Limit tap tempo to whole numbers

L

Logan Boland

Member
Is there any way to make the tap tempo on the pbc6x round to the nearest whole number instead of doing decimal tempos? Sometimes with my lvx or other time based pedals that dont like .5 tempos, it will cause them to stutter or stop the effect while it is moving +/- 1bpm. Like my meris lvx, it will completely cut off the delays and wont produce new ones until about a second after receiving the new tempo. Typically when i program songs Im tapping in and saving the bpms during rehearsal, so would love a fix for this. I have decimal tempo turned off in the globals.
 
There's a setting in global settings "Decimal Tempo" - turn that off, and it'll round tempos to the nearest whole number.
 
When I tap in a tempo and hit store, if I go to edit preset it shows decimal tempos still. Not sure if that’s what reporting means
 
I was referring to the tempo it shows on screen as you tap (at least, it does if Show Tempo is turned on).

It's been years since I've looked at the tap tempo code, but it's quite possible that Decimal Tempo changes how the tempo is displayed on screen, but doesn't actually do any rounding to the tap tempo rate. That would be more consistent with what you're seeing.

I'm not sure if the problem is related to having exact round number BPM numbers. I feel it's more likely that the tempo coming out of the PBC is varying a little and the pedals don't handle it well. Tap tempo over MIDI is not terribly reliable, and is much better suited for syncing sequencers and drum machines than it is for controlling delay repeats or modulation rate.

It would be a lot better if there was a way to simply send a tempo value to a pedal as "120" as opposed to trying to send a bunch of MIDI messages that are exactly 1/2 second apart (which is what tap tempo does). I seem to remember maybe one pedal that could do this. I should probably contact some manufacturers and see if there's any interest in adding that functionality.

In any case, I'll look into it further. I don't currently have an LVX here, are there other brands of pedals that have similar problems? I'm hoping I already have one of them on hand.
 
I’m not using it as tap tempo I believe, just tapping and then midi clock is taking over internally on the pbc. It is also happening with my walrus m1 mkii I just got. With decimal tempos turned off and hitting store on the pbc this is what is displayed in the preset.
 

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Sorry, meant to refer to MIDI clock, which is actually more touchy than direct tap tempo by CC, because MIDI clock runs 24 times faster than real time and is continuous. Small errors add up quickly, and any other MIDI commands sent by the controller can easily disrupt the MIDI clock stream and cause variations in timing.

I have version 1 D1 and M1 pedals. I'll try those when I have a chance and see what I can find out.
 
Awesome, thanks! When I take the time to manually program in the tempos to the exact decimal zero, it sends perfectly. I was just mainly wondering if there's any sort of patch that would allow tap tempo to be rounded when decimal tempo is turned off. That would seemingly fix the issue
 
Logan Boland said:
Awesome, thanks! When I take the time to manually program in the tempos to the exact decimal zero, it sends perfectly. I was just mainly wondering if there's any sort of patch that would allow tap tempo to be rounded when decimal tempo is turned off. That would seemingly fix the issue
Click to expand...
If you manually edit the tempo to be 100.5 or something fractional like that, does it result in problem behavior?
 
I've been playing with this and I can't get it to happen with the D1 I have here. 150 BPM gives the same solid delay as 150.3 BPM, for example.

In thinking about it more, it still doesn't seem like whole numbers could be the issue. Two devices are not going to be able to be 100% accurate to the point that one device thinks its sending 100 BPM and the receiver will agree that it's exactly 100 BPM. It's more likely that the receiver will see it as 99.94 BPM or something like that.

What does your MIDI chain look like? What's the first device connected to the PBC's MIDI output, what's next, etc.? Where are the Meris and Walrus pedals in there?

Also, have you tried the MIDI clock pulse limit option in the Mastermind? This causes it to send only a fixed number of MIDI clock pulses instead of a continuous stream. It only sends clock pulses when the tempo changes. The idea behind this is to send just enough pulses to communicate the new tempo, then stop so that there's less chance of temporary fluctuations causing the tempo to warble. Many pedals (not all) will just keep going at the last tempo that was received, so this method often works. Walrus even mentions using a option like this in the D1 manual.
 
My chain right now is Mercuryx, lvx, microcosm, disaster area midi box with mood mkii and walrus m1 mkii, pog2. The issue happens on my lvx the most. I have a page dedicated to adjusting tempo after I tap it by bpm and .1 bpm, the issue is it doesnt save to a preset when i hit store.
 
Logan Boland said:
My chain right now is Mercuryx, lvx, microcosm, disaster area midi box with mood mkii and walrus m1 mkii, pog2. The issue happens on my lvx the most. I have a page dedicated to adjusting tempo after I tap it by bpm and .1 bpm, the issue is it doesnt save to a preset when i hit store.
Click to expand...
Saving the tempo is fixed in the release that I'm actively working on now.
 
Okay, it wasn’t working but I had all of the left buttons turned on I think. I’ll try turning everything off and see if that works
 
Not sure if this relates, but my LVX is acting up with midiclock also. It stops, almost like it is turned off for a few beats, then starts again. It cycles pretty regularly. I use tap tempo. I’ve not looked at it as a decimal issue. But I can tell that it coincides with midiclock because it always happens on beat (looking at the LVX light that flashes in tempo). Again, could be unrelated, but I find it happens primarily when I am using USB to connect to my Mac. I use the Mac both for the PBC editor, and also for the LVX and MercuryX editor (called preditor). I’ll often switch between the two while creating sounds. It seems as if when I unplug the USB, the problem stops. So I’ve gotten into the habit of unplugging when playing around, and then plugging in to make changes. It has happened with the MercuryX also, but more with the LVX. I’ve thought about getting a midisplitter because I thought it could be that too many devices were chained together for midi and the signal was getting weak or something. Not sure if it helps, but I’ve been following this since I’ve experienced something similar recently.
 
On your Mac, I recommend running MIDI Monitor (www.snoize.com). You can watch what's being sent by the Mac to the other devices - maybe it'll give us a clue as to what's going on.
 
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