Tempo-synching the looper?

Hi Joey,

Thanks for your reply, and for forwarding my message.

To answer your question: yes, there are quite a few loopers that have this type of feature, for example the Boss RC-50: http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetai … ductId=772

... It will 'loop quantise' based on the internal or external (MIDI clock) tempo, eliminating human timing error and ensuring that loops repeat exactly on the measure. (Even without the loop quantising, if the length of the loop can be made a whole number of beats at the current tempo, a little error in the start position is still okay since the overall loop will not drift with respect to the track.)

My VLT is replacing an ancient Digitech Vocal 300, which could kind of ape this behaviour with the delay feedback set to almost 100%. Since in all other respects the VLT kills the Digitech stone dead, it's frustrating to have this one feature missing!

Thanks again,

Sam

Hi Stephen,

The CC method is working for me, though you'll need very stable/precise MIDI sync from the host if you want to use long loops or lots of iterations without slipping out of time.

Don't forget that there are 3 variables when sending the CC messages: the CC number (which you have correct as 44), the value of the data (record/play/stop are 1/0/2 respectively I think, but it's all in the VLT manual), but also the MIDI channel. Like note data, CC data are transmitted and received on one of 16 MIDI channels. The VLT lets you specify the channel on which it listens for CC messages independently of the channel used to receive note data, and both can be set through the MIDI setup menu. Again the manual explains how to access this menu, and it's a matter of making sure that your host is sending the CC data on the same MIDI channel that the VLT is expecting to receive them.

It shouldn't matter which channel you use as long as both sender and recipient use the same one. Nor does it matter if you use the same channel for note and CC data.

Another thing worth bearing in mind is that the VLT loop buffers have to be empty before you start looping, otherwise the control commands above will just add to the already-initiated loop, and you won't have control over the duration of the loop. But the VLT's MIDI implementation is very comprehensive, so once you get the channel issue sorted out you can send it a message (data value 26 on CC44) to erase the loop before you initiate it. Do this well in advance (15 seconds or so) of initiating the loop if you want to cater for the worst-case scenario of the entire 120-second buffer needing to be erased -- the erase feature is pretty slow!

Hope that helps,

Sam

Hello, i am desperate to find a way of tempo syncing up the VLT to an external drum machine or anything that can start and stop the looper on the VLT perfectly in time. Can anybody suggest any equipment that does this?

I am using the MPC 500 to send the record message at the beginning of a loop and the play message at the end of a loop. The VLT syncs perfectly every time with it.

Do you already own a drum machine? If so, which one?

Hi deep88,

It might be the case that the pads on your MPC are using their velocity sensitivity to map across the whole range (0 to 127) of possible data values. This would mean that anything but the lightest touch will send a value higher than 2 and so will not tell the VLT to record, play or stop.

I'm not familiar with the MPC2500, but if you can disable the pads' velocity sensitivity and set their trigger values to be 1, 2 and 0 accordingly (so that any touch on the pad will send the precise data value), this might resolve the problem.

In order to determine whether the problem is indeed caused by velocity sensitivity mapping, you could try pressing the relevant pad as lightly as you can and seeing what happens.

Sam

I'm not having any luck with this kind of thing.  Could anyone that's familiar with the Alesis SR-18 fill me in on how to get the unit to do this?  All I see is "MIDI CLOCK: ON/OFF"  I don't know how to direct it..

Cheers!

The VLT does not respond to MIDI clock.