loop that repeats independently from the host beat meter
2. SYNC mode that will fit the loop to match the beat meter but that will change the loop's pitch and that will basically make all melodic loops unusable.
Suggestion: Mode 1. but re-start the loop playback every adjustable number of beats to avoid drift over time. Like "Re-start every x.y beats".
It's hard to precisely adjust bpm without waiting for a few minutes of playback every time.
If you have hardware seq you want to slave to, instead of midi slaving see if your seq send midi from play button and route AUM play to it, then just set tempo the same with aum and your seq.
Might not work perfectly for everything, but works good enough for me
yeah, I've tried that, works well enough for syncing fx and such, but I'm hoping to use a hardware sequencer in tandem with Drambo's sequencer as well as some generative things by pagefell and in mirack.
it will not stay in sync without midi clock.
Can the hardware slave to midi click instead?
it could, but it's the exact opposite of what I would like to do.
I could probably have knobs in an Auv3 control my hardware as well, but I'm very much trying to go the other way: control auv3's in aum via hardware.
Clock and control are two different things. You can still control AUM with your hardware while managing clock from AUM. Unless it just doesn’t work well I don’t see the issue. But hey, it’s up to you.
✌️
Audiobus does slave to clock and it bridges clock to Link, which AUM can follow. I’ve heard some people say the timing isn’t tight enough, but it might be worth trying.
Out of an earlier discussion with @j_liljedahl, I've tried exactly that with a Digitakt (Digitakt sends MIDI Status messages to AUM and AUM sends MIDI clock to Digitakt) and although it should work theoretically, I haven't managed to get this working properly.
I think it was you who said that Digitakt > AB3 > AUM didn’t have solid enough timing too? Or do I remember wrong?
I've tried both but not in conjuction as far as I remember 😉
MIDI start/stop can be done without clock sync, right? If syncing is the requirement, then you can do that without the MIDI clocks. That's usually my preference where available, because I rarely change the bpm during a song, and it's easy to just set all devices to, say, 90bpm and leave it.
Technically yes but most apps don't give you the choice, you only get to select between internal or external clock and that usually includes status messages like Start/Stop/Continue.
yeah, that's exactly it. it doesn't work well.
The midi clock on my hardware sequencer is extremely solid, and it is extremely quick to change the tempo, will store tempo per sequence, can automate tempo changes etc. Using that as my master clock makes the most sense for what I'm trying to accomplish. Likely makes the most sense for most anyone using a hardware sequencer with AUM.
tried that. Problem is AUM clock gets out of sync whenever AB3 isn't in the foreground. Not a stable enough solution
in theory that sounds fine, but in practice hardware and software nearly always drift after a number of minutes, even when set at the same bpm. Sync is necessary for timing to be tight.
I can almost guarantee that any MIDI clock slaving I implement will work very much as well or bad as the one in Audiobus, since I'm planning to use Michaels MIDI sync engine
lol, then that would work perfectly for me
. AB3 has a very good clock sync (weirdly, tighter and less glitchy than ableton in my tests when changing tempo),
the problem I was having with AB3's clock is that when I switch to AUM in the foreground (since I'm only using AB3 for the sync) it gets screwy. As long as I don't put AB3 in the background it works perfectly.
Since I don't have any reason to run AUM in the background, it should work just fine :-)
Haven't tried it myself but it could improve things...
Have you tried switching apps via midi commands?
I agree with all points. 👍🏼
Ableton slave clock sync is a bad reference anyway because it has a much too large clock averaging window. There's an unofficial hack to reduce the averaging window size to make it more usable... Ableton have obviously tried to stay super-safe with three *ondoms.
ahhh! I didn't realize that, but it explains a lot. Any idea why Live uses such a large averaging window?
I've tried that, but it doesn't solve the central problem: AB3 does not update midi clock while running in the background. So if for example, I change the tempo, the change isn't realized until I bring AB3 to the foreground.
No. I do feel like asking them though.
@Michael: Do you know about this?
Huh... No, that’s the first time I’ve heard of that. Can you tell me a bit more about the setup?
Superb, I think it’s the best quality MIDI sync implementation I’ve ever seen.
Far superior to any software clock slaving I’ve used (such as within Ableton) and at least as reliable as the clocks in most of my music hardware (and much more stable than some!)
The way Michaels engine analyses and smooths out any jitter/inconsistency in the incoming clock is pretty remarkable in my experience.
Ymmv etc