odd meter/time signatures?
Hi all,
I've looked through faqs and support docs and videos and couldn't find an answer, so hopefully someone here could chime in.
Much of my work is beatless and ambient (think Brian Eno, Stars of the Lid, etc) but I do sample and glitch quite a bit, so BM3 seems to be perfect for my writing. I do, however, use a lot of odd time signatures, even for beatless stuff -- meters like 5/4, 7/8, 9, 11, etc. I will do a lot of polyrhythms as well like 7 over 4, etc.
I can't seem to find a definitive answer though -- does BM3 support odd meters? I see in videos where the BPM is shown and right next to it I see 4/4... but almost everyone writes in 4, and I haven't seen any videos where someone is laying down a beat in something odd.
It's one of the reasons I've been sticking with Logic and never tried iOS apps at all -- as great as GarageBand mobile is, its meter/time signature support is pathetic.
Now that I've discovered great stuff like AUM and Sunrizer and Borderland, Tardigrain, Quanta etc I'm itching hard to ditch my laptop and try to do a mobile-only workflow, especially after seeing how powerful BM3 is. But if it only supports stuff like 3, 4 and 6 like GarageBand, I'm going to pass.
And I'm too cheap (poor?) to spend $25 to find out, lol.
Thanks for any insight!
Comments
I have some good news and bad news:
Good news:
- you can set the time signature to any number over four (eg X:4)
- even if your track is set to 4:4 time, you can create polyrhythms by building patterns of different length and joining them together on the timeline, such as 7:4 alternating with 3:4 (you just have to train yourself to ignore the metronome down beats)
Bad news:
- Time signature and tempo cannot be automated or changed during the song
Top tip:
For polyrhythms the metronome in Beatmaker3 will be next to useless, so I recommend turning off the built-in metronome and create your own click track on a spare bank to help you keep time when recording.
This is great news @tk32 thanks! While not perfect, it's still close enough for serious work. I'd imagine mixing and mastering in Logic anyway, so I suppose I can assemble weird polys there. The important thing is that BM can at least handle things like 5, 7, 9 etc.
It's 'odd' that BM can't handle beat/denominator other than 4.
When I do slow stuff I may set it to 6/8, but then I can 'swing' notes or drag or whatever with dotted triplets and the like, and the effect is pretty cool with ambient guitar when you add things like tape delay. An easy workaround would be to record a simple metronome or guide in Logic in 6/8, import into BM3, set the project to 6/4 and just turn off the internal metronome. Maybe even record a set of beat templates outside of BM and import for rainy days. I'm thinking out loud here. 
Thanks again, very helpful!
I have a theory the reason for keeping the measure a constant 4 is so that tempo-synced effect plugins do not get confused.
Imagine you have a delay plugin synced to 1/8 but the host keeps switching from 5:4 to 6:8 - i imagine this could be 'problematic'
I could be wrong though - as you say this is often possible with desktop DAWs.
@ringthane I've always wondered this too. Right there with you. I have to create the patterns manually.
Maybe the devs are active here and watch the boards? I'll put in a feature request and see where that leads...
The 'dev' is very active here, and watches everything
Ahhh, singular, got it
I see there is also a request for https://intua.net/forums/discussion/6373/tempo-changes-within-session
And also, if beats per measure/time sigs were made more robust it would be great to have an expanded metronome as well -- different tones for beats and bars for us idiots that 'feel' "1-e-&-ah-2-e-&-ah..." unconsciously. A simple but great feature in Logic, not sure if other DAWs or iOS apps have it.
You can build scratch track you're own metronome sounds. @5pinlink taught me this.
just make sure the track is unarmed and never goes to the song timeline. This is how I beat the included metronome and offers great control. I think there is a still a copy somewhere of my included one in the APC40 template I made that had all kinds of syncopations and click grooves to feel out. Not sure if its available. I lost that too.
There is “metronomes.bmk3” with 2 included samples (C high and C low) inside the APC40 template 1.2 zip file if that is what you are talking about @mefisme
Yes. I know. I made it.
I thought you were saying you lost that too, the zip I mentioned in previous post is the zip file I uploaded here the other day. I was just asking if those files were what you were looking for and trying to help by saying - IF thats what you were looking for, they are in that zip file.
That’s all - just trying to be helpful, not pushy!!
Misunderstanding. I’m starting to dislike words now because I apparently am unable to interpret. I didn’t see anything pushy.
No big deal, we all have are misunderstandings! You should see me when I am not on my meds (BiPolar, Severe clinical depression and ptsd), I snap on anybody and anything even if they are right! We all get a break