Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Learn about building and using Max for Live devices.
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Tekhed66
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat May 24, 2014 3:21 pm

Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by Tekhed66 » Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:58 am

I dont know what this device is meant to do.. all i know is what it doesn't do and it DOESNT follow a live drummer ... maybe our band has the world's worst drummer with crazy timing but no matter what we do, Beatseeker just waves the white flag and rolls over.

We have tried micing the snare (sm57 so it's a good mic) ... tried micing at different levels, different positions (above and below the snare) ... no joy. Tried using a piezo on the snare skin at different levels and positions... no joy.

Our drummer starts the track by listening to an audio click (metronome click) sent to him by Live ... he follows the click for a few bars pretty closely but as soon as Beatseeker takes over, the device completely ignores the current tempo its supposedly listening to and can swing +/- 10bpm ... the track goes to hell and back in short time.

Really, really disappointed in this device... if you've managed to get it to work then well done but we have been bashing our heads against the wall way too long and with zero results for this device to inspire ANY confidence.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

RadioOnMars
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:06 am

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by RadioOnMars » Mon Feb 01, 2016 12:02 pm

Can you confirm that you have the device actually installed and working? Have you tried any signals before moving to the drummer and live input?
I had this working fine with a drummer the other day. The only problem we had was human error when we placed Live's beat to be on the eighth note (half beat) in of the loop.
Can you check the max window? (right click on device)

barstu
Posts: 307
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 4:45 pm
Location: London

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by barstu » Sun Feb 07, 2016 11:39 am

Have purchased this and given it a go. I think/hope I have misunderstood the instructions. When It is in listening mode ie live is not playing it detects the BPM fine, when I click it, it goes into 'tempo following mode' and starts Ableton at the correct incoming drummers tempo, however if drummer changes tempo slightly nothing happens, Ableton is locked in the tempo it first detected and I get drift.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by Stromkraft » Wed Jun 01, 2016 5:19 pm

So did you guys solve this or what? What did support say?
Make some music!

HugoMac
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2016 5:43 pm

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by HugoMac » Wed Jun 08, 2016 5:45 pm

I have the same problem, but no answers from SUpport, either by phone or email :cry: verging into :evil:

RadioOnMars
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:06 am

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by RadioOnMars » Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:08 pm


mgunthe
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:02 am

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by mgunthe » Mon Jul 10, 2017 6:45 am

I have been able to find any videos that show you how to actually set up and use beatseeker. The only video I've seen just shows it off as a demo but doesn't tell you how set up or get started.

Any links or suggestions that I may have missed would be super helpful.

Thanks!
Max

Tekhed66
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat May 24, 2014 3:21 pm

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by Tekhed66 » Tue Aug 08, 2017 3:32 pm

mgunthe wrote:I have been able to find any videos that show you how to actually set up and use beatseeker. The only video I've seen just shows it off as a demo but doesn't tell you how set up or get started.

Any links or suggestions that I may have missed would be super helpful.

Thanks!
Max
Hi
I've been playing with Beatseeker since my original post and have managed to get it to track pretty well (usually - not always but most times)... the secret is to get a clean signal from your acoustic drum trigger (eg your mic'd snare drum) into your A/D interface (btw - I'm using a Scarlett 6i6).

After A LOT of faffing around I got the best and cleanest signal by putting a Gate (the one from Live's audio devices) into the Beatseeker track and setting it so that all un-necessary drum noise such as rattles, extra hits, cymbal crashes plus room noise, is completely removed ... only the loudest part of the snare signal passes through ... once all of the noise pollution was removed, Beatseeker was able to lock onto the real drums without too many problems... obviously you also need a good mic that can handle close proximity to the snare (I'm using a Shure SM57).

As for installation, simply drag the Beatseeker device onto an empty audio track and it will do the rest automatically... there isnt anything to adjust (unlike the original Beatkeeper) so just drag and drop... the secret ingredient really is the clean audio signal from the snare.

Finally, it helps a lot if the drummer can start the song at the same tempo as the track on Live (or as very close as possible) ... that way, Beatseeker wont have to do gymnastics trying to speed up or down to match the real drummer ... a gradual change in tempo suits it really well but sudden jumps can cause problems.

Hope this helps a bit.

RadioOnMars
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:06 am

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by RadioOnMars » Thu Oct 05, 2017 1:15 pm

Sounds good.
Send me some audio (without the gate), I can have a look/listen at what you're trying to track and maybe there could be an improvement? just a dropbox link or something.
BeatSeeker should be flexible to adapt to drums but I'm interested to widen the material I can develop on. It's pretty comprehensive as is.

Also, on the starting/stopping, I agree. I have an update that let's you automate BeatSeeker (to switch on). Easy this way to start the song as per usual, maybe count-in or play or something, and then it can start to adapt once you automate that. I've done one gig that way and it worked well.

andrew.robertson [at] ableton.com

Pinner
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:07 pm

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by Pinner » Sun Oct 08, 2017 11:39 am

Hi,

I also had trouble with Beatseeker so I returned it. My plan was to use it on finger drumming tracks to detect tempo changes, but it was unable to do so.

It got me thinking though...for applications like my mine, were beatseeker is determining tempo on a midi track, would it be possible to use the midi note rhythmic content to determine the tempo? For example if I was playing a 4 on the floor kick, could a tweaked beetseeker use the midi quarter notes to determine tempo? Or is there already a device that does this?

Thanks

RadioOnMars
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:06 am

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by RadioOnMars » Wed Oct 11, 2017 11:23 am

@Pinner you should probably check out the Midi version of B-Keeper and see if it works for you

https://github.com/Venetian/B-Keeper/tr ... IDIProject

are you windows or mac? I think I need to change a few things here before this works though.

BeatSeeker might work on finger drumming. If you sent me audio files, I could have a look. I did just try and it works well. But I wonder what application you have in mind, i.e. how would you use it? What is the aim? Is it sync'ing a backing track with finger drumming, or determining tempo?

Pinner
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:07 pm

Re: Beatseeker = P.O.S.

Post by Pinner » Wed Oct 11, 2017 4:07 pm

Hi RadioOnMars,
I'm on a mac. I just emailed you with some files and more info - Thanks for the help!

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