Clock control app or plugin?

boomer

I need a Link enabled app that specializes in all things tempo. It can record and edit a tempo track in a variety of ways to drive other Link supporting sequencers. Ideally it would be auv3 that could control Audiobus or AUM from inside of it. Maybe even a feature built into AB or AUM?

With this imaginary app you could:
-Tap in tempo to directly control the transport like some Mac software used to do. Thinking of Performer. I.e. sequencer playback stops after you stop tapping and waits for the next tap. Then the app uses its own internal clock to create a tempo track to drive the sequencer.
-Tap in tempo while the transport is running and the app responds afterwards like AUM does now for real time tempo control.
-Record these actions in an editable timeline format
-Tweak tempo change rates between recorded changes.

Use case: let’s say you have a heavily quantized midi track that you want to add expression to by speeding up and slowing down in places. You could play it back and tap the tempo beat by beat and the app will record the taps and interpolate the times between taps as tempo changes.
NS2 has a fantastic Linked tempo track that does this but you have to manually enter tempos. This is tedious for a really rubato piece.
Another use case: you have an audio recording of an expressive performance and you want to add midi tracks to it. Tap along with the performance and create a tempo track to drive a sequencer that syncs with the original audio.

With something like this any existing Link enabled sequencer or DAW would immediately have advanced tempo track abilities.

Is this feasible and would anybody else have use for it?

espiegel123

I don’t know of any AU that does this. NanoStudio 2 and Patterning both have excellent tempo mapping capabilities and have Ableton link so they can be used to drive Ableton linked apps with tempo changes. An AU that did this would be great.

wim

That's a great idea for an app. It would need to rely on Ableton Link.

miRack is an AU that has a Link module which can be used to drive tempo changes. Automating tempo changes in miRack is possible but I wouldn't say it's straightforward for most people.

Loopy Pro will be able to do this as well, and has tools that can automate tempo, but a bit more abstracted than I think you have in mind. At least at my current knowledge level and experience with the beta. It might be more adaptable than I think.

These two apps have shown that automating host tempo via Ableton Link is possible for an AU. There is no way for an AU to directly change host tempo other than Link. (Well, midi clock out would work too, but most hosts either don't pass clock from AU plugins or don't follow midi clock).

boomer

Exactly. But there are so many apps that implement Link and I suspect it’s not too great an effort for those that do not to do so. My thought is a straightforward app that does nothing but tempo. Or apps like AB and AUM that just serve as hosts to implement a tempo track. The idea is to separate tempo control from everything else a specialized sequencing app or DAW might do. Think about what that would do for new and existing auv3 and IAA apps. Just implement Link and advanced tempo functions are available.

As you say, the fact that it would work is well established. And there is certainly the talent and experience out there to pull it off.

My only question is whether there would be enough interest in the idea of IOS music speeding up and slowing down. Who knows, maybe the concept would catch on

I’m ready to send somebody my money.

rs2000

I wonder if I would ever add expression by using a tempo track simply because changing the project tempo will jitter all notes on all tracks identically and that's not what I consider "humanisation".
Another issue with LINK is that it most likely won't be able to follow tempo changes as precisely as required by humanising a groove, not to speak of the fact that the LINK SDK clearly excludes that use case (along the lines "use at your own risk" 😉)

amarok

If a developer could pull this off, I would gladly invest. I love creating music in iOS, but I have always been bothered by the lack of precise tempo control or ability to change tempo within a song. Fine if you want to make EDM, but classical? Jazz? good luck.
While I love a steady groove when required, so much of the music I want to make requires tempo and timing shifts. It’s time for iOS to catch up.

boomer

What @amarok said!

boomer

> @rs2000 said:

I wonder if I would ever add expression by using a tempo track simply because changing the project tempo will jitter all notes on all tracks identically and that's not what I consider "humanisation".
Another issue with LINK is that it most likely won't be able to follow tempo changes as precisely as required by humanising a groove, not to speak of the fact that the LINK SDK clearly excludes that use case (along the lines "use at your own risk" 😉)

To not needing tempo changes…. I would point out that tempo is fundamental to all music. Varying it along with pitch, timbre, volume etc is a basic aspect of most music throughout history. Just listen to any classical recording and focus on just tempo as an expressive tool. In fact, only the advent of digital made a “precise” tempo even possible. It is not possible for a human to do that. The very best musicians get pretty close though.

I did not know that the link SDK excludes that. Unfortunate However, NS2 has an excellent tempo track implementation and it just added LINK. I have not done any rigorous testing but AB and AUM both seem to follow NS2 tempo just fine. At least where “precise” control is not important.

Gravitas

@rs2000

Granted that tempo changes would increase note jitter
but I've tried something by assigning a cc message to tap tempo
from one Drambo standalone to another on a separate iPad
and modulating the tap tempo and leaving that in the background
and launching AUM and Link changes to tempo.
I do think it could be possible using one iPad
and Drambo but that would require Freewei.
I don't know what affect that would do to audio but it sort off is working.
The note jitter if it isn't to strong would add to the humanness I do believe
and again using Drambo modules one can insert the humaniser module
to deliberately offset notes to create a more live feel.

I'm going to think about this a little bit more.