New Tools: Iterative Quantize And Groove Tool

Update (19/3/2011): I uploaded new versions that are compatible with Renoise 2.7. The old ones have been renamed to …_26 and will not be updated anymore.

Here are two tools I wrote, largely based on the same code. Both manipulate timing in a different way. Changes can be made ‘on the fly’, i.e. you can immediately hear the effect while you change the settings.

GT adds ‘groove’ or ‘swing’ (or however you want to call it) to quantized patterns.

sliders: each slider corresponds to a line, notes on this line will be moved forward or backward depending on the value of the slider (and the range value).

cycle length: the number of lines after which the groove pattern (set by the sliders) repeats itself. If the value is 4, slider 1 will affect lines 0, 4, 8, 12… ; slider 2 will affect lines 1, 5, 9, 13… etc.

range: the maximum amount (in lines) that a note will be moved forward or backward in time.

In some cases, a note will be overwritten by a subsequent note. If you find that notes are dropped, try enabling ‘delete note off events’, or disabling ‘don’t move notes to other columns’. (These setting will interfere with note lengths, though, so they work best for percussive sounds.)

Example: say your pattern has 4 lines per beat, and you have a simple hihat pattern with notes on lines 0,2,4,… etc. To add ‘swing’ to this pattern, set cycle length to 4, range to 1, and move the 3rd slider up. Try different values until you like what you hear (make sure the delay column is visible to see what is happening).

IQ has 3 controls:

shift: moves all notes forward or backward in time by a fixed amount. I included it to correct for systematic timing errors (when all notes are delayed by a fixed time).

quantization strength: the x in the definition above.

quantize to * lines: a value of 1 will move each note towards the nearest line; a value of 4 will move all notes toward the nearest 1st, 4th, 8th,…etc. line.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks, not sure what does what exactly, but will try and find out :)

I added a description of the controls in the original post.

coool!

thank you, such a groovy birthday present???:wink:

bappy hirthday, slippycurb! :>

this tool looks total €€€!

Found the prob. This will be fixed in the next beta and has to do with the way the tool applies changes to the patterns in the idle notifiers. Changes in there got not correctly undone.

For now I’d highly recommend not to undo anything while the tool is open, or you may ruin your songs.

Great news! This is first time I’ve done any scripting of this kind, and the whole concept of notifiers is new to me. I was wondering if maybe I’m doing something wrong.

Thanks for the comments comments, everyone :) . I think I’ve found a solution to the dropped notes problem, and with any luck I’ll upload a new version tomorrow.

I updated Groove Tool. Along with some minor tweaks, I added the possibility to write notes to the next empty column, so the dropped notes should be less an issue now. This solution will not always work properly with note off events, so I made it optional. If this works, I’ll update IQ too.

now thats just sexy. thanks o0

Hello overthere,

Great idea making a swing tool…

I downloaded and installed the groovetool but can’t get it to work, I move the sliders and press apply, but nothing happens after a while of trying it crashed.

Am I doing something wrong???

greetings

Ehm… I see that I accidentally uploaded an older version last week. :unsure:

The new version is now up. Can you try and see if it solves your problem?

I have zilch,zero knowledge of how to use both these tools.

I was trying to make a straight 8th hat pattern swing and fiddled with the tools and got nowhere.

Any tutorials on each setting.

Cycle length???
Range???

Everything really.

P.S. OOps just read the tutorial above.

Explains things a little bit clearer.

No idea how to use it.

I got a bug where if i reset it isn’t going back to the original but is slightly different.

A suggestion too: Show number values of those sliders.

@Syflom: That’s weird, I’ll look into it. If you can reproduce it, please let me know how. I thought about adding number values too, I’ll look into it when I have the time.

@smasha:
Just to be clear: you understand what the sliders do, right?

Cycle length works this way: if you set it to 1, you’ll see just one slider. Move it, and all notes in the column or pattern will be affected. If you set it to 2, you’ll see 2 sliders. Slider 1 will affect lines 0, 2, 4, 6…, slider 2 will affect lines 1, 3 , 5 ,… etc.

You can think of ‘range’ as a multiplier for the slider values. If it is set to 1, the maximum slider value will move the notes 1 line. If it is set to 2, it will move notes 2 lines.

I hope this clears things up a bit.

Updated Groove Tool. It looks prettier now. I couldn’t find or reproduce Syflom’s problem, so that is probably still there. Also, I decided against showing values, I couldn’t find a way to not make it look messy. It’s more or less finished now, so I’ll submit it to the Tools page.

Renoise 2.7-compatible versions uploaded (see original post).

I have filed a bug report onto the tool page.

The quantization gets triggered automaticaly upon dialog opening.

there’s a bug in the swing tool too, it deletes notes when you change the amount of lines. great tools btw

@It-Alien: If I understand you correctly, it is intended to work that way. But I think you’re right, it would be better if it didn’t do that, so I’ll change it.

@neopan: I know the tool sometimes drops notes, it is a limitation of the tool, and unfortunately not one that I can easily fix. It happens when two notes are written to the same line in the same column, the first one gets overwritten in that case. Could that be what’s happening here, or do you think it is a separate issue? Some additional information would be useful: Does it delete all notes or just some? Are the dropped notes close to other notes? Have you tried to un-check the ‘keep notes in the same column’ option?