CV control of song tempo

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househoppin09
Posts: 536
Joined: 03 Aug 2016

05 May 2017

QVprod wrote:The Panorama has 8 encoders on the right hand side that work across 3 modes for it's mapping. They change function depending on what mode you're in. In transport mode, one of them is assigned to tempo. Could be maybe the 6th knob. That's the deepest answer I can give you as the process is automatic. I assume lua (there is a lua codec) is the culprit as to my knowledge (could be wrong) a remote map just sets source and destination for regular midi mapping.

I understand midi routing, but the actual programing of the Panorama goes over my head as it's beyond a simple remote map.
Got it, thanks. As for my original desire to use CV to modulate the song tempo: success! It turns out to be incredibly easy using the EMI and MIDI loopback, so I owe you big time for suggesting that in the first place. All that's needed is to forget all about the knob on the EMI, and use the pitch bend wheel instead, which has much better resolution (16,384 possible values instead of 128). I never would have dared to hope that this would actually work, but it does! I've routed bipolar CV out from an LFO to the pitch bend CV input on the EMI, and am setting the static value for the pitch bend in its automation lane to correspond to the BPM value I want to use as the center of the tempo modulation range. All of the LFO waveshapes are working just fine, and the LFO frequency and amplitude as well as the pitch bend CV range knob on the EMI all work exactly as expected, providing excellent control for modulation with a granularity of 1.000 BPM. It's very easy to set up and use.

So, this is great! There are a couple of caveats, however. For one thing, the fact that "Tempo BPM" and "Tempo Decimal" are two separate remotables actually turns out to be a disadvantage here, not an advantage. If there were a single remotable for "Tempo" that encompassed the entire tempo value, it looks like I'd get a nicely continuous sub-BPM granularity with the method I'm using now, just as one does when automating the tempo in an automation lane. Since the two halves of the tempo number are completely separate remotables, however, I'm stuck with a 1-BPM granularity, and I can't think of any way to get around that. The "Tempo BPM" remotable can't do better than a 1-BPM granularity, and the "Tempo Decimal" remotable can do sub-BPM granularity by itself, but I can't think of any way to combine them to get smooth multi-BPM tempo sweeps at sub-BPM granularity. Although, looking at a master list of remotables, it appears there actually IS one for the overall tempo with a value range of "1000 to 999999", which would probably be perfect for my needs, but I have no idea how to access it! It doesn't appear in the "Additional Remote Overrides" list, and there doesn't seem to be an arrow for it in the Remote Override Edit Mode, but it unmistakably appears in my reference list. There's got to be a way to access it, but I can't figure out how... anyone? :) Anyway, having that extra granularity would be ideal, but even with the 1-BPM granularity this is still pretty darn close to what I need, and I expect to get some great results from it.

There's just one other problem, and unfortunately it's a big one: every time the song tempo is changed via remote override, an entry for that change is added to the undo list. So far so good, except there appears to be some sort of bug here, because it seems to be filling up the ENTIRE undo list with tempo change events as the tempo is continuously modulated, as though every single incremental change to the value is getting its own entry in the undo list. I can't imagine why it's behaving this way, but the unfortunate result is that, as far as I can tell, the whole undo list gets wiped out very quickly while the tempo is being modulated, completely filled up with tempo change events. Essentially, this means that Reason has no usable undo feature at all while tempo modulation is active. That will be a big problem, of course! If anyone reading this has any insight into why this bizarre undo list behavior is occurring, and of course especially if anyone can think of a possible workaround to salvage the undo functionality somehow, I'd love to hear it. And, Props... if you're not going to add a CV input for the tempo, PLEASE at least fix this bug so that those of us who need to do this can hack it via loopback without sacrificing undo functionality! And please make it easier (or possible at all?) to access that overall tempo remotable.
Last edited by househoppin09 on 05 May 2017, edited 1 time in total.

househoppin09
Posts: 536
Joined: 03 Aug 2016

05 May 2017

Oquasec wrote:A transport bar module would be nice.
Yes! There would be so many advantages to that. I really hope the Props will consider it.

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QVprod
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05 May 2017

Pitch bend! So simple but genius. I had pretty much given up. I'm glad you got t to work at least up until where it is now. Even the panorama though doesn't have direct control over the decimal part o the bpm so it's in steps of 1 bpm, which is what I meant by "smooth" The only solution I can think of for now to get past the undo issue is to use cv to generate the automation but then record the automation and remove the cv control.

You may be able to get past the decimal issue by using a 2nd emi with a faster unipolar (to return to zero) lfo speed assigned to the decimal remote.

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Re8et
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12 Jun 2017

QVprod wrote:Yep it's as you suspected. The P6 is doing something special. Tried mapping to a knob and it jumps by 8. Even larger margins with the modwheel. Regular midi is too limited to control it accurately. It was worth the adventure of finding out though
It depends from the rotary encoder, a seamless encoder like those found on the op1 does all the steps. I have mine red encoder locked to tempo for live situations with no midi involved,it is very useful.

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Carly(Poohbear)
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03 Jul 2017

Not sure if you have seen this, it may help in your quest..

T & T How to setup CV to control the tempo.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7501987

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