control2tempo

[jmh]

I told you guys I was writing a plugin a while ago - 1999. It turned named sawpro markers into a tempomap. It looked atrocious but worked - but my finishing it had the unfortunate timing of sawstudio's release. Me, like most everyone else moved to studio. I was horrified to discover studio no longer had markers, the tempomap structure was different from what I painstakingly figured out through examining with a hex editor. Months of work for naught.

This niggled at me over the years. Several computers later, I thought there might be a way forward. I think my most recent version had been lost - although I located a backup in mostly completed condition. I quickly got it converted to convert control cues to a tempo map - and it almost worked. Months of sifting through binary edls and experimentation and voila!

https://drive.proton.me/urls/6504G1ACJR#vO1r42JMHOOr
Edit: I deleted the linked file. The new link is:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/9WTW5YJ6MC#Pj1pwB5kb7fe
jmh

...it probably works on SS64 too - although I have not tested it.

What is it for? Making tempo maps to live recordings. Doing it with control entries isn't ideal - but it works okay.

(I'm going to add more here...)

...my wife took away her computer. Back on.

This is the way I've used it so far (although I'm working on a tool to streamline this):

• Give your edl a new name - I am not positive that the edl we are going to create is stable (but so far so good). Better safe than sorry.
• turn off auto-undo
• make a couple of cue entries say on measures 1, and 10.
• name them 1 5/4 and 10 respectively. (you are in 5/4 because this is so f-ucking cool! - but use a different time signature if that is what your song is in)
• ^s ( to save - where ^ is the control-key)
• * (to make an undo)
• control2tempo.exe inputfilename.edl inputfilename.uXX (XX are two digits - whatever file the * step created - but not 00)
• ^<

once you get an initial map, you can add cues using the tempo as a naming guide, then repeat the last 4 steps as many times as you need.

Handy hot-keys:

shift-arrow (left or right lets you jump through tempo-map-entries when you are in tempo mode)

Did I say it is not a plugin? It is a utility.

This was initially an effort to resurrect an orphaned child - but became an exercise in stubbornness. The likelihood that I get compensated is pretty low - but if it turns out to be essential on a big-budget film or album, tell the producer that I'm to be paid $100,000. As for the rest of you, it is a new toy to play with. Enjoy...

John


P.S. There are a couple of oddball features like if you have many control entries, and would like to export them, run something like:

control2tempo.exe in.edl -c > spreadsheet.csv

[John Ludlow]

Hey John -

I'm not at all a MIDI expert - really just barely a MIDI user. I didn't know what a tempo map was. And it took a little research for me to finally grasp it. But now that I think I have - I think what you have made available is pretty great! Rather than starting in perfect, but unreal and antiseptic sounding, MIDI time and trying to match future tracks to that - you can allow an initial performed recording to have the minute changes in tempo that, to the human ear, relay emotional content to the listener, but then write future MIDI instruments that are not performed, and are initially written as if in exact time - that will still perfectly match the varying tempo of the original, performed, track after having applied the temp map gleaned from the initial track. Pretty cool! Thanks for making it for us. Or, anyway, making it for yourself and letting us have access to it.

[Dave Labrecque]

I told you guys I was writing a plugin a while ago - 1999...

Very cool, John. This could be most handy. The best way I know to do it now is through MWS, and it's a bit painstaking, though not horrible. And it doesn't work if one changes the "origin" of SAW's time line (the zero point). Do you know if your program can handle that? I like having a measure or two of count-in before the first measure of a performance starts.

Do I understand right that your program will only add one tempo change entry at a time? I ask because, typically, a performance will more or less continually vary in tempo. Meaning many, many tempo changes throughout a song.

[Dave Labrecque]

To be clear, John, is that second-to-last step meant to be typed into a command prompt window?

[jmh]

The best way I know to do it now is through MWS, and it's a bit painstaking, though not horrible.

Try doing the 'Gates of Delirium' by Yes*. If you made a mistake near the beginning, I think that would qualify as horrible. Now you can just drag or add a couple of cues to tweak, then regenerate the map. I've been putting my control track next to a kick or snare to align things.

And it doesn't work if one changes the "origin" of SAW's time line (the zero point). Do you know if your program can handle that?

Yeah. If you move HOME, the control points remain in position, so you can just regenerate the map.

I like having a measure or two of count-in before the first measure of a performance starts.

1 7/4 c14

...also with this utility, the first entry's measure must be '1'. This sample will become 'HOME' (unless the c parameter is used) If I see a need, I might change that, but for now, why?

Do I understand right that your program will only add one tempo change entry at a time? I ask because, typically, a performance will more or less continually vary in tempo. Meaning many, many tempo changes throughout a song.

No. you can do the whole song in one shot - but you do need at least 2 - otherwise there is no reference to set a preliminary tempo. You need a properly named cue at the beginning of each measure where there is a time signature change. In fact, I would suggest doing a pass to name all those points prior to tweaking the in-between.

I've been playing around with auto-hot-key (which I'm finding pretty cool). I'm not there yet, but all those steps can all be done with a couple of keystrokes. BTW regarding your next post, yes, this is a program that gets run on the command line. If one of you guys knows AHK, feel free...

* Regarding the Gates of Delirium; the program currently supports 600 tempo map entries (which after seeing the Masterworks tour, I know may not be enough). I didn't know about dynamic memory allocation on the original - and it is not worth learning for this, as I can re-compile it for whatever Studio supports, or some big enough number - but it wasn't time to ask Bob about it yet.

[jmh]

Hey John -

I'm not at all a MIDI expert - really just barely a MIDI user.

Sounds like you are talking about me. My original incentive was about fx like echo and reverbs that can chase the tempo, also I just like the timeline in tempo - and I share Dave's liking for a count-in. In fact, a couple of days ago, I had never tested it without the 'c' on measure 1 and found it didn't work without it (but it does now).

[Dave Labrecque]

Try doing the 'Gates of Delirium' by Yes*. If you made a mistake near the beginning, I think that would qualify as horrible.

Have you tried setting anchor points for a measure map in MWS? I don't think a mistake early on screws you for the rest of the song. All the anchors should remain anchored, no?

Anyway, still painstaking. But, now I'm thinking your utility is about the same, no? It still requires marking individual measures as needed. I do see the altered-Home-position compatibility as great thing. But am I missing something else? Besides the fact that it your method doesn't require MWS?

[jmh]

But am I missing something else?

Build up a map and find out. All I've ever done with MWS was build a few tempo maps - which I found equally difficult to do by hand in saw - but that could be that I either couldn't remember how between my attempts of map-making - or never learned how to do it properly in MWS. If so, that certainly wouldn't be the first time I have over-looked a feature in saw. That said, even now, I can build a map a very small fraction of the time - and one that is much more accurate than what I'd be able to achieve with in-saw-only method.

Tweaking the position of the control points - after you have made the map is what make it work. You can take a pretty haphazard approach just hit 'q' and 'enter' in quick succession during playback. If you had a sheet of paper and knew what measures you were going to (or had - but I'm incapable of counting while writing - or remembering) then just go back and name the cues. If your keyboard drumming is terrific, done. No learning curve required.

In sawpro a 'm' dropped a marker with no dialog popup - and it is geographically a little better on the keyboard, and as I remember, it was a little quicker to snap them to the cursor. All of those things are achievable in a plugin format (not to mention no monkeying with file names) - but not in '64 (BTW, if it doesn't work in 64, it's probably trivial to make it) - and it would have been more work because I would not use control ques but devised something else.

A little OCD will bring an autohotkey or powershell to streamline things in a way that will approach (but not get to) the ease of having it within a plugin.

[Dave Labrecque]

I hope to have time to try it out soon. Alas, not right now.

One thought: IIUC the way it currently works, each marker has to have the measure number manually entered. One of two enhancements would create a way to get around this "bottleneck" in the work flow:

1) control2tempo assumes each marker is the start of the next measure (requiring a marker be placed for each measure, which would be the case if the user placed all the downbeats (beat 1 of each measure) manually during playback using the Q key)
2) SS auto-increments each marker name/number as it's placed during playback, and control2tempo reads that number, ignoring any other text preceding it (does it already do this?)

Thoughts?

[jmh]

I hope to have time to try it out soon. Alas, not right now.

One thought: IIUC the way it currently works, each marker has to have the measure number manually entered. One of two enhancements would create a way to get around this "bottleneck" in the work flow:

1) control2tempo assumes each marker is the start of the next measure (requiring a marker be placed for each measure, which would be the case if the user placed all the downbeats (beat 1 of each measure) manually during playback using the Q key)
2) SS auto-increments each marker name/number as it's placed during playback, and control2tempo reads that number, ignoring any other text preceding it (does it already do this?)

Thoughts?

Stick with me Dave. It won't quite be like that - even better! I am discovering autohotkey has some features that fit right in with control2tempo. It is already doing more than I had hoped...

It is funny you mention auto-naming. It would have been fairly straightforward had I done this as a plugin, but this took on the shape that it has. Once it has some form, you think how to navigate through or avoid corners you are painted into. As it so happens, auto-naming is what I've tinkered with over the last few days. I find it is less work write something, then just read and read it to try to make it as good as you can in different moods before even compiling and testing. Not there yet, but I'm pretty sure it is going to work.

If anybody uses this and the output file is not a stable edl (other than not following the cue naming convention), please save a copy of the good input edl that it was generated from, as I'll likely have some questions. Anyway, it is working for me so far... Then again, I have been tinkering with this more than doing music.