When looping with an external MIDI clock, the Aeros sometimes:
a) outputs a loud click at the beginning of the loop!
b) doesn’t play a substantial portion of the end of the loop at certain tempos / loop lengths!
c) anticipates the beginning of the loop (this may just be my imagination, perhaps the click is warping my mind)
Yikes! My external MIDI clock BPM frequently changes between songs, and I play DJ-style sets, which is to say, non-stop music, with the looper augmenting the music that’s currently playing.
Is it possible to change the Aeros BPM while the external clock is still running, and keep it in sync with the external MIDI clock? It already seems to stay in sync, other than the bugs I’ve documented in my video.
I’d think Aeros would have to be set to master to change the bpm. I’m hoping they fix it to where once a song is recorded and saved at a certain bpm with Aeros as slave, it stops checking the master for the clock input.
I haven’t tried to change the bpm on a saved song… I assume that would mess up the timing. But having to reach down and reset the bpm between songs is a major pain especially since they’re touting this as a hands free looper.
I believe I heard them mention that they were implementing a “lock” feature for songs… I’m hoping they disengage the midi clock for locked songs.
Another option is once you have all your songs saved for a set, unplugging the midi cable for the entire set.
The Aeros should take whatever MIDI clock is coming in and sync to that speed, like every other piece of MIDI gear. If you want it to be the master, you should set the clock and it plays at that speed. If you want it to slave to something else, it should just follow the incoming clock.
It does do that… my issue is after a recording is made at a set bpm the Aeros still tries to adjust the recording to the new source bpm making it impossible to switch to songs without having to manually sync the source bpm even for playback.
Your MIDI output device does not seem to be read by the Aeros correclty. This is evident with the Aeros reading MIDI sync OFF. This means for whatever reason, the MIDI clock signal being sent is not being registered.
Once there are tempo changes, the Aeros will have both UX and audible “holes” caused by mismatch.
What’s odd here is that it seems to be responding to your MIDI Clock anyways, could you tell me what your set-up is?
As to the ability to fluctuate tempo in one song, that is not something the Aeros can do. Eventually, we would like to be able to find a way to splice and reformat parts to adjust to tempo changes, but this will likely prove to be a highly CPU intensive and often not very pleasing feature. This is because of the artifacts caused by changing audio’s playback rate.
As to recording and fluctuating tempo, this is not something we have considered, but it is unlikely we will take that route, because that would mean recording a tempo map, and that may not be feasible/worth the effort. For something so CPU intensive, you may be better off with a DAW set-up, this is after all only a pedal, it is not meant to replace a computer when a computer is necessary,
Still, you are more than welcome to post a feature request for recording a tempo map, we can consider it further, but no promises.
Thank you for your diligence with this video and your post!
These problems are all happening whether I change the tempo or not. As you can see in the video, the problem happens before I ever change the tempo.
In the video, I’m using a Squarp Hermod, which is a rock-solid MIDI sequencer. I’m currently using it with 6 other pieces of MIDI gear, and none of them have any problems staying synced to the MIDI clock, even when the tempo changes.
I’m not asking for you to do anything fancy with splicing or reformatting parts to adjust to tempo changes. I just want to make sure the clock stays in sync. I spent $599 on a looper pedal that claims “MIDI in/out ports for syncing seamlessly with the BeatBuddy, other drum machines, effects, and more.” and it doesn’t sync seamlessly with my other drum machines, effects, and more.
FWIW, I’ve also tried using Aeros MIDI synced to my PC, and the exact same thing happens.
Reiterating my original points a-c:
a) You need to fix the click at the beginning of the loop
b) You need to figure out why the entire loop isn’t playing and fix that. It’s happening regardless of any tempo change. It’s happening with multiple sequencers. If you need help recreating this, let me know, I’m happy to walk you through it, however my video already shows this happening.
c) Ignore this for now
This is due to MiDI sync not engaging on the Aeros. If it isn’t reading as “On” something is going awry.
Can I ask, what is the MIDI master clock In your setup, the Hermod? If so, is it set to use internal clock?
This is fixed in the current tested version
This is most likely due to the lack of adequate sync, once I can find the root of that problem I believe that will solve this one. Most of what you are seeing in your video arises from issues with MIDI sync that we have seen before, this is just a new cause for those issues, from what I am seeing.
Also, the pops will be fixed in the next release of the beta.
We understand your frustration but the Aeros is not going to be able to handle mid-playback tempo changes like that for some time, given that they are possible. For now, you must set a tempo for the whole song. If you wish to change the tempo, the Aeros will only change tempo if the song is cleared (not the same as undoing all tracks, you must hold Play/ Stop All while the Aeros is stopped to clear a song completely.)
There’s a reason people spend thousands of dollars on computers and set-ups, to achieve impeccable sound (of which the Aeros does offer) and match it with a heavy-duty processor that can do multiple complex tasks without overloading.
There comes a point where the Aeros will not be the solution, it is only a pedal, not a DAW. Changing the tempo of playback may be doable, but writing a tempo map while recording is far beyond something we have imagined for the Aeros.
I’ve tried with both the Hermod as master clock, I’ve tried with Pamela’s New Workout as master clock, and I’ve tried with REAPER on my PC as master clock. On all three, the Aeros plays back in sync, and on all 3, the audio is cut off at the end, exactly the way my video shows it.
This is without changing the tempo in any way, again, exactly as the video shows it.
I think I’ve made it exceptionally clear that this problem is happening without any kind of mid-playback tempo changes. I feel like you need to re-read what I’ve written and re-watch my video, since you’re hung up on mid-playback tempo changes, while I’ve repeatedly stated, and shown in my video, that the audio cuts off at the end of the loop before I’ve made any tempo changes.
In the video, I used the default Aeros settings with a minor tweak (as shown on the video), I pressed play on my sequencer, I recorded the audio, I played the loop, and it’s clear that the loop didn’t record correctly. I didn’t change the tempo, and that problem still happened.
Ok, I have done this, and it does fix the problem. If this is not something you’re going to fix, who should I contact for a refund, since I don’t think it’s reasonable to consider that having to stop the clock and do a full song reset aligns with your marketing materials: “MIDI in/out ports for syncing seamlessly with the BeatBuddy, other drum machines, effects, and more.”
Also, you may REALLY want to consider what you’re saying in these forum posts, since it’s not a good look to say this:
While the product description on the website says this:
I get that there are complexities here, but your asking price of $599 is approaching computer territory, your marketing materials say that the Aeros blurs the lines between traditional loopers and audio workstations, and then when responding to what could reasonably be called a bug you say, well, if you want that, use a computer.
If you’d like a refund please contact support@singularsound.com, and they will be able to assist you
I’d like to note that the Aeros is able to do all the tasks you quoted there, and I am only being honest with you. What you require is not something any looper can do as far as I know, especially not in our price range with the same song organization features the Aeros has. I’d highly suggest you look into other options to achieve this, as it may be some time before the Aeros can do either task, and it may never rival a computer set-up in this particular category.
I am hopeful about tempo changes to an already recorded song, but that’s not going to be out for some time.
Brennan, now that I understand the limitations (thank you for explaining them to me by the way) and have done some more experimentation, I think I might have a workaround.
Whenever I change tempo and want to record a new loop, this seems to work:
Clear my current Aeros loop, since Aeros won’t be able to change the current loop’s tempo along with external tempo change
Now change external tempo
Clear the current Aeros song by holding down the PLAY/STOP ALL button and selecting DELETE ALL
When ready, press record to record a new loop at the new tempo
I apologize, I had actually discounted this approach because in a previous firmware, I couldn’t reliably get Aeros to resume playing along with the external clock after I had done stopped it with the PLAY/STOP ALL button, but it seems to work now.
Does this approach make sense? Is there anything I’m missing that would prevent this for working reliably?
As far as I can tell, this should work fine, note we will be moving the location of the clear all, but it will work in the same way.
We are also planning on implementing a clear all midi command so that you can easily clear a song, no hold command needed. That will be in an update after Auto Quantize.
Assuming I haven’t already stopped Aeros, right now in order to clear all, I need to hold down the PLAY/STOP ALL button and select DELETE ALL. What will the new process be? It’s a little unclear to me from the post you linked. Also, what will holding down the PLAY/STOP ALL button do instead? Or will it be just press only?
In order to delete a song in the new system, you must first hold the left bottom button for new selection options to appear, then you will have the option to delete the song with the right-most button.
We plan to remove all commands form play stop all while the Aeros is stopped so that it can always be on the press.
