BPM Sync duration not dependent on tempo?

Post your questions here and we'll all try to help.
Post Reply
p8guitar
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2017 18:20

BPM Sync duration not dependent on tempo?

Post by p8guitar »

Quotation from the manual: "In order for BPM Synced clips to work right, you will need to set the number of beats that the clip spans in the Transport section. By default, Resolume will guess the right amount of beats for you based on the length of the clip. It will guess to the nearest power of 2, so it will set the clip to 1, 2, 4,
8, 16, 32, 64, 128 etc beats for you."

When I import a 7 s clip from the explorer to Resolume, Resolume guesses 16 beats duration, regardless of the tempo of the composition. Why does the 7 s clip which is imported in a 240 bpm composition get 16 beats duration (it should be 28 beats), and the same 7 s clip imported in a 60 bpm composition gets 16 beats duration, too (it should be 11,7 beats)?!? 28 should be rounded up to 32 beats, and 11,6 beats should be rounded down to 8 beats.

By the way - Resolume guesses the duration to the nearest power of 2. With long clips, there can be a huge
difference to the "real" duration of the timeline mode, which makes the clip run much too fast or slow.
it would be nice to have the option to guess the duration with a multiple of 2 (or 4, 8, 16...), not with the power of 2. I admit that most of the time you will have durations with the power of 2 in a usual music arrangement, but sometimes you don't...

Zoltán
Team Resolume
Posts: 7108
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 13:08
Location: Székesfehérvár, Hungary

Re: BPM Sync duration not dependent on tempo?

Post by Zoltán »

As the manual says, it's a guess indeed.
We're basing the guess on the default composition tempo currently. It's a nice median value, so you get consistent results importing your clips and different composition BPM.

p8guitar wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 14:45 When I import a 7 s clip from the explorer to Resolume, Resolume guesses 16 beats duration, regardless of the tempo of the composition. Why does the 7 s clip which is imported in a 240 bpm composition get 16 beats duration (it should be 28 beats), and the same 7 s clip imported in a 60 bpm composition gets 16 beats duration, too (it should be 11,7 beats)?!? 28 should be rounded up to 32 beats, and 11,6 beats should be rounded down to 8 beats.
What if you import your clip into a 240BPM composition, then decide to change the composition BPM to 60 for some reason? Your clip would the play a lot slower than expected.
Does this happen to you that you need to change BPM this way at all?
p8guitar wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 14:45 it would be nice to have the option to guess the duration with a multiple of 2 (or 4, 8, 16...), not with the power of 2.I admit that most of the time you will have durations with the power of 2 in a usual music arrangement, but sometimes you don't...
Resolume can't really guess when you don't need musical measures ;)
Software developer, Sound Engineer,
Control Your show with ”Enter” - multiple Resolume servers at once - SMPTE/MTC column launch
try for free: http://programs.palffyzoltan.hu

p8guitar
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2017 18:20

Re: BPM Sync duration not dependent on tempo?

Post by p8guitar »

I think that I'm not a typical Resolume user, because I use it to make Videos for my band. Most of the time I use a clip only for one song, so the tempo will not change after the clip has been imported to Resolume.
Most users will need a clip to be usable for a variety of tempos, so the default "bpm guess" is a good choice.

It's just a bit cumbersome for me to calculate the number of beats that match the original tempo the best, I'd like to have the choice to let Resolume do this. But maybe it is not a good idea to overload the preferences with a lot of options that could confuse the users.

Zoltán
Team Resolume
Posts: 7108
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 13:08
Location: Székesfehérvár, Hungary

Re: BPM Sync duration not dependent on tempo?

Post by Zoltán »

p8guitar wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 17:54 It's just a bit cumbersome for me to calculate the number of beats that match the original tempo the best, I'd like to have the choice to let Resolume do this.
Is this a single clip for a single song?
If so, including the song as audio, could help to auto detect BPM from the audio.
Also with AV clips you have the option to set the BPM Sync based on the BPM too.
Software developer, Sound Engineer,
Control Your show with ”Enter” - multiple Resolume servers at once - SMPTE/MTC column launch
try for free: http://programs.palffyzoltan.hu

Post Reply