Triggered events synced to BPM?

[sameloop]

Hi.

Here's what I'm imagining (as an example):

Events (anything - like changing colours, starting video clips etc etc) triggered one after the other, in time with a beat, but with control over when they occur in terms of bars/beats. I'd like, for instance to change a parameter/select a scene every quarter note, or half note or every bar etc. but synced, so that if the BPM changes, these events will stay synced to the note divisions. Even if the sync is not possible, to at least be able to work out the settings based on the current BPM (using the sort of equation you might use for calculating delay times, for instance).

Is this kind of thing possible? I'd like to think so, but my understanding of modifiers is a bit rudimentary...

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[Sadler]

I have a range of techniques but for a consistent BPM I use Midi OX to send a midi sync to Magic. You can find it under View->Midi Sync. This is for Windows. I'm sure there will be similar solutions for Mac.

Aligning the midi clock with the beat is a bit hit and miss as there's no way to nudge it into place and it doesn't analyse the audio in any way (I use another program for tapping the beat and then entering it manually). However, even if you're a little off in terms of alignment and BPM, this gives a nice locked-in feel, more so than reacting to the audio.

It is a bit clunky have to start and work with two additional programs but if the beat doesn't change much within a session it's not so onerous.

[Magic]

There are a couple ways to do BPM in Magic.

As Sadler mentioned, if you have an external MIDI clock utility, it is very easy. This is the one I use: http://midiclock.com/. Then you can use the Beat Clock feature in Magic:

BeatClock.PNG (35.97 KiB) Viewed 4477 times

Notice how there are full, half, third, and quarter options.

Besides that, a more advanced option is to have a Global which specifies the BPM (as a fixed value):

Global_BPM.jpg (35.07 KiB) Viewed 4477 times

Then you can use additional modifiers (such as Increase or Sine Osc) that change their value in response to the Global. In the above example, the "On Beat Increase" Global will increment by 1 every beat. The "4 Beats Increase" will increment by 1 every 4 beats. Etc.

If you want to get fancy, you can do things like this:

Clock.PNG (44.31 KiB) Viewed 4476 times

Scaling the Clock BPM by 120 gives you the overall BPM. Then you can use this in combination with other Globals and modifiers as described above.

In general, it's important to understand that the modifiers like Ramp and Increase increment their values exactly once per second when their input value or their parameter value is 1. In other words, they function as clocks. So, you can make the clock run faster or slower by changing the parameter and/or the input value. Therefore, you can create your own beat clock by doing the following:

Pulse.PNG (44.89 KiB) Viewed 4475 times

Try the above setup so you can get a feel for how it would work.

[sameloop]

Hi. Thanks for answers.

I think that Midiclock will be the best solution. I'm basically going to be VJing to someone playing house/techno music, so the tap tempo system will work quite well hopefully.

Thanks again.

[sameloop]

I’d just like to add that my ideal setup would be some way of detecting BPM by transients - much like a lot of hardware and software DJ tools work. I have a Pioneer DJ effects unit that does this. I’d like to take an audio feed from the DJs mixer and use that as my beat source, into whatever software/hardware that could achieve the aforementioned.

I can’t help thinking there’s a way to do this somehow...

[Magic]

Maybe the Trigger modifier is what you're looking for? It increments by 1 every time its input goes above the threshold...

[mikeymalone]

Maybe the Trigger modifier is what you're looking for? It increments by 1 every time its input goes above the threshold...

I was definitely going to suggest this as well... For instance with most of the electronic music you have a standard kick (of course not always) which is in a certain frequency range. So you can trigger it to increase every time the kick happens.

I prefer this method because I'm simply using software that's already in my setup. On top of that, most of the time people look for bpm synced visuals it's because they want the visual to seem like it's reactive to the music. So why not do it based on the music itself?

[sameloop]

Hi.

Ah, that looks intriguing, thanks. I'll give it a go later.

Cheers.