Sub dividing DAW synced timer

[Blake.Manternach]

Hello,

I've been working on a sequencer plugin for some time, I've got a working POC that syncs with the daw by using a transport handler and the on grid callback to play midi notes every time the daw increments a step. However, I want my plugin to have the ability to play 8th notes and triplets and subdivide the beats coming from the daw...any ideas on how to implement this? I'm assuming I'll have to switch from using transport handler completely to a timer object but wondering how best to keep that timer object in sync with the Daws metronome including live tempo changes

[Lindon]

@Blake-Manternach set your Grid to a very small increment (say 1/96) and implement a counter in your transport call back: so 1/4 = 24/96 - so to get 1/4 beat playback fire when the counter = 24 and then reset...

[Blake.Manternach]

@Lindon
Yes that'd be a work around, to just subdivide using the DAW however I'd like to accomplish this without the DAW if possible - so if the DAW grid is set to 4/4 I want to be able to subdivide eighth notes or 16ths based on that....I'm imagining the only way to accomplish this is going to be to have my own timer object running in conjunction w/ the DAW and trying to keep it perfectly in sync w/ the DAW however I'm nervous it could potentially fall out of sync after some time especially after tempo changes if they were to happen live within the DAW. Maybe this just straight up isn't possible and what you're suggesting by setting the grid in the DAW is the only workaround?

@d-healey any ideas on this?

[Lindon]

@Blake-Manternach said in Sub dividing DAW synced timer:

@Lindon
Yes that'd be a work around, to just subdivide using the DAW however I'd like to accomplish this without the DAW if possible - so if the DAW grid is set to 4/4 I want to be able to subdivide eighth notes or 16ths based on that....I'm imagining the only way to accomplish this is going to be to have my own timer object running in conjunction w/ the DAW and trying to keep it perfectly in sync w/ the DAW however I'm nervous it could potentially fall out of sync after some time especially after tempo changes if they were to happen live within the DAW. Maybe this just straight up isn't possible and what you're suggesting by setting the grid in the DAW is the only workaround?

@d-healey any ideas on this?

This approach has nothing to do with the DAW. ...I am not suggesting you set the grid in the DAW, set it in your Transport handler...

In your plugin set your transport handler to use the grid, set the grid to some very small value (like say 1/64),

TransportHandler.setEnableGrid(bool shouldBeEnabled, int tempoFactor)

At this point the DAW is set to 4/4 so you are going to get your callback called 16 times per beat....

now have a counter in your transport handlers grid call back:

if counter == 0 - this is a quarter beat, so do something
counter++
if counter > 16 set the counter = 0 - again a quarter beat...so do something

same logic if you want 1/16ths

if counter == 0 - do something...
counter++
if counter > 4, set counter = 0 - do something...

use the modulo(remainder %) function to decide when to do something...

[Lindon]

@Lindon I'd show you an example only now I cant get the GridChange function to work,.. can anyone debug this very simple bit of code?

reg Kounter = 0;
const var th = Engine.createTransportHandler();
th.setEnableGrid(true,18);
inline function onGrid(a,b,c) 
{
	Console.print(Kounter);
	Kounter++;
};

th.setOnGridChange(true, onGrid);

[Lindon]

@Lindon yeah forgot the

th.setSyncMode(th.PreferExternal);

[Lindon]

@Lindon ok so like this:

Content.makeFrontInterface(600, 600);
reg Kounter = 0;
const var th = Engine.createTransportHandler();
th.setSyncMode(th.PreferExternal);
th.setEnableGrid(true,18);
inline function onGrid(a,b,c) 
{

	Console.print("K:" + (Kounter%4 ));
	if (Kounter%4 == 0)  
	   Console.print("do something...");
	Kounter++;
};

th.setOnGridChange(true, onGrid);

[Lindon]

@Lindon whilst we are here.. can anyone tell me what a,b and c are in the function params???

I see in the snippet browser

(index, timestamp, isFirst)

index of what?
timestamp of what?
isFirst, of what?

[Blake.Manternach]

@Lindon ah had no idea that's what the grid did, thank you so much for the clarification

[Lindon]

@Blake-Manternach said in Sub dividing DAW synced timer:

@Lindon ah had no idea that's what the grid did, thank you so much for the clarification

no problem - it only goes up to a resolution of 1/32 however, but that should be OK for most cases..nope thats a "bug" in my system - seems to go all the way to 1/64T now....