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Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information

Paul Davis wrote:
On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 8:56 PM, William Stewart <email@hidden> wrote: 
For a change from 3/4 to 4/8 the value of the beat does not change (thus, a
4/8 time sig will still have 2 beat values for that measure - the value of
the beat unit does not change as the time signature changes). In common
practise a beat is generally associated with a quarter note.
That seems pretty clear to me about what the plugin should expect.


OK, thanks, I'll take that as a clarification. My confusion stems from
the fact that I do not believe that it *is* common practice. Since the
docs I was reading date from Tiger, I wondered if this had been
clarified or altered since. 1 beat = 1 quarter note, so it shall be.



For the record, it isn't "common practice". It may be an unavoidable (even necessary) technical restriction, but it is unfortunate if that is somehow claimed to reflect (in some deliberate way) what musicians do.

In essence, we use a primary distinction between (number of) beats and division: duple or triple beats, etc, and simple or compound division, the latter being the "squares and triangles" I referred to earlier. 3/4 is triple "simple" time (three quarter-note beats), while 6/8 is duple compound (two dotted quarter-note beats). It is all described adequately here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_meter_(music)

And if anything, the compound division is the more common; dating back to the mediaeval period where triple compound was known as "tempus perfectum", being 3*3.

And anything that can be used to eliminate the bizarre concept of a "fractional downbeat" as described earlier, surely has to be a desirable goal; even if a technically challenging one. Only really naff conductors use fractional downbeats (if they use them at all).

Perhaps the documentation can be changed to say: "A beat is currently fixed to be a quarter note in all contexts. Note that in the presence of compound or assymetrical meters this may result in the start of a measure at a fractional beat, or in more beats in a measure being counted than the time signature would imply (e.g. 6/8 will be presented as 3/4)."

That at least leaves open the possibility of change. After all, it would be so limiting to have the impression Logic is aimed, um, squarely, at composers of "simple" dance music...



Richard Dobson




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References: 
 >AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: Paul Davis <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: Doug Wyatt <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: Richard Dobson <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: Doug Wyatt <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: Paul Davis <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: James McCartney <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: Paul Davis <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: William Stewart <email@hidden>)
 >Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information (From: Paul Davis <email@hidden>)



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