Beat Wizard Demo

[michael.farney]

Here is a tutorial that will help you get the most milage out of the beat wizard. It has some tips and hints to get the beat wizard to perform when it has trouble finding the beats correctly. This is just from my experience. Hopefully, other will add their insight and tips on the beat wizard as well.

The audio is a bit low on this one and the transition at the end cut me off mid sentence. But, it's 3am and I'm done messing with it.

Please chime in with questions and other tips for getting high performance out of the beat wizard.

Video:
High Res: http://pc.lightoramasequences.com/Beat%20Wizard/BeatWizardHigh.wmv (27 meg)
Low Res: http://pc.lightoramasequences.com/Beat%20Wizard/BeatWizardLow.wmv (13 meg)

[Michael Bryant]

Your Demo Video was very helpful to me. Before I had no use for the beat wizard, because it always had the beat incorrect. Now I think it will be a helpful tool, after you showed me how to use it in a different way. Thanks for your sleepless night's work. Your videos make it much easier to understand whats going on, keep them coming.

Thanks Michael

[Scott Laska]

excellent job thanks

[JimCanfield]

Very well done. I was not aware that you could put different sections of the beat wizard in (the last thing you showed). That will make it easier. Thank you for your hard work!

[Ben Hopkins]

Thanks for the video very informative and helpful, one question I did try your steps with a audio file, I noticed when you applied your timmings in looks like your timing are being inserted at 0.05 in which mine are not being inserted like your video, for example the first timing mark is 0:00.29 -0:00.49 is there a setting I need to adjust to get my insert to look like the insert on your video, I hope this makes sense.


Ben

[Ben Hopkins]

Here is a photo of what it looks like after I use the beat wizard


Attached files

[michael.farney]

Ben Hopkins wrote:

Thanks for the video very informative and helpful, one question I did try your steps with a audio file, I noticed when you applied your timmings in looks like your timing are being inserted at 0.05 in which mine are not being inserted like your video, for example the first timing mark is 0:00.29 -0:00.49 is there a setting I need to adjust to get my insert to look like the insert on your video, I hope this makes sense.


Ben

Are the grid marks landing on the beat OK? If so, then you can use a faster related tempo to get timing marks more frequently but still on the tempo. When you play the song, watch how fast the blue squares change in the beat wizard. This is how often timing events are going to be inserted. Keeping increasing the faster related tempo value until the blue squares move at the speed you want.

The reason why my song has it faster by default is because my song has a faster beat than your song. LOR will insert the timings based on where it thinks the beat is. So, if it thinks the beats are really fast, you'll get close markings. If it thinks the beat is really slow, you'll get markings that are further apart (like yours.) All you need to do is select a faster or slower related tempo in the beat wizard to get it to insert values more often or less often.


Attached files

[Peter B]

Michael,

Nothing more to say other than BRILLIANT

Well done,



Pete.

[Ben Hopkins]

Thanks for your help.


Ben

[wirekat]

Thanks Michael!

[RickMosher]

Michael,

Thanks for the demo. I have to tell you, this entirely changes the way I'm sequencing now and they seem to be turning out much better.

Thanks again!

Rick

[Greg Young]

Nice job on the beat wizard Mike. Your explanation and examples should help folks having issues with it's apparent mis-judging on the actual tempo!

Catch you again at the next Chicago mini?

Greg

[Peter B]

Hi All,

Being a newbie and based in the UK (so cannot easily get to special events that go on throughout the year) I and probably many more would pay for a professionally made DVD by you guys or LOR. Then we would be able to view on the TV whilst learning on the laptop etc.

ANYBODY going to take this on

Pete.

Ps: Aimed at you Michael.farney. get you into a pro studio (that'll be good, and earn you money).

[Greg Young]

Peter B wrote:

Hi All,

Being a newbie and based in the UK (so cannot easily get to special events that go on throughout the year) I and probably many more would pay for a professionally made DVD by you guys or LOR. Then we would be able to view on the TV whilst learning on the laptop etc.

ANYBODY going to take this on

Pete.

Ps: Aimed at you Michael.farney. get you into a pro studio (that'll be good, and earn you money).

Like I need anymore work, but I can never refuse a challenge, so...

Mike Farney, if you are at all interested in a DVD production, email me, and we can talk further. It seems I some ideas all of a sudden..

Email me at: geyoung@roadrunner.com

Greg

PS Pete - My DVDS are produced in NTSC. While I can completely edit the audio and video, and then output into the PAL format, none of my monitors, etc will accept PAL, which makes it a little tough to assemble the edited video into a DVD!

I could I suppose output it in PAL DVD format, without any chapters (as I couldn't see the video to insert same), but I being the rather picky sort I am when it comes to quality, wouldn't feel I did a good job...

Hmm, got to think about a PAL formatted DVD a little more....

[michael.farney]

Email sent.

[Peter B]

Greg Young wrote:

Peter B wrote:

Hi All,

Being a newbie and based in the UK (so cannot easily get to special events that go on throughout the year) I and probably many more would pay for a professionally made DVD by you guys or LOR. Then we would be able to view on the TV whilst learning on the laptop etc.

ANYBODY going to take this on

Pete.

Ps: Aimed at you Michael.farney. get you into a pro studio (that'll be good, and earn you money).

Like I need anymore work, but I can never refuse a challenge, so...

Mike Farney, if you are at all interested in a DVD production, email me, and we can talk further. It seems I some ideas all of a sudden..

Email me at: geyoung@roadrunner.com

Greg

PS Pete - My DVDS are produced in NTSC. While I can completely edit the audio and video, and then output into the PAL format, none of my monitors, etc will accept PAL, which makes it a little tough to assemble the edited video into a DVD!

I could I suppose output it in PAL DVD format, without any chapters (as I couldn't see the video to insert same), but I being the rather picky sort I am when it comes to quality, wouldn't feel I did a good job...

Hmm, got to think about a PAL formatted DVD a little more....

Greg, The NTSC format makes no difference to me here in the UK. I can view both formats.

[Greg Young]

Jeff Millard wrote:

It's nice for us that you love this so much Greg... but probably hard on you huh?

Jeff

Hey Jeff:

My wife would have something (actually quite a bit) to say about all of that. Fortunately (for me) she is not on any of the forums, and didn't catch me volunteering for anything else..

Greg

[Greg Young]

Peter B wrote:

Greg Young wrote:

PS Pete - My DVDS are produced in NTSC. While I can completely edit the audio and video, and then output into the PAL format, none of my monitors, etc will accept PAL, which makes it a little tough to assemble the edited video into a DVD!

I could I suppose output it in PAL DVD format, without any chapters (as I couldn't see the video to insert same), but I being the rather picky sort I am when it comes to quality, wouldn't feel I did a good job...

Hmm, got to think about a PAL formatted DVD a little more....

Greg, The NTSC format makes no difference to me here in the UK. I can view both formats.

That makes it even easier!

Greg

[JimCanfield]

I have been following this thred very closely trying to figure out the beat wizard. Maybe it is th esong that I am doin but I cannot get it to work. No matter how short or how long I make the beat wizard play it never gets the beat right. Also I hate the fact that it messes up my timing grid. It takes out the .10 secong grid boxes and adds all kinds of others. I even had it turn a dummy channel on and off and it made the timing all whacky. All the time I spent trying to get it to work I could have played visible screen and inserted my beatsin myself. The song I am using is TSO Carol of the Bells. I am just hoping it is the song. I ABSOLUTLY HATE the fact that it adds different timings in my grid. The tapper wizard did that to me and that is why I stopped using that. What I mean is I have my channels set up at .10 timings. When I use the beat (and tapper) wizard I get all kinds of different timings. I get a tenth of second, then a hundreth of a second then a half a second then a quarter of a second and so on. It makes it difficult to sequence when it is all different timings.

[RickMosher]

JimCanfield wrote:

I have been following this thred very closely trying to figure out the beat wizard. Maybe it is th esong that I am doin but I cannot get it to work. No matter how short or how long I make the beat wizard play it never gets the beat right. Also I hate the fact that it messes up my timing grid. It takes out the .10 secong grid boxes and adds all kinds of others. I even had it turn a dummy channel on and off and it made the timing all whacky. All the time I spent trying to get it to work I could have played visible screen and inserted my beatsin myself. The song I am using is TSO Carol of the Bells. I am just hoping it is the song. I ABSOLUTLY HATE the fact that it adds different timings in my grid. The tapper wizard did that to me and that is why I stopped using that. What I mean is I have my channels set up at .10 timings. When I use the beat (and tapper) wizard I get all kinds of different timings. I get a tenth of second, then a hundreth of a second then a half a second then a quarter of a second and so on. It makes it difficult to sequence when it is all different timings.

I used to get frustrated with it too for the same reasons. However, after watching the demo I've started creating my sequences with no timings at all.

Then I listen through the song a few times to see if I can pick out any obvious tempo changes and note the approximate times that they occur. Next, using the beat wizard, I choose the time range "Just part of the song" and use the times that I noted previously.

Instead of using the "Turn on a channel every so many beats" option, I use the "Insert a timing event into the track for each beat" option. That way there is one cell for every beat in the song. If I need to split the cell into quarter or eighth beats, I just use "Subdivide Timings".

I've found that doing it this way makes my sequences come out much more accurately than the way I had been doing it which was to start out with .05 timings and using the wave form to sort of guess where the beat was.

[michael.farney]

JimCanfield wrote:

I have been following this thred very closely trying to figure out the beat wizard. Maybe it is th esong that I am doin but I cannot get it to work. No matter how short or how long I make the beat wizard play it never gets the beat right. Also I hate the fact that it messes up my timing grid. It takes out the .10 secong grid boxes and adds all kinds of others. I even had it turn a dummy channel on and off and it made the timing all whacky. All the time I spent trying to get it to work I could have played visible screen and inserted my beatsin myself. The song I am using is TSO Carol of the Bells. I am just hoping it is the song. I ABSOLUTLY HATE the fact that it adds different timings in my grid. The tapper wizard did that to me and that is why I stopped using that. What I mean is I have my channels set up at .10 timings. When I use the beat (and tapper) wizard I get all kinds of different timings. I get a tenth of second, then a hundreth of a second then a half a second then a quarter of a second and so on. It makes it difficult to sequence when it is all different timings.

You're trying to accomplish something completely different than the demo. The purpose of the beat wizard and the demo is to eliminate the need for a timing grid set at .10 (or whatever you like.) If you prefer to have a grid with .10 timings, then don't use the beat wizard -- it's not going to be any help. As Rick pointed out, you now start with a blank grid and insert only the timings you need. The purpose of the beat wizard is to insert timings, so yes, it will mess up your grid every time if you already have timings in it.



Ok. Now, with that said, if you prefer to sequence with a grid set at .10, you're still in luck! Just use the tapper wizard, and make sure the box about snapping to the current events is turned on. I am not going to be much help because I don't use that feature, but I'm sure you can figure out how to make it work.

So, just want to help you understand your goals and goals of the beat wizard are different. I hope I didn't make it more confusing. Please feel free to ask more questions. :)

[JimCanfield]

I get it now! After all this time it just occured to me by your last post. I make a track with NO timings, insert timing event, then go from there, That way I can see where each beat is. I was trying to do both ways. Now it makes sense, thank you for your patience. I will try that on my next song as this is almost finished (only about 4 more hours!!!!).

[ravenscroft]

I seem to be having a slightly frustrating, not horrible since the song I am sequencing won't be in a show until June (I have time). I am trying out Tracks for the first time in my sequencing career and I can't get all the channels used in the different tracks to show up on the other tracks.

Example:
-Track 1 is the beat, I used beat wizard for this track, and has 18 channels that turn on and off during the sequence.
-Track 2 is the Narrator, I used the Tapper for this one, and it has 1 channel turning on and off during the sequence
-Track 3 is main singers, again the Tapper, and has 10 channels
-Track 4 is the back up singing, Tapper, with 8 channels
-etc.
-etc.

But I can't see all of channels together being lit, only the channels being lit on the track that I am viewing. Also when I export it to the DC boards I am going to use, have them set up with LEDs in them for testing, only one track plays.

I is the con-fooz-ed. Am I not supposed to use the Beat wizard mixed with the Tapper? Or am I missing a button that merges them all? Like I said I have time for this but it is a place your mug down on the table roughly kind of frustrating. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


ANNNNNNND I just noticed that this is the Beat Wizard thread......Micheal you may want to fix your link on the LORsequences page: http://lightoramasequences.com/content/view/16/48/ . The one on the tracks page links to the beat wizard thread.....Said in the most joking sort of way.

[bob]

ravenscroft, there's no problem using the Tapper Wizard and the Beat Wizard in the same sequence (or, at least, there's no problem that I know of).

Is it possible that you have two entirely different channels (in two different tracks) set up with the same unit ID/circuit ID/et cetera?

That is, you set up a channel in one track to be unit 1 circuit 1 (or whatever) and then you added a channel to another track and set it up to be unit 1 circuit 1 also? As opposed to using the "duplicate channel" feature.

The former creates two entirely different channels that will compete for control over the physical circuit that they've both been told to control. The latter will simply have a single channel show up in both tracks.

Also, you might want to consider using the relatively new feature "timing grids" instead of tracks. If your goal is to just to have different sets of timings (like you say, one for the beat, one for the lead vocalist, et cetera), timing grids are (I think) much easier and cleaner than tracks.

[lafayettehunting]

Wow that helped so much
THANKS