Improved bpm display?

Olivier

Hi,
I use the bpms display feature before the start of the song a lot because we often start acoustically before the soundtrack starts.
Before Peter's awesome Stage Traxx app, I used a Beatbuddy. What is good about the beatbuddy bpms display is that the 4 beats are clearly identifiable - vertical black column which moves on each beat (time 3 in this photo for example) :

Would it be possible Peter, rather than having the whole screen flashing at the same time, to have for example:
The left line on the first beat
The top line on the 2nd
The right line the 3rd
The bottom line on the 4th beat
We could also imagine that on the green "play" button for example there are the inscriptions "1, 2, 3, 4" which are displayed on each beat.
When the tempo is very fast or very slow especially, it is difficult to count in our head with the current system to arrive at just the right tempo when it starts next.
I don't know if I'm being very clear in this message, sorry. (plus I use Google Translate because I'm French and not good in English)
Anyway, thank you very much for adding this bpms visualization feature!

Damir

Olivier hi Olivier, ST3 BPM does not know which is beat 1 ,2,3 or 4 it is purely a tempo pulse beating to the speed you choose it to beat to, so it is a rough guide to get you in to the ballpark , so you simply see it you adjust your speed of performance that will guide you so when you hit start it will sort of work in with your programmed song, because there is a slight delay of the start if you use foot control you need to slightly preempt the exact start and as long as your backing starts immediately it does a reasonable job, its much better than having no guidance at all, so its up to you on which flash you start as it does not matter to ST3 its determined on which beat you programmed the the start of the backing track.
Once you introduce a definite count it locks you in and would be a distraction if you went off beat so its better not to identify the flashes as its very limitting when freely performing.
Especially if you change for example 4/4 to 3/4 etc.
Hope this helps in some way.
Cheers Damir

Olivier

Damir
Thanks Damir for the answer but as we could set the tempo in bpm in the application settings, I thought that the flashes were based on this setting and therefore it was possible to change the part of the screen that flashed to each flash, to go around the frame as you go, it would be easier to find your way around that way.
I actually activated the flashing only on stop (it stops when the song starts next)

Damir

Olivier that’s exactly what I do and it’s the only setting that makes it worth while having if you use backing audio, BOTH and PLAY ARE useful for LYRICS ONLY users as there is no audio to sync to.
The synced visual intro count in I use for some songs also as you can hit start walk away and still see when you are about to start, yes you could do this to the whole song but it would take forever to program in properly so it’s not worth it.
The current system works and it’s very simple to program and helps those that just need some guidance to enter their backing once you are on your backing track you use the ears and lyrics to sync to and you can always pause and still get our timing without stressing are you really on the first beat or not and still come in perfectly if your loops are created correctly, this all works great if you loop your whole song in to perfect segments so you can jump around , pause and still come in on time , that’s why I fully loop all my songs , so I get freedom on stage to manipulate my backing if needed.
If I needed drums only I would definitely use ST3 as it’s has 24 loop patterns I could program each song easily using same loops in different songs with different tempo but the extra benefit that really counts I could add the song lyrics to the loop sections so not only do I get drum backing but I also get lyrics served to me on screen which is something no drum machine has done yet, but I can see it coming, Peters ST3 is more powerful than people know it just needs a little tweaking to be absolutely perfect for virtually ALL, no more tack on external gear 😃

BrianL

Am wondering if anyone has tried to timecode the words as in “one” “two” “three” “four” in large letters and in time to the beat at the beginning of a track in edited lyrics?
Brian

Lishy

BrianL yes I do this both visually and audibly by dividing the BPM’s by 60 to get each count in measure.

Olivier

Lishy
Hi. I don't understand how you can do this while the song is not playing (i.e. to play acoustically before starting the audio)...? It seemed to me that the functionality was not there...?

Lishy

Olivier well I only have a 1, 2, 3, 4 count in so the whole band starts together where it sounds like you want to play for a different amount of time at the beginning of each song so unless you know how long this will be so that you can time stamp your lyrics accordingly, im not sure just a count in will work for you.
I have something like the following set up (for a song with a bpm of 96) and also have a backing track set up with an audible 1, 2, 3, 4 count in which all starts after i press play.
[00:00.00]# 1 [00:00.62]2 [00:01.24]3 [00:01.86]4

[00:02.48]INTRO

When timestamping the song I have to use the scroll to start at or as close to 2.48 as possible and then start the song and time stamp it all from there. It’s a little tricky but works well.

peter

You can set any tempo in the song details view independent of the audio file. Stage Traxx does not know the real tempo of your audio file and it also does not know where exactly the beats are. Therefore it is not possible to do something like the beat buddy does.

Skid

I start with 4 clicks which is where I say the song title then 4 clean click which I set as a loop then 4 more intros where I say ready, set, go, in. It takes 12 clicks and I can keep the click going in the loop to get everyone set and talk over the click (in my IEM). Auto start the next song and do the same thing.

This along with an iPad mini with headphone jack gives me 4 out...

Damir

Skid wow! That’s impressive you definitely spoon feed the band, I would do similar if I had a band again but I would make it so we can start more instantaneously , I would record the name of song on right Chanel of stereo file on left Chanel is mono backing, I then would make the name of song loop permanently , as the now playing song finishes I would have the next song start immediately announcing to band members the next song repeatedly as I ramble on to audience , as I release the permanent loop there would be a visual and audio count of 1 bar and were off.
This would be very fast and easy, having so many counts and announcements is just time consuming and makes everyone lazy in the long run.
But I like the concept.
I had a drummer that was using in ears with a click but after he got use to playing with backing tracks he preferred to hear the backing track and only hear a click when no other audio was present and the whole band benefited hearing the click in that part so using a stereo track is still the most efficient way to run in my opinion as multitrack and multiple outs is still too much work to create for the benefits gained.
Keep on Rockin 👍🎸

Skid

Damir Im doing a solo gig but picking up musicians where I can. They already have the set so it's not too hard to run it down. I can have the song title looping as I have to talk a bit and my mind is already going 240! the set runs back to back songs except the short time the loop runs while I gab.

These songs are very short (2-3min) old timey stuff so they need a little interaction. I like that your drums run free wheel.

Unfortunately, I am still having erratic playback with the ST3/AUM/JamUp Pro and Mic into iRig Quattro. 32%CPU rating but its just not a stable setup... Frustrating!