Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information
Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information
- Subject: Re: AU, plugin tempo, musical time information
- From: Doug Wyatt <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:29:56 -0800
And after writing that I realized that many sequencers, of course,
just choose some division of the quarter note (notice, quarter note,
not beat) and count in terms of 480ths, 960ths or whatever.
And that where it matters even more is when putting tempo into the
equation and trying to convert between a beat position and a host
time. It really seems better if tempo is expressed in a way that is
independent of the time signature -- and, in MIDI files, it is, as
microseconds per quarter note (again, quarter note, not beat).
On Nov 3, 2009, at 12:24 , Doug Wyatt wrote:
On Nov 3, 2009, at 11:05 , Richard Dobson wrote:
Doug Wyatt wrote:
.
Think of a measure of 7/8 as being 3.5 beats long. This isn't the
"canonical" way that a musician would think of it,
You're not kidding! Standard musical practice (I suspect amongst
drummers too) is to divide such patterns into "squares and
triangles" - 2+2+3, or 3+2+2; sometimes 4+3. Some modern scores
actually notate it that way, too.
Even 8/8 is not safe: think Bartok's pieces in "Bulgarian Rhythm" :
3 + 3+2. You will want everything to fit those accents, ~not~
quarter-notes.
but it makes perfect
sense to a drummer contemplating polyrhythms, and it does have the
advantage of a "beat" remaining constant in duration across meter
changes (unless there are also tempo changes).
I am intrigued to know how that is an advantage. Crotchets with
everything?
I have pieces where I improvised a steady stream of 16th notes, and
then superimposed a meter track on them, e.g.:
4/4 4/4 7/8 6/8 4/4 5/8 6/8 *
Now if I change my mind and decided I want to notate those 4/4's as
8/8's (so that the metronome clicks twice as often), I don't have to
go through the whole sequence and change the absolute beat location
of any of the MIDI note events. My little programs to assist in
creating a coordinate system (meter and tempo tracks) for a free
performance are certainly happier that way, plus, beyond my
convenience as a programmer, as a musician I'm losing precision in
the locations of the events every time I change a denominator in the
meter track.
Maybe there are track representations where beats are expressed in
the denominator of the time signature and this problem doesn't
exist, but I'm skeptical and/or myopic; I worked with the inventor
of MIDI files and have just always thought of things that way.
Doug
* After I just made that up I noticed that it adds up to 24 quarter
notes. Could be interesting.
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