BPM function bugs (?)

[Nummer7]

Hi there,

the BPM function of Daslight 4 is bugging me, but I assume also that is has some bugs. If not, your advice is very much appreciated.

1) BPM

If as Audio Input "none" is selected, BPM turns "0" -> behaves as expected.

With any other Audio Input, a BPM Signal of around 132 is given, even though there is complete silence in the room or not even a mic connected to the audio input of my Mac Pro.
This happens even after resetting the BPM value to "0" (with the button left from the displayed BMP value).A moment later it is back at 132. -> bug?

If an audio signal is detected, the correct BPM value is detected -> behaves as expected.

Once the audio signal stops, the calculated value is continuously sent to triggering.
Here I wish the Software would use the last four (or whatever number of) beats to calculate the displayed BPM value, but would stop sending signals _immediately_ as soon as they stop coming in. -> desired behaviour.

Same as changes in BPM within a Track or during mixes - should take place immediately, so please do not calculate a BPM for triggering purposes, but send a trigger with each individual beat.

In DVC 3 there was a fader to adjust sensibility of the microphone -> Feature request.
It would also be good to be able to select whether treble, mid or bass is listened to (a kind of fader as well) -> feature request

2) Pulse

In Pulse the displayed level meter seems not in line with the "level" that can be adjusted in manual mode. Not in every case the vertical level jumps over the set horizontal level, a pulse seems to be triggered -> bug?

Also here it would be good to be able to select whether treble, mid or bass is listened to (a kind of fader as well) -> feature request

3) MIDI

Triggering seems fine here, but BPM calculation is not working as expected:

As in BPM (see above) a BPM value is calculated / displayed, even though there are no MIDI values sent from my DJ software (via MIDI clock on the Mac - also no values can be seen coming in in the MIDI settings from DL4). -> bug?

The BPM reset function is disabled. If you decide to calculate a BPM value from the MIDI signals, there can be errors in the calculation. And thus it should have a reset function. -> feature change

4) Triggering / BPM / Step On BPM and Step On Pulse, resp.

Not sure if I got the concept correctly here (with what "Fade on BPM" or "Fade On Pulse" should do), but I observe the following:

When I select "Step On BPM" or "Step On Pulse", the "Jump to" setting is ignored, so the scene runs in "always loop" mode. I would expect that the steps are triggered in the same way as in time mode, meaning that after x loops the "jump to" command is executed. -> bug?

As a workaround I found, that "Fade on BPM" and "Fade On Pulse" are doing what I expected under "Step On BPM" or "Step On Pulse". But I have no imagination whether this is working as designed or whether something different should happen here. (Some fade magic?).

I am using the May 26 build on Windows (production) and the Aug 2 beta on Mac, I observed the same on both machines, but did not test MIDI on the Windows PC.

Since BPM seems to me quiet unusable in the current state, I would be glad you fix it or provide clear guidance of how to use it properly.

Andreas

[TomHat]

Hey Andreas,

First of all, thanks for your feedback. It was very useful to us. So to take it in order :

With any other Audio Input, a BPM Signal of around 132 is given

We just fixed this, you should find it in the next beta version on our website.

I wish the Software would [...] stop sending signals _immediately_ as soon as they stop coming in

I know, I cropped the text but that is exactly the new behavior of the BPM feature . Except for MIDI which will keep sending BPM signals even after the connected device has stopped to send MIDI clock ticks.

In DVC 3 there was a fader to adjust sensibility of the microphone [...]
It would also be good to be able to select whether treble, mid or bass is listened to

In Daslight 4 we have chosen not to have these features as we wanted to make the audio feature as simple as possible. You should be able to set sensitivity from your computer's audio input settings, though.

Not in every case the vertical level jumps over the set horizontal level, a pulse seems to be triggered

It is sometimes the case indeed, it happens when pulses are too close to each other and too similar (detection threshold adjusts to the highest pulse and ignores the next one). It is something we will work on for a future version.

When I select "Step On BPM" or "Step On Pulse", the "Jump to" setting is ignored

We just fixed this one as well. You'll find the fix in the next version.

I am using the May 26 build on Windows (production) and the Aug 2 beta on Mac

It's quite important that you keep your software up to date so you know for sure that you have the latest bug fixes.

That is all. Thanks again for reporting these bugs, and have a good day !

Regards,

[Nummer7]

Hi TomHat,

thanks for your quick and comprehensive reply. Thanks for fixing some points in the next release (any date yet?) and adding some others to your list.

In DVC 3 there was a fader to adjust sensibility of the microphone [...]
It would also be good to be able to select whether treble, mid or bass is listened to

In Daslight 4 we have chosen not to have these features as we wanted to make the audio feature as simple as possible. You should be able to set sensitivity from your computer's audio input settings, though.

OK - fair workaround.

I am using the May 26 build on Windows (production) and the Aug 2 beta on Mac

It's quite important that you keep your software up to date so you know for sure that you have the latest bug fixes.

Not sure what you mean here. For production I use the latest official version, the most current beta is installed at another machine at home.

Do you suggest to use your beta-software in production? Or what is your definition of beta? It is especially tricky, since you do not seem to publish a list of known bugs with your beta and official versions. So I would never take that risk.

Best,
Andreas