Tap Tempo to follow live conductor

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soundasylum
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Tap Tempo to follow live conductor

Post by soundasylum »

Hi folks. I'm just coming back to DP after a 13 year hiatus. I'm trying to run MIDI sequences in a live church performance setting and stay in time with a live choral conductor. I've successfully gotten it to receive sync and slave to tempo that I tap. That's fine. However if I stop tapping, DP stops too. Is there a way to stop tapping and let DP continue playing at whatever the last tempo was? Basically to let it roll until I start tapping again? If not dp is there any other solution for this?
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stubbsonic
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Re: Tap Tempo to follow live conductor

Post by stubbsonic »

What you are asking is pretty complicated. You want DP to listen to your taps, but if you stop tapping it won't know if you are slowing down or stopping until some later moment.

Essentially, you want some utility that will listen to taps, perhaps when a controller is on, then run at that tempo when the controller is off. Later, when that controller is re-engaged, it should then listen for taps.

A K2xxx series kurzweil would average the tempo for the last 4 taps coming in. But it wouldn't sync to the taps (the taps could be unrelated to the current beats).

A really good, responsive, smart, tap-tempo utility; is a huge deal. There would be an element of AI to it; it would need to think & respond like a musician. "You are tapping faster. I need to over-reach to catch up, but then match your tempo as soon as I catch up." "Ah you are slowing your taps, once I've over-slowed to re-sync, I'll re-lock at your new lower tempo." -- but all of that happening every moment of every beat.

I could imagine a knob labeled: RESPONSE which goes from smooth (takes longer to sync-up) to the far left, all the way to snappy (syncs quickly, but more twitchy) on the far right.

A "COAST" button would say, if you don't hear a tap, just continue at tempo until you do. This would mean that slowing down the tempo would require more than one tap.

It would also need to include controls to (as DP does) for what to listen for in terms of the tap itself, and a second MIDI control switch to determine when to "listen" for taps (ON) or continue at current tempo (when OFF).

Sure would be nice if MOTU would take the lead on this one.
M1 MBP; OS 12, FF800, DP 11.3, Kontakt 7, Reaktor 6, PC3K7, K2661S, iPad6, Godin XTSA, Two Ibanez 5 string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FM3, SY-1000, etc.

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soundasylum
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Re: Tap Tempo to follow live conductor

Post by soundasylum »

Great ideas. Seems like this is something that so many people would use in a live setting.

Thing is, Pro Tools kind of does this already with it's tap tempo. You have to record while doing it, but it does keep going if you stop tapping. However, with PT, you can only tap tempo on the computer keyboard "T" key. And the tempo calculations are a bit unforgiving and wild. So in a risky live setting, it's not very usable. Hence my thought to go back to DP. Yet, with DP, I have to tap the entire time. One mis-tap and the performance is blown. Hmmmm.

Again, the reason for doing this is that I have a killer orchestration with oboes, flutes, strings, piano, timpani, etc., but only two hands. And a live conductor that wants to control tempo of the choir.

Anyone else know if there's another way to achieve this, which I can employ before my Saturday performance? :)
magicd
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Re: Tap Tempo to follow live conductor

Post by magicd »

The "Tap Pad" will do what you want. The menu to the right of the BPM indicator allows you to select Tap Pad as the tempo control.

In the DP Commands window, search for Tap To Enter Tempo. Assign whatever MIDI or keyboard command you want for the tap source.

DP will start to play at the current tempo in the BPM window. When you tap, you will over ride that tempo. When you stop tapping, DP stays at the current tempo.


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stubbsonic
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Re: Tap Tempo to follow live conductor

Post by stubbsonic »

NICE! You could assign a foot switch to keep your hands free.
M1 MBP; OS 12, FF800, DP 11.3, Kontakt 7, Reaktor 6, PC3K7, K2661S, iPad6, Godin XTSA, Two Ibanez 5 string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FM3, SY-1000, etc.

http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
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Shooshie
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Re: Tap Tempo to follow live conductor

Post by Shooshie »

stubbsonic wrote:NICE! You could assign a foot switch to keep your hands free.
Yes, but unlike live performers — who tend to average your beats and keep the groove in their heads, DP takes your taps very literally, and it always goes by the last tap. You can tap a series of quarter beats @ 128, but if your last one hesitates even a little, suddenly it's playing @ 88, perhaps. Tapping toes on a pedal is never very accurate, though I guess one could train for it and maybe increase the accuracy a little.

Still, it works, and it's a good method if you're careful.

Shoosh
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