Hi and tempo tracking for sync

["Michael Stauffer" <michael@circular-logic.com>]

Hi everyone,

I came across Loopers Delight indirectly today after someone suggested I
check out what Keller Williams is up to in VA. Anyone heard of him? They
say he puts on impressive live solo shows with his guitar and a Lexicon
MPX unit with JamMan looping.

I've just barely got into looping myself, after I played around recently
with Ableton Live to see how it would work with some software my little
startup company has put together. I was checking through the Loopers
Delight archives and saw the discussion last June on the difficulties
getting some drummers to follow the loop tempo, and associated tempo sync
problems.

Let me put in a plug for the software I've programmed (my partner Ed
invented it): InTime. It does live tempo-tracking/beat-detection of any
performance. It acts as a flexible sync master (midi clocks) for any
capable hardware or software. It can handle polyrhythms and syncopations
with ease and doesn't even need a downbeat. It can handle large sweeping
tempo changes or be set just to follow changes within a small range of
tempos, or just the feel of a player. Currently it works just on midi
instruments, but we're developing an audio version that will work on
melodic and harmonic instruments, and not just highly percussive,
rhythmic instruments. One of our early users put a couple midi triggers
on his acoustic drumkit and uses them to trigger InTime, since InTime
only needs timing information. There's more info at our site:
www.circular-logic.com.

Regarding the thread about drummers and sync'ing to loops, InTime could
help by allowing the drummer to be more naturally flexible. It also
allows the whole performance to take on more natural tempo changes and
nuances. The drummer (and other bandmembers) would still have to listen
to whatever's controlled by InTime, but it's like listening to another
musician instead of a rigid click-track.

My background is as a guitarist and percussionist. I've got a Roland G2
guitar pickup and I send the midi info to InTime, which then controls the
sync for Ableton Live. I play the guitar through an amp to get a
traditional electric guitar sound instead of the midi guitar synth
sounds - old dogs and new tricks, you know! So far I've mostly put
traditional rhtyhm loops in Ableton and messed around with playing along
with them to control the tempo and feel of the loops. Ableton's nice
because it time-stretches in realtime (or does it tempo-adjust slices?).
Any software or hardware that timestretches or handles tempo changes of
sliced loops would work nicely. I think I'm getting the bug, though, and
would like to hook up Ableton to be able to switch loops via my midi
footswitch unit.

I hope it's not inappropriate to plug my software here. It seems like it
might be a good fit for some of you, and we're trying to get ourselves
off of the starting block.

Cheers,
Michael Stauffer
michael@circular-logic.com
www.circular-logic.com