Synching NDLR with other sequencers questions/requests/bug report

[rens]

First, Darryl and co, massive congratulations on a cool sequencer! Its really great! I did not learn about it until after the kickstarter had concluded but Im thrilled that I was able to get in on a straight purchase. Really impressed. And I'm only just starting to get my head around the LFO tweaking.

Now, on the the matter at hand. I'd like to use the NDLR as part of a multi-sequencer setup that will allow me to free up my hands for playing guitar and horn. I use Ableton pretty extensively for writing and production, but for my live rig I'm planning to pair NDLR with Engine, my hardware sequencer of choice. I've currently only used NDLR with Ableton, but there are some gotchas. I have three related questions:

1> As discussed in another thread, it seems to start from where it was paused....this is a bit problematic as I'd prefer on START (0xFA) it starts at the beginning and only resume from where it STOPed (0xFC) on CONTINUE (0xFB) . Is that possible? I believe from the other thread on this that you are working on beta firmware for this? I'd be happy to beta test for you if thats so. If other people would like different behavior, perhaps add something in the settings to pick?

2> I see there is pad quantisation available to NONE, 1/4, and 1/8 notes. How about Bar quantisation? this would make life much easier with Ableton. In an ideal world I could make a change to the NDLR via the buttons or MIDI, and have it take effect only at a bar boundary. I think this would involve your using SP (0xF2) ... is that possible/on the roadmap/gonna happen?

3>I am seeing some strange behaviour with armed tracks being 1 beat late when pad is quantised to a 1/4 note. It seems readily reproducible. For example, I start a sequence sending notes to the NDLR control channel alongside another clip with a regular beat...if the NDLR is on pad quantise none, the pad hits on the 1. if pad quantise is 1/4, then the pad hits on the 2. Bug? I'm on 1.1.009 which I think is the latest if the website is to be believed. I'd much prefer to quantise changes so I can 'pre launch' the way one does with ableton clips, for instance, to avoid live chaos when multitasking.

I hope this is useful and helpful feedback and questions. Im hoping that the NDLR can free me from the screen and keyboard! As above, I'd be happy to help you with testing and reproduction...I know you have a pretty small user base so far.

peace

Rens

[rens]

Folks-

Any ideas especially on bug number 3, below? 

Have i posted this in the wrong place?

I was not expecting radio silence....

[Darryl]

Rens, sorry for the slow response. We have a long list of to-do's outside of new features. It's going to take a while to go through the list. At some point we'll probably do a poll to see what is most important.

Regarding your questions:

1) We are not currently working on changing this, but its on the list of behaviors we'd like to improve based on the general user consensus.
2) Interesting idea, we can consider it. I don't think it would be to difficult.
3) You should update to the latest firmware. Its been available in the beta forum for a while, but we've just put it on the download page of the website. Its version 1.1.020. There were some sync issues fixed. Please let us know if this addresses the issue you are seeing and if not we will definitely take a closer look.

[rens]

Thanks Darryl!

I have upgraded to 1.1.020

3 is definitely still happening. I am doing the following to test:
- connected via USB only to mac running ableton for routing.
- sync in from USB1 (ableton clock)
- control channel from ableton sending notes C5, etc in a 16 bar loop
- arm the pad and the motif 1 parts
- start ableton:
if pad quantise is on, the pad start is delayed by the value of pad quantise; i.e. it does not catch a note right on the 'down' beat.
with pad quantise off, it starts on the 'down'

Is this enough for you? is there anything else I can provide for you to replicate and isolate this?

Regarding 1 and 2; cool. I'd LOVE it if you got to implementing number 1...as it is its great for 'noodling' in a writing mode, as input to another sequencer.... but not so good for predictable use in a live context.

[drGrov]

I've noticed the same problem with #3 driving the NDLR from my Deluge. Any chord changes don't take effect until the next quantized note generated by the NDLR. With chord changes on the first beat of a bar I get the same results with pad /drone as rens. It also means any motifs play the first note of a bar (if there is one) in using the old chord and don't change until the 2nd note.

I think what's happening is the NDLR is receiving and processing the external MIDI clock message before it sees the note on message. By the time the note on message is seen, all the work for the first step has been done and so the chord change can't happen until new notes are generated. My workaround is to shift the chord change notes a 64th of a step backwards so they arrive before the clock. It works but it's not ideal when you're working with a clip based sequencer.

[Darryl]

Ok, we are looking into it. I think we have enough data to repro.

[rens]

Ok, we are looking into it. I think we  have enough  data to repro.

Excellent! Let me know if I can provide more info.

[rens]

You guys are excellent... real example of how to support a new product launch. Cheers!

You’ve fixed all te bugs that were holding me back.

I know youre busy on a timing uppate, but have you given any thought to the ‘bar quantise’ feature above?