Slaving Ableton to a Human Drummer?

[Jinsai]

Ok. I've now been toying around with the program for about a week, and I've got it configured perfectly (or at least close enough to perfect to make me super stoked)
I don't know if anyone is still watching this thread, but I had to say it.
I was having some major problems in the beginning that I couldn't figure out, but I finally realized it was entirely due to the Roland TMC6 being set up improperly (that and some poorly placed drum triggers )
The InTime program is really solid. I've only had it whack out on me once, and that was when I was first setting it up and tweaking all the parameters to get it working right...
Now it follows the drummers tempo like a dream...
The master clock in InTime stayed reliably around the starting tempo (with an occasional minor fluctuation of 1 or 2 bpm to adjust for mistakes the drummer was making) and when we tried to speed it up or slow it down it followed perfectly (once we'd adjusted the tracking bias appropriately).
So far we've been trying it out with the guitarist in the band playing the drums, and he's not exactly a professional drummer (he's only picked up the drums for a little over a week now ) but he had no problem with keeeping the program on time - and without a click or a close up monitoring system... The program followed like an actual musician!
It's really incredible.
EVERYONE who is remotely interested in the possibilities of this approach NEEDS to check out this program... Seriously.

[LOFA]

Wow. I never realized anyone got this to actually work.

[Jaberwookie]

Good to hear it works! I've been thinking about trying out InTime for a while... I've got a couple of questions: 1) where have you placed the drum triggers? 2) What style of drumming are you after? Our drummer is keen on his fills and rolls - he's originally a jazz drummer - would InTime work with more complex rhythms? It goes without saying that trying to get him to change his style would be a waste of time!

cheers

Tom

[divi]

this thread gets popped up at the exact right time... my drummer needs to see this!

[divi]

this could be very useful in the studio too. when i'm jamming around with my triggerfinger and i wanna record the rythm i came up with, i always get into trouble setting live to the right tempo and the metronome doesn't work very well for me. now if live was slaved to InTempo analyzing my tapping i'd just have to hit record and not worry at all about setting the tempo.

[SnackDaddy]

Hi all,

A quick note to let you know InTime 1.4.1 has been released for OS X. This is the official Universal Binary release of InTime after our successful public beta testing.

InTime is a live tempo-tracking program, for syncing Ableton Live and other apps to the natural tempo of a live musician, usually a drummer. More info here: www.circular-logic.com

Cheers,
Michael
michael@circular-logic.com[/code]

[friend_kami]

wah, so i was just in a rehearsal studio yesterday jamming about, and we had some synths and a laptop there, and really.. drumming alongside a quantisized laptop isnt really the easiest task in the world.

ive been thinking about possible audio to midi triggers for some time aswell, but this InTime thing seems really really nice indeed.

just a curiosity, someone mentioned getting a converter, which also has audio to midi conversion. how good would this work with piezos mounted on your drumskin with some foam to even out vibrations?

i know its an old old thread, but who cares. its still relevant. anyone has a good setup as of now, 5 years later?

also, any advice on inexpensive hardware to use with this intime/any other setup solution?

[SnackDaddy]

We've got a discussion on our site for using InTime with acoustic drums:

http://www.circular-logic.com/Drummer_setup_tips.html

Let me know if you have any questions, either here on you can email me directly.

Cheers,
Michael
michael@circular-logic.com

[friend_kami]

thats not a discussion, thats a tutorial. :p

i still havent tried it as i dont have a converter, a bit low on cash at the moment so yeah..

but, you guys thought of implementing your own virtual midi drivers perhaps?
i do use midi yoke for other things, but still..

[SnackDaddy]

Yeah, you're right, that's a tutorial! Or maybe I was discussing things with myself when I wrote it.

And yes, our own virtual midi device is on the list. It'll make it easier for folks to get started.

Cheers,
Michael

[mrsakitumi]

coming from a drummers pointy of view.
I've played in 2 situations with samples used on stage.
the obvious one is the use of a separate click which i follow with headphones.
there is another band that i've played with that kept sampling and drumming pretty
live and free.
The keyboardist would map out a bunch of samples which would form the basis of the groove and track.
Here's the clever part: If the sample or part was pretty long, he'd chop it up (kind of recycle it) and map it again.
e.g. splitting a sample in half, so he could catch me on beat 1&2 with the 1st half of the sample and beat 3&4 with the 2nd half of the sample.
so even if my tempo waivers slightly, he still catches me on the key beats.
sometimes he'd split a sample into 4 parts if it was a really long cycle.
I've still got to stay tight and keep the tempo workable for him.
But even if the track gets a bit faster and he starts jamming fragments of the samples,
that also becomes pretty cool too.
You can get away with a bit more than you think in a (scuse the pun) "LIVE" situation.
cheers 8)

[friend_kami]

coming from a drummers pointy of view.
I've played in 2 situations with samples used on stage.
the obvious one is the use of a separate click which i follow with headphones.
there is another band that i've played with that kept sampling and drumming pretty
live and free.
The keyboardist would map out a bunch of samples which would form the basis of the groove and track.
Here's the clever part: If the sample or part was pretty long, he'd chop it up (kind of recycle it) and map it again.
e.g. splitting a sample in half, so he could catch me on beat 1&2 with the 1st half of the sample and beat 3&4 with the 2nd half of the sample.
so even if my tempo waivers slightly, he still catches me on the key beats.
sometimes he'd split a sample into 4 parts if it was a really long cycle.
I've still got to stay tight and keep the tempo workable for him.
But even if the track gets a bit faster and he starts jamming fragments of the samples,
that also becomes pretty cool too.
You can get away with a bit more than you think in a (scuse the pun) "LIVE" situation.
cheers

yeah but what if want to play with a real drummer, using synthesizers and stuff that you play, and only have some rhytmic content and effect devices from live?

then you can map it out like you say. friend of mine got a band with a friend, 8 bit screamo thing, hes playing on his microkorg, theyve got the drums + backtrack playing with a mp3 player, and the other guy screams. theyre thinking of bringing in live drums instead of electronic drums and/or a combination of the two. since both the singer and the keyboardist is way busy doing their thing, and the drummer would be too,

cant really map things out with the microkorg either, since hes mashing all the keys constantly basicly.

now, about intime. i understand that it doesnt handle sudden bpm changes that well, but it does understand transitional changes. how fast can these transitional changes be about? weve got a project underway which would be some electronics and some acoustics, and we will switch tempos and time signatures alot, would this be a big problem for intime (provided we dont make sudden bpm changes)?

should i just skip the drums completely? or practice like a manic to keep with a clicktrack heh.

[Venetian]

This may be four years out of date - but I've been working for two years on this problem.

Please check - youtube.com/bkeepersystem

It slaves Ableton to a human drummer - and is written in Java with a Max/MSP interface. It's not easy to set up - but then not too hard either - you just need a mic on the kick and preferably snare too.

Andrew
andrew . robertson

rest of email : at elec.qmul dot ac dot uk

[reymusic]

We don't have a time planned yet - pretty busy with the Mac version and associated hubbub right now.

The new features in the Mac version that aren't in the Windows version yet:
- Presets - store InTime's settings in different sets for quick retrieval
- Playlists - lists of midi files and presets to be loaded played through in order
- Midi file tempo playback - file tempos can be applied regularly or in relative manner, and can be applied while tracking is enabled to allow for specific tempo changes at particular times

The more interest there is in these new features for windows, the more likely I'll be able to push them up in our scheduling. Just let me know.

Cheers,
Michael

Is there anyway i can get a permanently license for Mac?