I often want to start playing guitar without drums, and I want drums to kick in later, so I “start” the BB (to make it send START command via MIDI, so that Aeros will keep in sync, but it does not start recording automatically), then I pause BB (which is a “mute” pause), then I start recording on Aeros, and when I want drums to kick in, I do the fill on BB or just unpause it. So while I’m recording the loop without drums, I’m relying on clicks which Aeros generates.
I was always bothered by my loop not being perfectly in sync with the drums. For some time I was trying to think that it’s just my playing being sloppy, but today I actually did some testing, and indeed, on time signature 6/8, on 60bpm, clicks are off by 20-45ms! (comparing to drums from BB). Take a look at the screenshots:
Left channel (above) is BB, Right channel (below) is clicks from Aeros:
So Aeros generates the click a bit earlier than BB generates a drum hit. If we measure the difference, it’s from ~25 ms:
To even 40+ ms sometimes:
It’s pretty annoying, it’s enough to make people hear that the loop isn’t really in sync. I’m actually not exactly sure whether it’s a problem with BB or Aeros, but those two clearly disagree on something.
Interestingly enough, things are fine on the signature 4/4, clicks are at most a few milliseconds off, I personally don’t hear it. But on 6/8, it’s really bad.
For what it’s worth, also attaching the mp3 file from which those pictures were taken: clicks_6-8.zip (forum doesn’t allow to attach mp3 so I had to zip it)
I was using 60 bpm for those pictures; on lower bpms (like 40bpm) the problem is even more obvious.
To reproduce:
- Make sure Aeros generates clicks all time
- On BB, set tempo to 40 bpm
- On BB (assuming the standard SD card content), select “Odd Time / Odd Time 3 - 6/8”
- On Aeros, create a new song, set the time signature 6/8
- Start BB, to make in send START command via MIDI. If Aeros is set to record automatically, it’ll start recording and generate clicks; on this bpm you’ll be able to hear that clicks aren’t in sync with the drums.
BB firmware 3.8.0, Aeros firmware 2.15.5.
Would you please look into it?