Yummy Toys » Beat Sync

ZOMG Beat Sync: When Your Music Actually Stays on Time (Unlike Your Life)

Everything in music demands a synchronized beat… the metronome click, a drum groove, a delay slap, tremolo pulse, an arpeggio, etc. OnSong accounts for this through a shared beat clock that is constantly in-the-know about tempo, time signature, & when each measure starts. Beat Sync is what starts & synchronizes multiple components in OnSong so you're always in the pocket—or at least pretending to be.

One Tempo, One Clock (Finally, Something We Got Right)

There's a single clock for the whole app. It knows three things: the tempo, the time signature, & where you are in the bar—which beat, & which subdivision of that beat. The tempo of the beat clock is usually set by the underlying song being played, but it can be driven by other internal & external factors. These include:

• Song Tempo is the most common way the tempo & time signature is set in lieu of other inputs. You know, the normal way.
• Ableton Link lets you connect OnSong to other apps or equipment so OnSong can stay in beat & phase with Ableton, a metronome app, or a wrist worn watch. Basically, your phone is now best friends with your other gear.
• MIDI Clock can now hear the difference between each beat & downbeat & use that to update the tempo. It's got ears now, y'all.
• Backing Tracks are processed when played through the AuxDock to determine their beat grid, changing tempo as needed throughout the track. Smart audio is smart.

Following The Beat (Or At Least Trying To)

Everything in the OnSong^® app now subscribes to the beat clock. The first component to use the beat clock can set the down beat. For instance, if you start the metronome, the downbeat is heard right away & everything else synchronizes with the metronome. If you are actively received beat & phase information through something like Ableton Link or MIDI Clock, the metronome will start on the next beat, but align downbeats to the beat clock. First in wins & everything else follows. It's like musical musical chairs, except nobody loses.

Metronome

This is the most obvious integration of the beat clock including the count-in. You know, the annoying clicky thing.

AuxDock Atmosphere

This plays a canvas of sound that can be started, stopped & changed with those changes synchronized to the current beat. Pretty ambient, honestly.

AuxDock Pedalboard

What if your guitar effects could stay in sync with every aspect of the song? Revolutionary, we know. The AuxDock features timed pedals that can have time parameters set to a musical subdivision. Quarter, dotted eighth, & so on, following tempo changes as they happen on: - Delay - Tremolo - Phaser - Wah

AuxDock Chordboard

This lets anyone play chords in the song. It uses an arpeggiator & strum system. Beat sync ensures each chord change & note is played at the right time. No more mashing buttons & hoping.

AuxDock Drum Rack

Is a full drum machine that ensures the groove, fills, & ending land where you'd expect rather than where you tapped. Your timing can't ruin this.

AuxDock Virtual Instrument

This is a guitar that can strum or pick to the chords in your song. Beat sync lets it all play in time rather than whenever you touch it. You're welcome.

The clock only runs when something is listening. Nothing is being kept in time, nothing is ticking. (Spooky, right?)

Dynamic Tempo & Meter (Tempo Tantrums, But Make It Musical)

A song doesn't have to hold one tempo anymore. Each sections can carry its own directives & the beat clock is updated when each section is selected:

• {tempo: 72} changes the tempo to the new BPM value. Simple as that.
• {time: 6/8} changes the time signature meter to 6/8. The new meter starts on a clean downbeat rather than part-way through a bar. We're not monsters.
• {ramp: 4} glides from the current tempo to new tempo over a number of measures, beats, or seconds rather than immediately. Smooth operator energy. Typing just a number specifies the number beats. Using a syntax like 1,2 would change it over a measure & two beats. Appending an "s" to the end like 2s would define the number of seconds independent of the tempo. (Yes, we buried the lede on syntax. Sorry.)

These are live changes, not edits! They move the tempo of everything without rewriting the song's own tempo. So your song file stays chill while you go full tempo villain.

Enabling Beat Sync (Hit the Big Blinking Light)

Beat Sync appears wherever it's relevant, as a small pulsing LED with the current BPM beside it. The LED blinks on the beat, so you can see at a glance both that sync is on & what tempo it's on. It's like a tiny disco ball for your sanity.

Tapping it toggles that surface's sync. When you do, a chip floats briefly in the dock—armed, it offers Ableton Link… as the way of sharing the tempo with other devices or that it's been disarmed, confirming that beat sync is off. It's like a tiny notification party.

Where It Counts (Literally)

When the metronome counts you in, beat-synced instruments stay silent through the count & start on the first real downbeat. They don't play along with the count & they don't come in late—the first beat is scheduled ahead of time so it lands exactly. Your musical embarrassment meter just went down.

Why It Doesn't Drift (The Tech Nerd Explanation Nobody Asked For)

Two details do most of the work, & they're worth knowing because they explain why beat-synced audio in the OnSong^® app stays tight where other approaches wander. (Translation: we're showing off.)

The clock's grid is anchored to the device's monotonic hardware clock, not to a repeating timer. A timer accumulates a little error on every tick; an anchored grid computes when each beat should happen, so beat ten thousand is as accurate as beat one. Math is cool.

Beat-synced audio is scheduled ahead of time rather than played when the tick arrives. The clock can say precisely when an upcoming beat will occur, so a drum hit is handed to the audio engine in advance with that timestamp attached. If the app is busy for a moment, the audio has already been scheduled & still lands on the beat. Your phone's multitasking drama isn't our problem.

If something sounds like it's drifting, check whether its Sync is actually on—an effect with Sync off is running on its own rate knob, which is a legitimate setting & looks identical from across the stage. (In other words: user error. We all do it.)