• Features

  • Start Recording Playback on Nearest Quarter Note

I am a new Stage Traxx user, coming from SetListMaker and MultiTracker. I've been a quest to achieve the following via iOS apps:

I use only bass and drums backing tracks. I can create these as either separate audio files, or MIDI files with note on/off sent to separate drum and bass modules.

I also use a Boomerang hardware looper, which syncs to MIDI clock, on its own MIDI channel. The looper is able to record, start, and stop loops on the nearest quarter note. So, it "quantizes" loops to the nearest quarter note.

During my performance I would like the ability to start a MIDI clock, which would provide me with a tempo. I could then improvise on guitar to this tempo, start a guitar loop and then I would like to initiate playback (via tap or MIDI command) of my backing tracks (MIDI or audio) so that those tracks would begin playing on the nearest quarter note. They need to be in sync with the MIDI clock, and so in sync with the looper. This would provide me with freedom to improvise as long as I wish without being tied down to the start of backing track recordings.

In short, is there any way to start playback of MIDI or audio tracks after a clock is running, and so that they are predictably in sync with the clock?

    plainsong ive been dreaming of this for a few years, beeing able to stop/start on the nearest beat so you can neatly exit and enter a backing track on the run, and then some basic looping points within the song so we can loop around the basic structure of a songs till the cows come home and then seamlesly continue to the next song, this looping type of control is on the next to do list according to Peter, it will be an absolute breakthrough in playback capability for live giging musicians but how and when is this going to happen is the unknown, i just hope its going to happen while im still performing as i always wanted this ever since digital took over.
    I can see you are running your gigs very technically challenging to achieve something that should be quite simple in the digital world but because we havent got enough Peters in the computer geek world we have been forgotten, hopefully Peter will give us the tools we should have had ages ago.

      Stage Traxx can only send MIDI clock not receive it because there is no beat grid attached to the audio files. Stage Traxx can also not follow tempo changes in the clock signal so there is really no reason to listen to midi clock.

      The other way around where ST3 would send a clock signal all the time and not only when playback is running and delay the start command to the next quarter note on the clock might be possible to implement in future if this is what you need. But you would need to make sure that your audio file starts exactly on a beat and has exactly the tempo you set on the midi clock. Even very slight tempo variations would lead to the clock being out of sync due to the missing beat grid.