Suggestion/Discussion: Mapping Tempo To Grid, Grid Warping (A Solution to Tempo Changes)

[Nixter]

There is a nifty feature in Reaper where you can manually add and slide tempo markers on the grid to force tempo changes by the spatial relation of any two given markers (if you slide a point closer to the last point, the tempo increases, if you slide a point further away, the tempo decreases).

I timestamped the feature in use in this tutorial:


In the tutorial, this person goes so far as to map every beat. Simply mapping even just the start of a measure would have a similar effect in easily mapping tempo changes, and this would be incredibly useful for then programming in drums, or synths, etc. to lively performances that may not have been to a click track, etc. Not to mention BPM-dependent FX like delay.

This has immense potential in FL for the Playlist and how tempo changes can be interpreted via size relations instead of tempo adjustments displayed abstractly as a number controlled by an envelope. Often times, people complain of audio samples not lining up or behaving well with respect to tempo changes (it causes shortened and lengthened manipulations for faster and slower tempos, respectively. It also depends on where you start your playback to determine the initial size of samples, etc. you all know all about this). The initial BPM/Project BPM of a project coheres to the default playlist size. A BPM map created ala this Reaper function could then be "baked" into the playlist for width size configuration, which is just the ratio adjustment of any changed BPM vs the INT value. Here is a crude example of what that would do to the grid in its appearance, and how it would stretch and squish an audio sample:

BPM Grid.jpg

Audio Stretch.jpg

So if BPM 120, and there is a 60 BPM part, the grid would double its length (120/60=2 or 200%). If BPM was 120 and there was a 119 BPM part, then 120/119 = 1.0084 or just .84% longer. This means dragging piano rolls or step sequencer patterns that cross between grids will a) sync up just as a tempo automation currently does but also b) physically shorten or elongate in real time as its dragged across the grid.

Thoughts?

[samy.uyb]

HTF does this post not have a lot of likes and ...