MP-201 LFO Sync

[jufros]

You can sync the LFO speed to a midi clock input, tap tempo, another LFO, or leave it free running. If you sync it to midi, you can program the "rate" to be a subdivision of the midi clock.

I assume that when you tap a tempo into the MP-201, it treats that as the midi clock tempo. So, I should be able to program subdivisions of tapped tempo.

It seems like there are a few different ways to get the most out of LFO-synced tap tempo, but I'm not completely sure as to how you can select from different subdivisions efficiently in real time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that it in "single" mode, if you tap in a tempo, all channels that have their LFO synced to tap tempo will respond, with each channel of the MP-201 controlling its individual output.

So now my question is how do you switch between different subdivisions quickly and efficiently on the fly?

It seems easy enough to set the expression pedal's maximum and minimum settings to be subdivisions. Heel down could be whole notes and toe down could be 16th notes. That's cool, but you're a) limited to those two subdivisions and b) you don't have a way of instantaneously switching from one to the other because you have to sweep to each one with the expression pedal.

So back to drawing board...
What I really want is a triangle wave LFO modulating the filter cutoff and a way to quickly "jump" to different LFO rates (tempo clock subdivisions). You could theoretically do that with a square wave modulating the rate of the triangle wave. The problem is, I still don't have a way of scrolling through rates (subdivisions) with the square wave.

I could definitely assign the rate to be, say, whole note subdivisions, and effectively jump the triangle wave to a different subdivision rate each measure. The problem is, I still haven't figured out a way to manually switch between multiple subdivisions, and I want to be able to do that in a live setting and improvise.

This is going to get more complicated when I try to have 2 channels synced up with each one modulating a different filter at the same subdivision rate.

There's clearly something that I'm not understanding or seeing here.

 

[fightthepower]

The tap tempo should work the same as midi with its subdivisions.

When setting the lfo settings, you can sync it to MIDI, any other LFO, Free Running, or Tap Tempo. You could just use one preset with channel one going to a filter, and channel two going to the other filter, with both of them midi synced, or channel one midi sync'd, and channel two synced to channel one. You can also set the heel down subdivision, and then as you rock forward it will go further into the subdivisions; you can control this to a point by setting the toe down value to a higher or lower number, based on how many available subdivisions you want in the exp pedals sweep. (ie setting the number low could make so you have one 1/2notes at heel down, and 1/4's at the toe. or a higher number might make it 1/2 at heel, 1/4 in middle, 1/8th at toe, etc)

It takes some practice to get your foot motions right, so that the subdivisions change at the right now, otherwise it takes a second to reset itself on time.

 

[jufros]

Right yeah I figured that much out. I was just wondering if there was a way to get from whole notes to 16th notes without having to "sweep" through dotted halfs, halfs, dotted quarters, etc. on the way.

 

[rnilson]

Right yeah I figured that much out. I was just wondering if there was a way to get from whole notes to 16th notes without having to "sweep" through dotted halfs, halfs, dotted quarters, etc. on the way.

NO you have to go all the sequence. I am not sure tap tempo will work the way you want it to either. Mine has never worked right. It taps into tempo then when I stop tapping it slows back down or is off in someway. I know John Davis never got his to work....It is a huge complaint on the Moog forum. FTP does it work for you? It is suppose to be made better in the new firmware but we have been waiting for that forever!

 

[jufros]

I talked to Amos about the new firmware. He said that if you have the V1.1 firmware, tap tempo is much better but not perfect. He said that the new version is scheduled to come out this month and that tap tempo will work as it should according to the manual. Also, rather than treat each tap individually, the MP-201 will average your last four taps to determine the tempo. He said that while you'll still only be able to tap tempo for LFO speeds, you'll be able to have tapped LFO speeds generate midi clock data.

That's great news and kind of a huge deal for me. I've been playing keyboards on tour and in the studio for quite a while, and I've never really had a way to cope with drummers drifting from the midi clock and making any type of sequencing or tempo-based effect extremely hard to use. If you're playing with a live drums, keys, bass trio, unless you're keyboardist has an MP-201 and/or your drummer never rushes ahead of the clock at all, you can send midi clock data to your rig (I'm all CV at the moment though) as well as the keyboard rig. I have the MOTU timepiece in my keys rig and I think it would perfectly.

But more importantly, I'm looking forward to using tap tempo synced midi clock data as a live effect. If there are sequences triggering and arpeggiating and what have you and that super heavy section is coming up next, you can just slow everything down. For an outro, if you have the MP-201 controlling your filters via CV and then sending midi clock data your keyboardist's rig, you can do really dramatic things. You slow down the midi clock while slowly sliding down an octave. Your keyboardist, who would have had to assign the pitch wheel to be +x/-12 or be super awesome and manhandle that huge ribbon on the Kurzweil K2600 (my favorite master midi controller ever), would pitch bend everything down, maybe close some filters at the same time and crossfade a ring mod in at the same time. I'm pretty stoked for the MP-201 if you can't tell.

 

[bassbmx]

Good to hear about the upgrades. I'm really keen to get one of these as a central part of my board. Ive been wanting to be able to switch between even subdivisions of the tempo for LFO and 3 over 4 subdivisions.