Bug? Tempo ON, Timing Lane Speed < Normal: Out of time

[paolo999]

wavestate Manual page 22:

"When TEMPO is On, you can select tempo-locked ratios from 1/4 to 4x of the original Speed.:"

Setting the timing lane speed to above normal results in expected behaviour, e.g. set to 2x, the timing lane (with default step length) advances at twice the BPM.

Setting the timing lane speed to below normal results in timing that does not align with the BPM. e.g. Setting to 1/2 speed does not result in step lengths playing at half speed.

wavestate firmware 1.0.6


REPRO - SETUP

1. Create new performance using Init Performance preset.
2. Turn Tempo On [SHIFT TIMING]
3. A: Timing Lane will be displayed. Note the default speed is Normal
4. Set a round Tempo: e.g. 120 (PERFORM, PAGE-, > x2, Turn VALUE dial to 120)

For clearer listening, it can help to set the sample lane steps to a kick drum. But the behaviour can still be observed using the default samples.

REPRO - SPEED NORMAL OR HIGHER - EXPECTED BEHAVIOUR

1. Start a metronome at the selected timing lane BPM (e.g. use a web based metronome)
2. Hold note on wavestate.
3. Samples from wavestate sound in time with the metronome.

REPRO - SPEED BELOW NORMAL - UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOUR

1. Click TIMING - to view A: Timing Lane
2. Cursor to Speed parameter.
3. Dial VALUE anti clockwise, to select 1/2
4. Start a metronome at the selected timing lane BPM.
5. Hold note on wavestate.
3. Samples from wavestate do not sound at 1/2 speed (or indeed any, any other obvious fraction of the BPM.)

(As well as testing by ear, I have also tracked this into my DAW and the waveforms confirm what I hear. The 1/2 speed setting in no way aligns with the selected BPM. To the eye, it appears as being slightly faster than one third of the BPM, so as well as being not as labelled, it has a continuous drift away from any one of the beats being in time with the base BPM.)


Has anyone else observed this?

-----

UPDATE: Although I haven't yet fully understood the impact of cross fade on step timing, the above behaviour was seen with Timing Lane cross fade set to the default of "Time".

This seems to bring about the non intuitive behaviour demonstrated above. I wonder if this is by design or a bug?

When Timing Lane cross fade is then changed to either Off, or Tempo, the below normal speed settings behave as described in the manual.

[jezar-01]

Yeah, this threw me on day one of owning wavestate when I was figuring out how it works.

The problem seems to manifest itself when you have a crossfade between two steps that is longer than the duration of the second step. On 'Normal' and faster speeds - wavestate seems to truncate the crossfades if and when required, and all is well.

Under these conditions, at anything UNDER 'Normal' speeds however, the timing duration calculations seem to go wrong and the sequence is knocked out of step with the internal BPM.

[danatkorg]

As Jezar notes (hi J!), the problem is when crossfade duration exceeds step duration - which is easier to make happen when the Durations are specified in tempo, and the Xfade in time.

Speed affects both crossfades and step durations. In the case of the Init Performances, the programmed crossfades are 0.8 seconds for step A1, and 0.0107 seconds for step A2. A1 is already far too long for use with tempo, in my opinion. Multiply it by four (for Speed = 1/4) and you have a crossfade time of 3.2 seconds.

[danatkorg]

Nonetheless, I wonder if we can do something better in this case. I'll file an issue.